Patrick - When did you hobnob with Taliban figures?
Jon Stewart is, like the early David Letterman, not really much of an interviewer. If a guest isn't interesting to him, it shows.
His best interview segments are when he has another comedian on, and they just sit there and try to crack each other up. It's like being at a bar with two really funny friends and watching THEM try to crack each other up.
He's also pretty good when he has gorgeous actress, sexually adventurous actresses on, and then he just makes fun of himself.
I've been saying for some time now that the 70-percent approval ratings that the war is generating means precisely the opposite of what the hawks think they means.
They mean that, with the war not even a month old and American loss of life very small, 30 percent of the American people already don't support it. And my hippie friends tell me it took YEARS for the anti-war movement to reach the level it's already at.
Mark - Sure, the protests themselves don't cause social change, but the protesters aren't going to simply retreat to their recliners and big-screen TVs when the protests are over. I expect to see quite a few of them working against hawkish policies and candidates in other ways.
I'm excited by all of this -- I think the nation is pretty near to hitting bottom in hawkishness and restraint of civil liberties.
"An armed society is a polite society" is grossly taken out of context. Also out of context: "Show me the money!"
Howard Stern is more complex than many of his critics give him credit for. For one thing, he's got a deep self-disparaging vein in his humor. He's no self-satisfied Bill Maher, his favorite running joke is (or was -- I haven't listened to him in years) to make fun of his own lack of sexual prowess and his tiny penis size.
Ultimately, I stopped listening to him partially because he IS offensive. I can deal with jokes about lesbians, sex, having strippers and porn stars on the show. I can even put up with some of his ethnic humor, which often crosses the line into bigotry. But making fun of the disabled and mentally ill: just ain't funny.
But that's not real reason I stopped listening to Stern. The real reason: He got boring. Same jokes, over and over.
Similarly, I never liked Maher because I never found him either entertaining or funny. His smugness didn't help.
I think being self-deprecating is essential to humor.
"404: Goat Not Found."
Anybody know where I can pick up a goat to sacrifice? I'm just askin'.
Yup, real pity about MT comments not supporting color. Real pity.
Of course I meant to say that most non-fans are NOT interested.
Hmmm.... my previous post makes me sound, I think, like more of a big chicken than I really am. I posted after midnight my time, after reading a couple of hours of war news. That'll get anybody depressed.
Truth is, I think the main reason for my secret fannish life is that I think most non-fans are interested. Plus, while I am very fannish -- I even have one of the two basic fannish body types, minus beard and long hair -- I am not very active in fandom.
Of course, probably nobody is reading this. That's the thing I hate about comments sections on Weblogs -- even the most popular discussion thread will die out after a day or two or three, as people move on to the current thing.
Which means NOBODY'S WATCHING. I can post WHATEVER I WANT HERE, without fear of being disemvowelled or otherwise obfuscated by TNH. I can drop my pants down around my ankles and post with my wing-wang flapping in the breeze and NOBODY WILL NOTICE.
>>So long as anyone calling themselves a ?liberal? or a ?leftist? gets themself into a censorious snit over Adrien Brody kissing Halle Berry at the Oscars, it?s okay to characterize the rest of us as prissy killjoys. <<
I wouldn't call myself a prissy killjoy, but I did actually think that Adrien Brody's behavior was inappropriate.
Sure, at first I laughed with delight, but then I said: yuck. He didn't just give her a jubilant hug and a playfully lecherous Groucho eyebrow-waggle and leer -- he mauled her. It was ungentlemanly and caddish.
God knows I am only one one-millionth the fan Harry Warner was, but I can sympathize with his desire to keep his fannish activities a secret. Mundane society isn't really any more tolerant of fandom than it was in the 1930s.
My friends and family know about my being an sf fan, but I don't talk about it. Best not to call attention to it if you want to be taken seriously in the mundane world.
| Year | Number of comments posted |
|---|---|
| 2003 | 14 |
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