Bill Kaminsky
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Bill Kaminsky
@itinfer.bsky.social
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[1/2] CORRECTION: That's a "narcissistic crank who eats roadkill, swims in sewer water, will cause children to die, and is 50 years her senior who promised to 'take a bullet for her'(!)". That's true love* from an ordinary man and really saying something for a Kennedy!! [*though see part 2...]
Mickey and Minnie Mouse holding up a pink Valentine's heart emblazoned with the message "TRUE LOVE"... a sentiment that really in no way captures whatever the f@$k happened between RFK, Jr and Olivia Nuzzi.
November 14, 2025 at 6:03 PM
Most definitely!
A cute smiling cartoon Frankenstein's Monster* giving two big thumbs up ahead of a background that I imagine is supposed to be a night sky, albeit recolored to be very Halloween-y, i.e., an orange sky, black dots as stars and a yellow moon. There's also 3 cartoon bats flying in the sky. *I forget where I first saw the joke, but it's very true: A person who doesn't really know the Frankenstein story will call the monster Frankenstein, not realizing the scientist is Dr. Frankenstein, and the monnster is the monster. An overly literally-minded or pedantic reader who's read the story will never tire of pointing out the above fact, i.e., the human scientist is Dr. Frankenstein and the reanimated monster is "Frankenstein's Monster". But someone who understands the story realizes: Dr. Frankenstein is the actual monster. The "monster" isn't a monster, rather he's a tragic hero of sorts. It's funny 'cause it's true!
November 7, 2025 at 4:46 AM
Scene from the 1986 movie _Aliens_ (the 2nd in the now too-numerous-for-me-to-count franchise, and that's just the movies). Lt. Ellen Ripley (played by Sigourney Weaver) sits to the left of the android Bishop (played by Lance Henriksen) and says with surprise and worry to her other human crewmates (you'll have to watch the movie to see why she's surprised, and you'll have to watch the first installment, 1979's _Alien_, to know why Ripley is highly suspicious of androids): "You never said anything about an android being on board. Why not?" To which Bishop replies, making a wry political correctness joke that's both of the real-world time (again, 1986) and evidently the fictional world's time (2179!... jeez, does society ever settle these issues?): "I prefer the term 'artificial person' myself."
October 31, 2025 at 2:38 AM
But BHL isn't just a "commanding hairstyle". He has that whole fancy-shirt-with-too-many-buttons-unbuttoned thing going on that IMHO goes beyond "he's a rakish intellectual who galavants among the glitterati at Cannes" to "umm, maybe he's about to take the floor at a ballroom dance competition?"
A picture of French philosopher / rakishly-handsome-public-intellectual-about-town Bernard-Henri Lévy in 2011 showing his penchant for wearing dress shirts with the collar and upper buttons open down to, like, at least his solar plexus. Credit: Eric Feferberg for Agence France-Presse and Getty Images
October 29, 2025 at 9:04 PM
Hasn't been true yet, but oh, one day it'll be true... one day it will have always been true...
Black-and-white line-drawing style cartoon / comic panel: It shows a hallway with a doorway labelled "Time Machine Development Lab", and hanging on its doorknob is a sign "Out to Lunch - Be Back Yesterday". The cartoonist's signature is at the bottom right and looks to my eyes like "White". I must admit I don't know the full name of the cartoonist.
September 29, 2025 at 8:02 PM
Apropos of the references in this thread to "Wilhoit's Law" (ie, "Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition …There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.") and the Ralph Wiggum meme "I'm helping", I'll just add:
Meme of a classic moment from _The Simpsons_: MARGE (in handcuffs, getting arrested by Springfield's dynamic duo of beat cops, Eddie and Lou): I thought you said the law was powerless. CHIEF WIGGUM (while eating an ice cream cone... Marge had made a disturbance in Springfield's ice cream shoppe): Powerless to help you, not punish you. Context: This is the episode in which the main plot is that Marge becomes paranoid that the new family babysitter is effectively taking her place in the affections of her family, and maybe even planning to kill her and literally take her place in the family. Marge had previously gone to Chief Wiggum to demand he investigate her suspicions that the babysitter was planning to murder her. Wiggum, with his characteristic incompetence, told her what he claimed he tells everyone: "The law is powerless to help you." So, that's why Marge is surprised she's getting arrested after causing a scene in Springfield's ice cream shoppe over this issue.
September 8, 2025 at 6:08 PM
Well, I suppose Kissinger's infamous summary to Haig on Dec 9, 1970 of Nixon's order on bombing Cambodia, namely...

"Anything that flies against anything that moves"

... is a very diverse, equitable, and inclusive order.

nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEB...
Transcript from George Washington University's National Security Archive -- same link as main post https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB123/3%20%20Kissinger%20telcon%20with%20Haig.pdf -- showing a transcript of the infamous phone call of Dec 9, 1970 from then National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger to his then deputy Gen. Alexander Haig in which Kissinger summarized President Nixon's desire for a truly massive bombing campaign against Cambodia as "anything that flies against anything that moves"
September 5, 2025 at 10:46 PM
While I understand that "Once in a Lifetime" would be thought by many fans as a too mainstream, too vanilla choice, I nonetheless doubly assert it's my favorite for the meta-textual reason that "Once in a Lifetime" led to this IMHO astoundingly good poem by the American poet Jessica L. Walsh:
Picture of the official poster the poet Jessica L. Walsh sells of what's probably her most popular poem, "When My Daughter Tells Me I Was Never Punk". It's styled to look like a slightly crumpled up page out of a typewriter with the text of the poem typewritten except for two things written in red marker: the word "Punk" in the title, and then the closing 4 words. I put asterisks around both of these. Here's the text of the poem: WHEN MY DAUGHTER TELLS ME I WAS NEVER *PUNK* I say, hon, my being alive is punk. I made my life out of grudges when I saw the odds placed against me, when my role was to marry a man who’d kill me and give me a hot young death, a guy named Charles who would have and nearly did—the day I said fuck you and threw his keys in the snow? That was punk. When I called a nice guy who’d loved me steady and thought what if I can try staying alive, that was punk; when I had my last drink and surrendered the scene, that too was punk, and yes I miss the me who would be dead because I was a bottle rocket, a pipe bomb of a good time but my being alive is the middle finger I never put down— I did not let these days go by, I clawed each one from dirt, When I get my nails done I am cleaning weapons, when I buy food, when I fill the tank, I am threatening to survive long enough to piss off a million awful people to be alive in spite of, I am promising to stay fragrantly alive: This is my beautiful house. I am this beautiful wife. How did I get here? I say, *By my fucking teeth.*
July 26, 2025 at 2:49 AM
Wow, pop culture depictions of ex-Marines enforcing the law as individual citizens have gotten way grittier in the past 60 years since Gomer Pyle... hell, this one's from *Disney* for Pete's sake (which has also gotten way grittier at times in the past 60 years)...
Scene from the Disney+ series _Daredevil: Born Again_ wherein Frank Castle aka The Punisher (played by Jon Bernthal) is pushing up against a wall Matt Murdock aka Daredevil (played by Charlie Cox). They're actually friends... or at least more friends than even frenemies. 🙄 (oh right, alt text... that was an eye roll emoji)
June 14, 2025 at 5:42 PM
2/ ...address them. A few notable ones IMHO -- and note, I am not an expert -- are: (A) 2020 with the murder of George Floyd and the subsequent summer of protests was the low point of American attitudes toward police in general (vs *your local force*), eg, this Gallup series '93-'24 for all adults
Gallup time series "Americans' Confidence in the Police, 1993-2024" -- specifically the question "How much confidence do you, yourself, have in the police -- a great deal, quite a lot, some, or very little?" The x-axis is year, again 1993-2024 (with explicit tick marks every 4 years starting in 1994 going to 2022). The y-axis is % of adults saying either a "Great deal" or "Quite a lot", and spans 0% to 80% (with explicit tick marks every 10% pts). Broadly, the series oscillates between roughly 52-60% for the vast majority of 1993-2019, notably going up from like 52% in 1993 to 64% in 2004 when, hand-wavingly, one might argue the first few years of the post-9/11/2001 terrorist attacks-moment led to the high point. Since 2004 one might argue there's a slow steady decline, from again 64ish% in 2004 down to about 45ish% in 2023 -- notably it's only the years 2019-2023 that are at 50% or less. But there's an uptick to 51% in 2024.
June 11, 2025 at 1:16 AM
"Radical centrist"... oh, how it all makes sense. That's why your profile pic at the other place has Riri Williams, one of the most radically centrist characters Marvel Comics ever produced! pbs.twimg.com/profile_bann...
Part of a panel from the _Ironheart_ Marvel comic that's part of Jane Coaston's Twitter profile pic. In the panel, a helmet-less Riri Williams (Ironheart) says, "I didn't. Didn't try. I've seen enough." (I, alas, forget the context of when and to whom she's explaining her decision to act. I swear Google Images used to immediately bring one to a post explaining that if you fed it Jane's Twitter profile pic, but now Google Images links are largely polluted by umpteen billion people preemptorily complaining about the upcoming-as-I-write-this-on-June-5-2025 _Ironheart_ series on Disney+. :'(
June 5, 2025 at 5:20 PM
First, and 100% seriously, way to go! As hokey as it sounds coming out of my usually horribly cynical mouth, you are truly inspirational! :)

Second, and at least 50% a joke, by you saying "We don't need a liberal Joe Rogan", OMG! IT'S OBVIOUS NOW!! *YOU* ARE THE LIBERAL JOE ROGAN WE'VE SOUGHT!!!
Famous scene from Monty Python's _The Life of Brian_, a satire on not-so-much Christianity itself but people's need for a messiah. Top half: Brian (played by Graham Chapman), in stereotypical moderate-budget 1st Century CE outfit for a poor Jew in the Holy Land (somewhat frayed robe and white skullcap) is exclaiming quite distraught to the throngs of followers (off-camera) who have approached him: "Will you please listen? I am not the messiah." Bottom half: The throng of followers, in similar stereotypical moderate-budget 1st Century CE outfits, awed by Brian's humble response comically draw the opposite conclusion, all exclaiming "HE IS THE MESSIAH!" with many falling to their knees as well. :)
May 22, 2025 at 4:32 PM
Oh how I loved this movie as a fighter-jet-obssessed-kiddie during the rah-rah Reagan defense buildup!
April 26, 2025 at 1:13 AM
Well, if we're doing _Simpsons_ memes, then I think this one is highly appropriate... especially since it reminds us that "I'm just one man? What can I do?" is now going to require much better excuses when people remind us we, even as individuals, and especially with our neighbors can do a lot.
Meme from _The Simpsons_ "See Homer Run" Season 17 / Episode 6 - Still 1 of 3: Homer and Lisa sitting on the couch. Homer in response to Lisa just having said, "Dad, we have to do something?" replies "What can I do? I'm only one man." Meme from _The Simpsons_ "See Homer Run" Season 17 / Episode 6 - Still 2 of 3: Lisa responds with her precocious, if still naive, idealism "Lincoln was only one man." Meme from _The Simpsons_ "See Homer Run" Season 17 / Episode 6 - Still 3 of 3: Homer replies in his characteristically comedic dimwitted fashion: "Are you sure there wasn't a midget in his [i.e., Lincoln's] hat?" Lisa squints in disapproval.
February 27, 2025 at 1:43 AM
[2/2] ... and, in mild gallows humor comic relief, since I spent all my formative years watching and re-watching _The Simpsons_:
GIF meme from _The Simpsons_ Season 7, Episode 12. Right after hearing Mr. Burns characterize as "embezzlement" the use of Springfield Nuclear Plant funds by Homer and his friends for their bowling league, Mr. Smithers says "I have a much uglier word for it, Sir: Misappropriation."
February 13, 2025 at 7:03 PM
OMG! Suddenly, the seemingly-just-teenaged-heartbroken angst Olivia Rodrigo shared in "Driver's License" is potentially something SOOOOO much deeper than behind-the-scenes love triangles on Disney shows!! Something so deep it's possibly violating the very laws of physics as we know them!!!
Scene from Olivia Rodrigo's career-making hit "Driver's License", a song widely believed (or at least gleefully rumored) to be about a behind-the-scenes oh-so-teenage-heartbreak-messy love triangle on the set of the Disney series _High School Musical: The Series: The Movie_ [sic, somehow not a misprint, that's title] between her and Ms. Carpenter for the affections of fellow castmate Joshua Bassett. It's showing the key lyric widely believed/rumored to be accusing Ms. Carpenter: "And you're probably with that blonde girl / who always made me doubt, / she's so much older than me, / she's everything I'm insecure about."
February 3, 2025 at 8:52 PM
Oh! I just remembered I can use a perhaps unseemly amount of water & electricity along with my Microsoft Office 365 complementary Copilot membership to make a bespoke meme! And wow, the AI adds the angle that the microbes also understand masking more than human reactionaries. What an age we live in!
A cute cartoon respiratory virus made reading Nietzche's _Twilight of the Idols_ an looking cutely happy (which is bad for us). Made with Microsoft Copilot with the prompt "Can you draw a cute cartoon virus reading a book" and then "In the above picture, can the book clearly be entitled 'Twilight of the Idols'. (Please feel free to make the book larger if you need more room for the title to fit.)" Amusingly, Copilot added the feature the cute virus is wearing a surgical mask.
January 28, 2025 at 2:20 PM
Indeed! Especially since that emotion is:
Meme from Marvel Netflix _The Punisher_, Season 1, Episode 4 with The Punisher (played by Jon Bernthal) gruffly-but-encouragingly saying "Pissed off beats scared every time" to his now-more-angry-than-afraid newfound brother-in-arms David Lieberman (played by Ebon Moss-Bachrach, here off camera).
January 24, 2025 at 2:16 PM
[4/4, n was 4] Visual Aids! While they speak for themselves IMHO, I'll add explicitly that -- apropos of the original post mentioning certain right-wingers clearly wishing Jesus was a classical-Pantheon-style deity -- the design with Jesus pulling the most weight looks like a stereotypical Zeus.
Jesus the Ultimate Deadlifter t-shirt (example #1): A very, very stereotypically Zeus-like Jesus lifting a nontrivial, but hardly world-class 5 plates [so 495lbs on standard bars and plates... I assume Jesus uses FREEDOM UNITS, not metric ;) ] From PrintGrovee on Etsy https://www.etsy.com/listing/1838937491/jesus-the-ultimate-deadlifter-svg-png Jesus the Ultimate Deadlifter t-shirt (example #2): A much more conventional -- (wait for it, a pun is coming) -- Jesus depiction, EXCEPT HE'S PULLING SUMO!! (hee, hee couldn't resist) ;) From the seller Bi Nutz on the Etsy like fineartamerica.com https://fineartamerica.com/featured/jesus-the-ultimate-deadlifter-tshirt-bi-nutz.html Jesus the Ultimate Deadlifter t-shirt (example #3): Rounding out this lower-case-t trinity of t-shirt examples (ok, I'll stop the puns), the most conventional depiction of Jesus... appropriately pulling conventional too... but only 1 plate! Like 135 lbs?! Truly, His humility is an example to us all!! From the online store for "metal posters" (i.e., colored print art on metal, suitable for hanging on a wall) displate.com https://displate.com/displate/4044383
January 23, 2025 at 6:10 PM
An imagining of Snoopy as the Doctors Who up through Jodie Whittaker's Doctor.
January 20, 2025 at 8:48 PM
[1/2 -- My gallows humor take] I like this meme since even the snail, presumably highly sympathetic to the adage "Better Late than Never", looks pretty damn "WTF buddy?! Kinda f@$king late!!"
A cute and, in fact, rather shocked looking, cartoon snail moving as fast as he can above a caption "Better Late than Never". Obtained from https://displate.com/displate/705999 which evidently is a "metal poster" --- i.e., a cartoon printed on a metal plate --- suitable for framing in your home and such. :)
January 16, 2025 at 2:33 AM
Granted, this classic _Simpsons_ moment was for a tar pit, not quicksand, but since (1) Homer survived and (2) I'm pretty sure tar pits work on the same basic principles as quicksand, I'd say it's good advice, and thus y'all really should've never worried about quicksand...
Part 1 of a classic _Simpsons_ scene from Season 5, Episode 17 "Bart Gets an Elephant". Homer has gotten trapped in a tar pit, and demonstrates what not to do. After Marge asks Bart to get a rope, Homer says "No, that's okay. I'm pretty sure I can struggle my way out. First, I'll just reach in and pull my legs out..." Marge, Bart, and Lisa, looking on from the edge of the tar pit are comically horrified. Part 2 of that classic _Simpsons_ S5E17 moment of Homer demonstrating how NOT to escape from a tar pit. His arms now trapped with his legs from Part 1 of his plan, he says -- amazingly confidently -- "Now, I'll pull my arms out with my face." Naturally, he goes under. Luckily, Bart's elephant (again, S5E17 is "Bart Gets an Elephant") will save Homer using his elephant trunk.
January 8, 2025 at 2:15 AM
An homage to the classic _Simpsons_ joke from Season 7, Episode 16 "Lisa the Iconoclast" in which Bart's teacher Miss Krabappel, enjoying a smoke with Lisa's teacher Miss Hoover at the back of Springfield Elementary's auditorium as their students watch a hagiographic documentary on Springfield's founder Jebediah Obadiah Zachariah Springfield, reacts quizzically on Jebediah's supposed motto "A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man!" by saying " 'Embiggens'? Hmm, I never heard that word before I moved to Springield. ". Miss Hoover replies, "I don't know why. It's a perfectly cromulent word." (The joke, of course, is both "embiggens" and "cromulent" are made-up words... though evidently beloved parts of the local dialect in Springfield.) Mine has Miss Krabappel saying: " 'Enshittification'? I never saw the word til I read a few essays about the life cycle of VC-funded web platforms." Miss Hover's line remains the same.
January 4, 2025 at 9:15 PM
Please pardon me if you already have a Substack or something to which I could've already subscribed, but...
A classic meme from _The Simpsons_, which in the context of the original episode (if I recall correctly) Homer being intrigued by Bart's impromptu rant against charity and telling Bart: "Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter."
January 2, 2025 at 8:14 PM
... helplessness like "OMG! We got so hurt by being seen as overbearing nannies and dupes for Big Pharma during COVID... what can we do?" and "OMG! So many people blame Big Agribusiness and non-natural stuff generally for making them fat... REALLY what can we do?!" Or, as Homer once advised Lisa...
Homer giving his characteristically bad fatherly advice to his daughter Lisa who is distraught the new girl in her class is so immediately popular: "Lisa, I can't imagine anyone being more likeable than you. But apparently this new girl is. So, my advice would be to start copying her in every way." [From _The Simpsons_ Season 10, Episode 1 "Lard of the Dance"]
January 2, 2025 at 4:49 AM