Everybody's Linking for the Weekend

In the category of technology seems to be continually defeating me, this week all of my links that I had saved totally disappeared so I am going to have to write this article from memory.  As a result, if there's something you were hoping I'd get to but for some reason didn't, let me know in the comments and maybe I'll get around to it later.  In the meantime...

In Entertainment...

-Forbes released its list of the highest-paid actresses in Hollywood this past week (though for those that are curious why Sofia Vergara and Kaley Cuoco aren't on the list, it's for film stars and not TV stars, who show up on a separate list from the site).  First off, for those who don't want to click through Forbes clickbait gallery (seriously-they are even worse than Entertainment Weekly about whoring out for clicks), Variety has a more succinct article.  Some of the names on the list are pretty obvious, particularly the top three (Jennifer Lawrence, Scarlett Johansson, and Melissa McCarthy), and it's terrific to see Fan Bingbing make the list considering that Forbes has been trying to make the list more international, but there are a few eyebrow-raisers.  I know that they are getting this money almost exclusively from endorsement deals, but Amanda Seyfried, Gwyneth Paltrow, Cameron Diaz, and (yes, I'll say it) Julia Roberts haven't had much success onscreen in years-it's disappointing to see talented actresses relegated to the status of "model" but the reality is they're big enough names they could get better movies if they wanted to, so most of that's on them.

-In news that breaks your heart a little bit but you probably saw coming, Regal Cinemas will be doing security checks when entering their theaters going forward.  In the wakes of Aurora and Lafeyette this is hardly surprising, though I wish that government agencies would do something about this as well instead of just making the private sector pick up the tab for inane gun laws.

-In the wake of the Ashley Madison hacks, we admittedly didn't get as many scandals as I suspected (though if you're an attractive male celebrity, you probably don't need to use a website to pick up women...you can just start sleeping with your comically attractive nanny).  However, we did get Josh Duggar (oh how the mighty..., am I right?) and perhaps less-publicized, Sam Rader was also outed as a client of the adultery site.  For those unfamiliar with Rader, he's one-half of the couple Sam and Nia, who had a viral video where he both surprised her with the fact that she was pregnant and then a few days later posted a video where they announced a miscarriage.  The couple seems to be turning into one of the internet's worst pair of people, however, as some have claimed (including medical experts) that the pregnancy test and potentially even the miscarriage videos were staged, and in a similar vein to Duggar, they have been advocating against gay marriage in their videos.  All-in-all, even if we didn't get many celebrities in the hacks, at least it was two people who were easy to despise.

- Finally, in much happier news my future husband Russell Tovey will be making a trip to Broadway this fall.  If anyone would like to buy me tickets, I will be forever grateful.

In Politics...

-James Carville tore apart the Washington Post, Chris Cillizza, and Jeff Bezos this past week over attacks against Hillary Clinton and calls of a "Democratic freak-out."  While I do agree that Carville's nature in interviews is colorful and perhaps a better tact would have been appropriate, if you don't follow me on Twitter (which you should!) you might not know of my increasing disdain for Cillizza's blog The Fix.  I used to be, and in some cases still am, a daily reader of the blog.  Even when the WaPo put in its ten article limit (which never works that well because then I just skip all of the simply "news" articles and google the internet to get that information), I stuck around, but Cillizza has entered Glenn Beck-level areas with his hatred of Hillary Clinton lately.  Seriously-every day he trolls harder, finding more to hate about Mrs. Clinton and writing her political obituary ad nauseum.  I'm surprised he hasn't started knocking her hair.  This is not George Will, supposedly (Cillizza is publicly non-partisan, though his salivation over Chris Christie through the years has also helped point to a pretty conservative nature), but man has he gone off-the-rocker when it comes to Clinton's chances at the White House, particularly considering she still does very well in national polling.  All-in-all, Carville was right to call him out, even if he did it in an eyebrow-raising way.

-Jeff Greenfield had the must-read political article of the week over at Politico, about the state of the Democratic Party.  The article does not mince words about the sorry state the Midterms have left the party in over the past six years.  While I don't think there aren't leaders there to take the baton, it does say something that the best the Democrats will likely do in governor's races between now and November 2016 is break even (with likely losses in Kentucky and West Virginia on the horizon, and only North Carolina as a comfort).  The article has a few points I always quibble with (I hate how the term "star" gets overused for Republicans and not for Democrats since the Democrats have a stronger top-of-the-ticket in Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama; after all, Amy Klobuchar is a bigger potential talent than almost all of the Republicans running for president save the Top 4 or so), but it does point to an ineptitude at the DNC (Debbie Wasserman Schultz has been an unmitigated disaster), and hopefully if the damage isn't too bad in 2016 (there's still a strong chance of a pickup of the Senate and a third term in the White House for the left) Hillary Clinton will be able to pick someone with some savvy (READ: DONNA BRAZILE) and not just another random House Democrat looking to make her own career look better at the expense of the party.

-One of my favorite articles this week, or at least one of my favorite topics this week was Roll Call's article about governors who might be running for the House in 2016.  The article hits on one of my biggest political pet peeves (governors who complain about being senators), which is always a sour subject for me; you might not be the center-of-attention like you were in your home state, but you're still more politically powerful than 99.99% of all of America and if you don't like that there isn't more getting done, you're a senator-you can make that change!  However, it is interesting to see that ego-trip go to what is clearly considered a lesser office (senator and governor are generally considered lateral positions) like U.S. House.  Former Governors Charlie Crist and Chet Culver, both after horrendous defeats for governor, are looking at running for potentially promising House seats, joining just Mark Sanford (another disgraced former governor, though in a completely different way) in the House as former governors.  From their standpoint, quite frankly, I don't see a better solution if they want to pursue politics as a career-they are no longer viable statewide without some success in-between, and the House at least gives them political press and power, even if it's not the same as a governor's mansion.  Still, it's questionable (particularly after the above article) whether the Democratic Party wants them.  Neither starts out as a surefire pickup, and it might make more sense to invest time in an up-and-coming state legislator than a statewide loser.  Still, expect them to be primary-clearers if they enter the race based on their fundraising moxie.

Shameless Self-Promotion of the Week...

-If Oscar Isaac gets any hotter I may pass out.


YouTube Video of the Week...

-YouTubers React remains one of my favorite series on the internet, and this was actually for a feel-good video (you should watch both).  Grace's reactions in particular were just priceless (and also, prepare to cry):

Just One More...

-And after that feel-good, we might have to end on a sour note, as it has now been confirmed the Sumatran rhino is officially extinct in Malaysia, with roughly 100 left in the world.  While certain animals may be able to recover in the face of extinction (certain breeds of whales, for example, have increased in number), the rhino is becoming more and more likely to be the poster child for this era of global extinction.  Save the rhinos!