I had the whole week off, and though I have not been as miserable as some of my friends who came down with a cold for the holidays, I've been run down, achey, stuffed up, and completely unproductive all week long. Which seems extremely appropriate given how this year has gone. And I just want to say to the idiots on line who have been saying that those of us who think this was a bad year have no perspective? We elected a guy who has literally named white supremacists, anti-gay crusaders, anti-science activists, and worse as his choices to head of government agencies. We have put people in power who literally want to take the vote away from citizens based on the color of their skin and their gender. This is not just that we elected a narcissistic idiot, we've handing the nuclear codes to a man who can't stop himself from angry tweeting for hours when a woman happens get quoted criticizing him. We have put in power people who have vowed to pass laws that will literally kill citizens by taking away health care insurance, and that will take away my civil rights.
I'm allowed to say this is a bad year. And I am not the one who doesn't have any perspective.
Anyway, here are links to stories I found interesting, sorted by category. Because I've been run down and out of it all week, this may be the shortest list of Friday Links I've ever posted.
Link of the Week
In 2016, We Lived in Bubbles, and We Watched TV in Them, Too.
This week in awful people
Anti-Gay Right Wing Columnist Dies After Handgun Goes Off While Showing It To Teenage Boy. One of this man;s previous crowning moments was campaigning against a bill requiring gun owners to take a firearm safety course. Something this teen-ager clearly never took...
News for queers and our allies:
Fort Lauderdale Welcomes 2017 With Ads Featuring Transgender Models.
5 triumphs for the LGBTQ community in an otherwise terrible year.
ust Let Them Kiss: The Line Between Sexualizing and Sterilizing Same-Sex Romances in Media.
Science!
The Biggest Solved and Unsolved Mysteries of 2016.
Astronomers Detect Concentric Rings — Possible Sign Of Orbiting Protoplanets — In The Circumstellar Disk Of A Nearby Star.
A comet is zooming past Earth right now, and you should be able to see it with binoculars.
Team identifies genes that let pipefish dads get pregnant.
Science Fiction, Fantasy and Speculation!
‘Doctor Who’ Christmas Special Recap: The Return of Doctor Mysterio.
This week in Writing
Being Creative Today Will Make You Happier (Tomorrow).
This Week in Covering the News
Teen Vogue Writer Battles Tucker Carlson: ‘You’re Actually Being a Partisan Hack’.
Culture War and Hate Crimes
In remembering George Michael, don't forget the decades we spent shaming him.
Butcha Are, Blanche, Butcha Are*.
Red State Stupid; Red State Mean.
Democrats don’t really have a religion problem.
This week in Politics:
The Stolen Supreme Court Seat.
Farewells:
George Michael, Pop Superstar, Is Dead at 53.
In scandal, George Michael turned out to be completely, revealingly human.
George Michael remembered for quiet acts of charity.
George Michael was a defiant gay icon. His life must not be sanitised.
Carrie Fisher, Child of Hollywood and ‘Star Wars’ Royalty, Dies at 60.
Carrie Fisher: The galaxy's princess.
Mere Smith: My brief, totally true Carrie Fisher story and how she change my life.
The Force is Forever with Carrie Fisher.
Drowned in moonlight, strangled by her own bra.
Debbie Reynolds has died aged 84.
Hollywood Pays Tribute to "Legendary Entertainer" Debbie Reynolds.
Richard Adams, Author of Watership Down, Has Died at 96.
The Woman Who Convinced Us That Dark Matter Existed Was Never Awarded a Nobel Prize.
Things I wrote:
Rainbows and mistletoe.
Peace on Earth….
Let’s talk about writing tools.
Couldn’t we just make love instead.
Videos!
George Michael in James Corden's first Carpool Karaoke for Comic Relief - before Carpool Karaoke was famous, James Corden thought it would be funny to do a skit for the Comic Relief special where he was giving George Michael a ride home from jail; they decided to drop the explicit reference to Michael's legal trouble and do this instead:
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Carrie Fisher Roasts George Lucas at AFI Life Achievement Award:
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John Oliver Blows Up 2016 In Final Blistering Episode:
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Kacey Musgraves - What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?:
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