THE NEW YORKER's Richard Brody on the Academy's lack of love for comedy.

Beyond the allegations of racism and rewarding Brand Names for Serious Intentions (Steven Spielberg's BRIDGE OF SPIES doesn't belong on the Best Picture Nominations list), there's the issue of comedy being largely ignored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Richard Brody discusses the "comedy doesn't show enough effort/gravitas/Serious Intentions" attitude of the Academy in his NEW YORKER article "The Baffling 2016 Oscar Nominees."

http://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/the-2016-oscar-nominees

Excerpt:
"The Best Director nominations go to three showy filmmakers (Adam McKay, George Miller, and Alejandro González Iñárritu) and two nearly invisible ones (Tom McCarthy and Lenny Abrahamson). McKay had the oddest inspiration of the five. He applied the freewheeling loopiness of his comedies (notably “Anchorman”) to a political subject, proving once more that comedy gets no respect—most significantly, in the absence of any nominations for “Trainwreck.” Outside of the oddball interpolations of star announcers in “The Big Short,” there’s hardly a giggle or a guffaw in any of the Best Picture nominees. (Leonardo DiCaprio gave one of the greatest comic performances in recent years in “The Wolf of Wall Street”; he’ll likely win an Oscar for his relentlessly grim grind through “The Revenant.”) Comedy that the Academy feels comfortable taking seriously, comedy that comes trademarked as topical—that’s what the members watch on TV or streaming. It’s exactly why the revitalization of big-screen comedy—a job that Judd Apatow took on a decade ago and is attempting all over again—is tougher than ever."

Post-Lafayette.

This morning, I heard Chris Cuomo on CNN's NEW DAY voicing the Conventional Wisdom about gun control being a Non-Starter.

Here are some articles I'm passing along:
THE NATION on Bobby Jindal's gun-and-gun-owner-friendly Louisiana:
http://www.thenation.com/article/bobby-jindal-does-louisiana-love-us-some-guns-now/

THE DAILY BEAST on murderer John Russell Houser, who allegedly ranted about the "90% immoral population" and, in the same online forum post, said "Filth is rampant.":
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/07/24/inside-the-mind-of-john-russel-houser.html?via=newsletter&source=CSPMedition

Rebecca Leber article for THE NEW REPUBLIC on Gov. Bobby Jindal:
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/122365/bobby-jindal-enabled-louisianas-gun-violence-problem

Quote from the National Rifle Association's homepage:
The National Rifle Association is America's longest-standing civil rights organization. We're proud defenders of history's patriots and diligent protectors of the Second Amendment.

Gwyneth Kelly article for THE NEW REPUBLIC titled Right-Wingers' Solution to Movie Theater Shootings: More Guns:
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/122364/right-wingers-solution-movie-theater-shootings-more-guns