We know that religious people worry about getting into heaven when they die. But what does one do when there are so many different religions, each with its own prescription for how to get there? Edward Current is worried about this.
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Remember what happened after the Oklahoma state legislature allowed the erection of a monument to the Ten Commandments on the grounds of the state capital? Both Hindu and Satanic groups said they wanted their monuments on the grounds too.
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Because my friends and family know that I enjoy good ones and make bad ones, they periodically send me collections of them. Here is one set I received recently:
How does Moses make his tea? Hebrews it….
Venison for dinner again? Oh deer!
A cartoonist was found dead in his home. Details are sketchy.
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The Daily Show sends out Jordan Klepper to see how far Republican politicians can go to the right before they fall off the edge.
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In the second episode of his new show, Jon Oliver had an extended segment on the issue of the death penalty, using the recent ghastly botched execution in Oklahoma as his departure point. Treating such a serious issue in a humorous way carries a lot of risks but I think he managed it well and provided a good case for why the death penalty should be abolished.
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Playing a character in a scripted play or film or TV show is what actors routinely do. So when Stephen Colbert dons his TV character for his show, he is just acting. But the really tricky part is being in character while doing interviews because then much of it cannot be scripted in advance and you have to genuinely inhabit that character so that the exchanges seem genuine.
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While I think that Stephen Colbert will likely dramatically change the tired format of late night TV talk shows and bring a new energy to it, I will miss his skewering of people like Bill O’Reilly, like the one below he did a few weeks ago.
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The flip side of the US’s obsession with preserving the death penalty despite all its well-documented horrors is its obsession with the idea that the more that people carry powerful guns everywhere all the time, the safer they will be. Coupled with expanded ‘stand your ground’ and ‘castle doctrine’ legislation that enables people make much broader claims of self-defense, this has even led people to set traps for burglars, tempting them to enter their homes so that they could kill them.
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CNN must be dreading to watch The Daily Show because, next to Fox News, Jon Stewart seems to enjoy taking shots at them for their descent into mindless coverage of non-news. It seems like he expects them to be better than they are while he has no hope for Fox.
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Jon Stewart devoted three segments to discuss the issue of racism that has suddenly flooded the media.
First up, he gave his take on the Donald Sterling story, since that seems to be the topic du jour and is the third time I am discussing it today.
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