Recently I have noticed that in my social circle (consisting of almost all president Obama supporters), the conversation frequently turns to Michelle Obama. Praising her for her intelligence, looks, grace, poise, and sense of humor seems to be the one thing that people can agree upon and thus avoid the more disagreeable topic of how disappointing her husband has been. [Read more…]
A woman speaks at a city council meeting in the town of Lincoln, Nebraska at a public hearing on a proposed LGBT equality protection ordinance. Her words provide a remarkable example of non sequiturs strung together to simulate an argument what is in reality just Bible-based homophobia. [Read more…]
It is quite extraordinary how the Catholic Church seems to go out if its way to alienate women. Fresh from their assault on nuns (see here and here), the US Conference of Catholic Bishops is now targeting Girl Scouts. Both my daughters were girl scouts and it would be tough to find a more wholesome or inoffensive group. But the old men of the Catholic Church seem to see it as a gateway to evil. [Read more…]
I am sure that everyone by now has heard of Mitt Romney’s hair assault on a fellow student and his other anti-gay bullying behavior when he attended his exclusive private and single-sex (until 1984) high school. [Read more…]
Both of them had good segments.
Here The Daily Show weighs in. [Read more…]
I think that the easiest job in the world is one that involves offending religious people. If such a job opens up, I will apply for it in a flash.
Recall the recent event in which some high school students at a journalism conference walked out on Dan Savage when he pointed out that the Bible was a major source of anti-gay sentiment. Savage later apologized for some of his language and for denigrating the students who walked out but not for the ideas expressed. [Read more…]
One of the problems of capitalism (at least I see it as a problem) is that its only fiduciary duty is to the shareholders. In other words, its business practices have to have the prime purpose of maximizing the returns to its investors, consistent with the existing laws. This makes sense, in a narrow way. After all, the shareholders are the ones who provide the money and in any large public company, they will constitute a varied group that has diverse interests. The only thing that they can be guaranteed to have in common is the desire for a good return on their investments. [Read more…]
(This clip appeared on May 1, 2012. To get suggestions on how to view clips of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report outside the US, please see this earlier post.)
In any just society, former CIA operative Jose Rodriquez would be charged as a war criminal, put on trial, and if convicted, sentenced to a long prison term for carrying out torture and then destroying evidence.
But in our current society, people like him have been granted immunity by the current administration because president Obama conveniently likes to let bygones be bygones and “look forward, not backward” when it comes to prosecuting war crimes. So Rodriquez writes a book boasting about his deeds and goes on national TV to hawk it, facing soft-ball questions from our allegedly hard-hitting intrepid journalists. [Read more…]