Folks do know that David Koresh raped numerous teenage and pre-teen girls in his cult, right? He was a rapist. He called these girls his "wives" and raped them. Girls as young as 11. I know there's this bizarre effort to paint him as a martyr, but he raped children. It appears there are many, many insufferable Trump dipshits in my mentions claiming the ATF and FBI were responsible for mass death, so let's be abundantly clear: David Koresh was a narcissistic child rapist who ordered his compound lit on fire and his followers burned alive.

Sweetie, when you're attempting to insult someone, it generally helps to avoid sounding as though you're complimenting them. Sarcasm only works if it's a bad thing.

Example: Cool blog, Greg. I'm rooting for you to find more than a dozen people who care about your writing. <3

https://twitter.com/GregHBlog/status/1638250104590049280

.@GregHBlog Hey Greg, no worries. Writing is hard. We all struggle to find an audience. Of course, it's also true that there are posthumously published essays by writers who have attracted a bigger readership in death than you ever will in your decades left on this earth. 😘

There has been never been a more essential time to elect queer women, particularly queer women who are the best of any leaders our country has to offer. So, I want to introduce y'all to my friend Janessa Goldbeck, whose name everyone is gonna know someday.

(thread) Janessa is one of those people who seems to just be damn good at everything she does. She spent much of her career as a human rights advocate, protecting civilians in conflict zones in Sudan and Myanmar.

My controversial opinion is that if you get paid to write your opinions for a living--as I do and as this person does-- you have forfeited the right to lecture anyone else on "a sense of self" in labor. We are extremely lucky. Beyond fortunate. The audacity of this bullshit take. Do y'all get what I'm saying? I'm not even talking about writing, which is cool enough. I'm talking about writing *your opinions* to pay the bills. This man and I get to muse and bitch for a living. Think about that. And he's putting this out there to folks who don't? No. Stop.

On Saturday, @HowardU's Men’s Basketball Team won its first championship in three decades in a razor-thin thriller, capping off a season that has witnessed a culmination of Head Coach Kenneth Blakeney’s rebuilding efforts since being hired to helm the program in 2019.

(thread) The Bison haven’t been to the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament (better known as “March Madness”) since before Bill Clinton was elected president, and today, at 2pm ET, they’ll face off against defending champion University of Kansas in the opening round.

As y'all probably know, the 3rd Season of "Ted Lasso" is premiering on Apple TV this Weds. I was damn fortunate to attend the official premiere this past week, where I saw the first two episodes, and, of course, I wrote a review.

Here it is...

(long thread) My favorite poem is “Good Bones” by @maggiesmithpoet.

You've probably heard it — if not by the numerous times it’s gone viral since its publication in 2016, then certainly by following my Twitter feed, where I can’t help but re-share it every four months or so.

1/ This photo is taken from the Alaska North Slope, the northernmost region of Alaska, covering nearly 250,000 kilometers of land area. It’s home to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), where animals as varied as polar bears, caribou, and walruses live peacefully. (thread) It’s controversial because there’s a LOT of oil and natural gas in this land, estimated to be as much as 25 billion barrels of oil and many trillions of cubic feet of natural gas. It’s the largest oil reserve in North America.

Sigh. Imagine spending this much energy to be hateful toward others and believing yourself to be nuanced and empathetic.

Recently, I saw a post online with this challenge: "Without saying your age, say something a young person today wouldn't understand."

For me, it was The Phone. It had its own place and aura in the home. If you didn't have internet--and most homes did not during the entire '90s--The Phone was the only non-postage way of reaching people if you couldn't travel to see them or didn't want to.

What are you doing with your Monday night? I’m at The Eaton in D.C. watching GZA play chess against all comers.

#WuTangChess Hey @JenShahade @MauriceAshley, not bad for a Monday chess night, huh?

It was August 17th, 2015—a typical, hot Monday morning—when I heard booming music outside the bedroom window of my apartment. It sounded like it was coming from RFK Stadium, which was just up the street on the east side of Washington, D.C.

(thread) I was entering the final year of undergrad and needed a break from getting my class schedule in order and filing G.I. Bill benefits and looking at grad schools, so I decided to take a walk and locate the source of the revelry.

Turn on your TV.

LeBron James is 8 points away from breaking the NBA's all-time career scoring record.

We will probably never see this again in our lifetime. Six points away.

I reviewed "80 for Brady" for @metroweekly.

Did I trash Tom Brady? Of course.

metroweekly.com/2023/02/80-for… @metroweekly "Is the premise compelling? No. Is the writing good? Not really. Most of the jokes land with all the skill of a cocaine-fueled elephant swan diving into an empty pool, and even for a comedy, the dialogue sometimes has about as much charm as gargling broken glass."

Lived here for 15 years. Love D.C. restaurants. The District has great food. Anyone who claims otherwise isn't looking very hard and, related, probably calls it "Reagan" instead of "National".

https://twitter.com/EmmaJoNYC/status/1618217586088620039

D.C. has great food for anyone who doesn't think sparkling water is spicy.

FL Governor Ron DeSantis shocked political observers this morning at a press conference where he announced a statewide ban on Pink Floyd, the English progressive rock group generally considered by popular music critics to be one of the most influential bands of all-time. (thread) The stunning move came less than a week after controversy erupted in response to the release of their 50th anniversary album logo for The Dark Side of the Moon, the group’s magnum opus.

In an exclusive interview with Associated Press reporter Nicole Winfield, published this morning, Pope Francis said homosexuality should not be a crime and called upon all countries with such laws—67 of them in total—to decriminalize. (thread) There are currently three majority-Catholic countries that criminalize homosexuality: Burundi, Kiribati, and Saint Lucia. There are also a few countries with a substantial Catholic population that criminalize homosexuality, Rwanda (49.5%) being the most prominent in this group.

In an exclusive interview with the Associated Press, Pope Francis said that homosexuality should not be a crime and called upon all 67 countries that currently make being gay a crime to decriminalize. He urged bishops to have compassion for queer folks.

apnews.com/article/pope-f… "Declaring such laws 'unjust,' Francis said the Catholic Church can and should work to put an end to them. 'It must do this. It must do this,' he said. Francis quoted the Catechism of the Catholic Church in saying gay people must be welcomed and respected..."

The "March for Life" protestors are in town. I was hoping that, maybe, with Roe being overturned and all, the folks who have spent decades preaching "sanctity of life" would now turn that energy toward getting accessible, quality health care for everyone but NOPE! Still abortion. My favorite part of this annual weekend in which white social conservatives flood D.C. is how they march for a couple hours and then spend the rest of their time here annoying the ever living shit out of D.C. residents with Peak Tourist behavior.

Are women on the far-right a threat to safety in women's restrooms? thedailybeast.com/the-bathroom-f… "And while the whole world could see the literal space between them during the speaker vote on Jan. 7, it was allegedly in the privacy of the ladies room, four days earlier, where the two really had it out."

Tonight, I told my friends there’s an ‘80s movie that probably has a niche fan base but I just don’t think it’s that good? They’ve guessed probably 30 movies, so far, none of them the movie I’m thinking about. This is a fascinating activity on perspective. No correct guesses, so far.

No woman would have ever gotten away with what George Santos did. Ain’t no way. She’d have been called out immediately. “You have an MBA?! Quick: who are your five favorite business execs?!”

Ain’t no way.