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Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele, he of the awkward hiphop/politics juxtaposition, had recently been under fire for a number of things, ranging from his stance on abortion and gay marriage, but especially for his derisive comments made about conservative radio pundit Rush Limbaugh.

Notably, Limbaugh's infamy has risen to such a degree that both Democrats and Republicans are publicly calling him the "face" of the modern Republican party. With a bit of glee, perhaps, from the former party.

It's gotten to the point where any conservatives that speak out against his rather... shall we say, radical dialogue has been ostracized for their supposed disloyalty to the party line. Poor David Frum certainly didn't deserve the abuse he got for an otherwise intelligent article on the Limbaugh dilemma...

http://www.newsweek.com/id/188279/page/1

Since there isn't a single active thread about Touhou or any other bullet hells/schmups, I figured I might as well toss one up and see what happens.

I (finally) got around to picking Touhou up just recently, starting with Imperishable Night. Getting my ass kicked on easy mode~ Massive amounts of QQ~

I started this thread up not ten minutes after finishing Cory Doctorow's latest release, "Little Brother." It's got flaws- the first few chapters are kind of awkward, given that it's an early-era GenXer emulating the lingo of the post-millennia, social net generation. He gets the terminology right, but not quite the flow.

Then I kept reading.

Then I got really goddamn pissed.

If you're the least bit literary-inclined whatsoever, I'm sure you're familiar with the feeling of running across a book you know everybody else should be reading. Maybe it's just plain awesome. Maybe it really stirs up your sentimentality. Or maybe, like with 1984 and "Little Brother," it riles you up while opening your eyes- makes clear some things you had wondered about, and changes the way you look at the world.

So list some of them. Toss out a book rec in this thread. My job's slow, the work load's light, and the accountant doesn't mind me reading  on the job. And the rest of you probably aren't even college-level yet, so your summer's free. There's no excuse not to bring a bit more enlightenment into your own life- and no excuse for me not to do the same.

So, yes. My own list of "necessary reads."

1. The Bible - not an odd choice, despite my religious inclinations (or lack thereof). Nothing else has impacted Western literature quite so thoroughly- nothing ever will. Regardless of whether or not you believe- and I'm not just agnostic but outright atheist- if you speak and read the English language, this is required reading.
2. Fahrenheit 451 - yeah, you probably read it at school. Probably skimmed through it just enough to get the essay crammed out. Read it again. Bradbury's writing style isn't my all-time favorite, but his message is quite clear and frighteningly relevant.
3. 1984 - Orwell's (edit: ORWELL DAMMIT. ORWELL. HUXLEY, GO AWAY) writing style is also not amongst my favorite. But this one's probably even more important than 451.
4. Little Brother - Cory Doctorow's spiritual successor to 1984. Modern day, modern tech, too believable. Neil Gaiman gives it his wholehearted recommendation, and I'm quite inclined to be as enthusiastic. You can grab a free ebook of it too, over here. Then buy the book- you're going to want to reread it, and wood pulp's easier on the eyes than laptop screens.
5. American Gods - Speaking of Neil Gaiman... This is a beautifully dark book. And it tends to be divisive. People either love it fervently, or hate it absolutely. Not too many in-betweens. It is, however, a strong critique of western culture, and well-worth your time.
6. The Illuminatus! Trilogy - Because I want to fuck with your head.
7. Schroedinger's Cat - Because Robert Anton Wilson loves fucking with your head. And because it's actually a stronger trilogy than Illuminatus!, but not nearly as awesome without it. Read both. You'll come out of it a... different person, if only slightly. And be far less willing to take... anything at face value.
8. Transmetropolitan - Warren Ellis's infamous graphic novel series. It starts off a bit shallow, and not a little masturbatory. Then it shoots you with its bowel disruptor, and screams at you to wake up and smell the shit around you. Spider Jerusalem's monologue on the Monoculture is classic.
9. Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 - Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas will NOT be on this list, as Las Vegas was an entertaining exercise in gonzo journalism, but nothing more. THIS is definitive Hunter S. Thompson. This is what the beast that is the US political system actually looks like. And this is the secret of gonzo journalism. A lot of it's outdated. The Democratic nomination system is no longer as described in the book. But the visceral reality of our political landscape- all the underlying poison and bile and terrible insanity- is, unfortunately, still there. And festering. And nobody but Hunter described it as accurately.

More will, of course, come when they occur to me.

So, toss me your recs.

VA love thread desu

Actually, I opened this thread because I'm at work (hush, quiet you), something's been bugging me, and I want somebody that's actually into the VA scene for a while to check whether or not I've been losing my sanity: Kamina from TTGL and Akio from Clannad - same VA or not? They not only act similar, but my ears are insisting that they SOUND similar too. Am I totally mistaken?

Edit: ...never mind. I'm sorely mistaken. ;_;

Yeah, yeah. Tin Pin Slammer. Not exactly the... best part of Subarashiki Kono Sekai, but it's fairly amusing, and it gives us a reason to have a mingle mode gathering. Anybody with pins they still need to evolve? =D

That's right. TWEWY. Subarashiki Kono Sekai. Mingle mode. All 'em pins you still haven't gotten to evolve yet.

YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO.

That, and some of us kinda actually sorta maybe like Tin Pin Slammer.

...

Well, maybe not.

BUT PINS! SHOW OFF YOUR PINS! When/where? Or should we all run around and hope we run into folks?