The Obama Death Panel Debate

Trust Jon Stewart and the staff at The Daily Show to hit the political nail on the head, again and again and again and be fiendishly funny doing it. Posted here you will find a clip titled The Obama Death Panel Debate which had me on the floor. The entire episode which focused on the increasing insanity of the health care "debate" in this country at town hall meetings, is well worth watching. Also, don't miss the interview with Douglas Brinkley, author of The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America (1)

Enjoy,

Sia

Endnotes:

Publisher Comments:

(1) In this groundbreaking epic biography, Douglas Brinkley draws on never-before-published materials to examine the life and achievements of our naturalist president. By setting aside more than 230 million acres of wild America for posterity between 1901 and 1909, Theodore Roosevelt made conservation a universal endeavor. This crusade for the American wilderness was perhaps the greatest U.S. presidential initiative between the Civil War and World War I. Roosevelt's most important legacies led to the creation of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and passage of the Antiquities Act in 1906. His executive orders saved such treasures as Devils Tower, the Grand Canyon, and the Petrified Forest.

Tracing the role that nature played in Roosevelt's storied career, Brinkley brilliantly analyzes the influence that the works of John James Audubon and Charles Darwin had on the young man who would become our twenty-sixth president. With descriptive flair, the author illuminates Roosevelt's bird watching in the Adirondacks, wildlife obsession in Yellowstone, hikes in the Blue Ridge Mountains, ranching in the Dakota Territory, hunting in the Big Horn Mountains, and outdoor romps through Idaho and Wyoming. He also profiles Roosevelt's incredible circle of naturalist friends, including the Catskills poet John Burroughs, Boone and Crockett Club cofounder George Bird Grinnell, forestry zealot Gifford Pinchot, buffalo breeder William Hornaday, Sierra Club founder John Muir, U.S. Biological Survey wizard C. Hart Merriam, Oregon Audubon Society founder William L. Finley, and pelican protector Paul Kroegel, among many others. He brings to life hilarious anecdotes of wild-pig hunting in Texas and badger saving in Kansas, wolf catching in Oklahoma and grouse flushing in Iowa. Even the story of the teddy bear gets its definitive treatment.

Destined to become a classic, this extraordinary and timeless biography offers a penetrating and colorful look at Roosevelt's naturalist achievements, a legacy now more important than ever. Raising a Paul Revere-like alarm about American wildlife in peril--including buffalo, manatees, antelope, egrets, and elk--Roosevelt saved entire species from probable extinction. As we face the problems of global warming, overpopulation, and sustainable land management, this imposing leader's stout resolution to protect our environment is an inspiration and a contemporary call to arms for us all.

Jon Stewart Doing Stand Up in 1996

Looking back, the things he says in this stand up routine from 1996 are funny, prescient and sad.

Happy 4th of July,

Sia

Stephen Colbert and the Pagans

I posted this last year, but I am re-posting it to say:

Stephen, congrats on winning the Peabody Award.

11/07/08

Someone asked me the other day why I admire Stephen Colbert. Here is a good description of the man:

... an aversion to tyranny; advocacy of an unbridled free press; wry, homespun humor; humility, or at least the appearance of it, in dealing with others; idealism as well as realism in foreign policy; willingness to compromise; and tolerance of contrary views, particularly in religion. Such traits enhance social capital and should "distinguish America...in the messy struggles that confront a new century."
- Walter Issacson writing about Ben Franklin

Oh, and he's Pagan friendly:

When Colbert was a student in Chicago, he studied improvisation with the legendary Del Close. Close was a personality so unpredictable that he has been called “the Ted Kaczynski of modern comedy”; before he died, in 1999, he bequeathed his skull to the Goodman Theatre, in Chicago. His hope was that he could play Yorick into eternity. As the artistic director of the ImprovOlympic, he had a legacy at least as memorable. “One of the great things about Del was that he was a pagan,” Colbert said. “When he was teaching, he would take out this pentagram necklace that he wore and flash it at you,” he continued. “I’ve been to my share of new-moon celebrations.

- New Yorker article on Stephen Colbert

Give the writers what they want:

(sigh) I hate this writer's strike. I want my Daily Show. I want my Colbert Report. Oh, and I'd like my civil rights, back, as well.

Set some rules. Don't worry if the rule makes sense, the important thing is that it's a rule. Arbitrary rules teach kids discipline, if every rule made sense they wouldn't be learning respect for authority, they'd be learning logic.

- Stephen Colbert (from his book titled I Am America And So Can You)

Come on, folks! Pay the writers fairly for their work, and let's all get back to making fun of things, lest our eyes fill with so many tears that we can't see our way clear to make change.

Yours,

Sia

(1) .

Links:

Interview with Stephen Colbert

The Colbert Report

Related Articles:

Daily Show's Eviscerating "Documentary" on Fox News

Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert: Honorary Pagans

The Daily Show Writers Explain the Strike To Us

Art:

Stephen's World of Warcraft card.
I don't happen to play, but I'm told it's well done.

Stephen with Lady Liberty found at the DaveandThomas blog

The Writers Are Back!....Now What?

The writers are back. Hazzah! Or as Jon Stewart, host of the Daily Show, might say in a particular tone of voice: "Really?" Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert have said many times how much they miss their writers, and while we views rejoice at the thought that we will not have to sit through this election without the funny that sustains us, the Mayor of Television tells us that there is both good and bad news in all this. Meanwhile, Viacom is still suing Youtube, so enjoy videos like this while you still can.

Sia

Related Articles:

The Daily Show Writers Explain the Strike To Us

Jon Stewart & Stephen Colbert Colbert: Honorary Pagans

Bad Day: Stephen Colbert and the Pagans

Bad Day - Stephen Colbert and the Pagans

It's been a bad day, news wise. How am I supposed to get through the holidays, the rest of the Bush administration, not to mention the war news and the next election, without Stephen Colbert?

Someone asked me the other day why I like him so much. Here's a good description of the man:

... an aversion to tyranny; advocacy of an unbridled free press; wry, homespun humor; humility, or at least the appearance of it, in dealing with others; idealism as well as realism in foreign policy; willingness to compromise; and tolerance of contrary views, particularly in religion. Such traits enhance social capital and should "distinguish America...in the messy struggles that confront a new century." (1)

Oh, and he's Pagan friendly:

"When Colbert was a student in Chicago, he studied improvisation with the legendary Del Close. Close was a personality so unpredictable that he has been called “the Ted Kaczynski of modern comedy”; before he died, in 1999, he bequeathed his skull to the Goodman Theatre, in Chicago. His hope was that he could play Yorick into eternity. As the artistic director of the ImprovOlympic, he had a legacy at least as memorable. “One of the great things about Del was that he was a pagan,” Colbert said. “When he was teaching, he would take out this pentagram necklace that he wore and flash it at you,” he continued. “I’ve been to my share of new-moon celebrations." - New Yorker article on Stephen Colbert

(sigh) I want my Daily Show. I want my Colbert Report. Oh, and I'd like my civil rights, back, as well.

Set some rules.
Don't worry if the rule makes sense,
the important thing is that it's a rule.
Arbitrary rules teach kids discipline,
if every rule made sense
they wouldn't be learning respect for authority,
they'd be learning logic.
- Stephen Colbert (from I Am America And So Can You)

Come on, folks! Pay the writers fairly for their work, and let's all get back to making fun of things, lest our eyes fill with so many tears that we can't see our way clear to make change.

Yours,

Sia

(1) Walter Issacson writing about Ben Franklin.

Links:

Interview with Stephen Colbert

The Colbert Report

Related Articles:

Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert: Honorary Pagans

The Daily Show Writers Explain the Strike To Us

The Daily Show Writers Explain The Strike To Us

From the Raven Series - Copyright held by The Ink Witch

Issues surrounding the Hollywood writers strike are many, varied and complex. Thank goodness we have the Daily Show folks to explain it all.

Speaking of writers and writing, you might also wish to read Anne Hill's post titled Women Publishing.

Update 11/6:

The Daily Show Archive - How It's Changing The Way We Watch TV
Excerpt from Salon.com article:

"A five-year-old episode of The Daily Show is pure gold...a fact made plain by the launch of the show's new Web site last month. Before, seekers of already-aired TDS material had to make do with the limited clips available on the cluttered Comedy Central home page, or try their luck among user posts on YouTube. At the new site, they can search the past nine years of episodes in their entirety—more than 13,000 clips, with tools that allow you to sort by air date, content, number of page views, or viewer rating. It's a library of the show, organized with an archivist's attention to detail and a fan's affection for signature moments.

...Playing around on the Daily Show site, I saw for the first time how the Web might really change TV—not by streaming a promotional teaser here and there or allowing users to post random screen grabs on YouTube, but by providing searchable online databases of years' worth of content that are updated to include current episodes. When The Daily Show does come back... I may well start watching even new episodes this way: at my desk in the morning, instead of on the couch at 11 o'clock at night. Multiply that defection by the size of the show's fan base and the subsequent migration of advertising dollars from screen to Web, and the writers' demand for a piece of the online action starts to make plenty of sense."

Jon Stewart's Greatest Gay Moments

Enjoy,

Sia

Art: A print I purchased some years ago at PantheaCon from the lovely Ink Witch