So Bill Maher stirred up a hornet’s nest with his riff against religion, focusing on the whole story of Noah that has suddenly come to the fore because of the upcoming film, and correctly saying that it shows god in such a terrible light as a baby killer that no one in their right mind should worship him.
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Stephen Colbert looks at the concerns expressed by Fox News that president Obama appearing with Zach Galifianakis on a web comedy show demeans the presidency. In their weird little minds, starting illegal wars, torturing people, engaging in a vast global spying program, waging cyberwars and the like do not harm the presidency but appearing on a show widely watched by young people (over 13 million people have so far seen the 6:30-minute clip) to promote his health care plan is somehow hugely damaging.
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The CIA is shocked, just shocked, and even saddened that anyone would suspect them of doing something wrong and say that some low-techies may be responsible for whatever spying may have been done on the staffers of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, though they are not acknowledging that such things happened. Maybe the CIA does not hire interns, the usual underlings who are blamed for anything that goes wrong.
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There are some interviews which are just fun even though they involve nothing at all, no point is being made, and there is no agenda. This one between Jon Stewart and Jason Bateman is such an example where the conversation is fun for its own sake.. Batemen and Stewart seem to be enjoying themselves so much that they did not even get around to plugging the new film that Bateman has directed.
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It is pretty well established that women are more likely to be regular churchgoers than men. The current discrepancy, while noticeable, is not yet huge but it has to be disturbing to the church hierarchy because in America, as soon as something is seen as essentially a feminine activity, a lot of men will drop off simply for fear of appearing to be wusses. And if one parent regularly skips church, children’s church going habits are likely to be affected as well.
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I am not sure how many people are familiar with this online show on the comedy website Funny or Die, where Zach Galifianakis plays a boorish and ignorant host who interviews celebrities and both host and guest are mutually passive-aggressive and backhanded in their insults, and the cringe-worthy exchanges are interspersed with awkward moments of silence.
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In a single cartoon, Tom Tomorrow skewers US hypocrisy on Ukraine, the eternal bloodlust and warmongering among certain sectors of our political-media class especially the neoconservatives, the pusillanimity of so-called liberals, and the vapidity of the media. (Click on comic image to make bigger.)
Aasif Mandvi takes a close look at the claims made by some that the US provides the greatest health care in the world. As part of his investigation, he goes with Stan Brock and his Remote Area Medical (RAM) team that goes to remote areas around the world to provide free medical care to people who need them.
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About a decade ago the university center at which I work hosted Elaine Langer, professor of psychology at Harvard University and author of the book Mindfulness, that discusses the benefits of concentrating on whatever we happen to be doing at the moment and avoiding the trap of falling into autopilot mode. As I introduced her to the audience, I said that she was the first woman to reach the rank of full professor in the psychology department at Harvard.
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You would think that after so many women have been heads of state of so many countries for over fifty years, it would be considered only slightly noteworthy for the US to have a female head of state. The fact that people think it would be such a big step only indicates how backward US politics is.
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