Have you ever wondered what might have happened if Alfred Hitchcock had tried his hand at comedy? Me neither.
But in his latest commercial, Herman Cain tries to channel the master of suspense in a remake of The Birds and ends up with an ad that I think is supposed to be scary but which made me burst out laughing. Watch out for that skeletal arm, kid! [Read more…]
Now that it is widely conceded that Mitt Romney will be the Republican party nominee, we enter phase two of the presidential election cycle.
It may be the scientist in me but I tend to favor theoretical models that enable some predictivity in events, rather than the idea that we are totally at the mercy of idiosyncratic factors. This is true even in the world of presidential elections, despite all its seeming unpredictability. As I wrote earlier, strip away the surface turbulence and you see the steady flow of a predictable current. [Read more…]
On The Daily Show Jon Stewart suggests ways to try and even the score.
(This clip appeared on April 9, 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.)
… and is even crazier.
Echoing the tactics of the late Senator Joseph McCarthy, Congressman Allen West (R-Florida) says that he “has heard” that up to 80 Democrats in the US House of Representatives are members of the Communist Party but he won’t give their names. At least he did not say that he had the list of names in his hand.
What does it mean that the four people who entered the race suggesting that it was god’s idea in the first place (Rick Santorum, Herman Cain, Rick Perry, and Michele Bachman) have now all been eliminated? God’s power seems to have waned quite a bit from the days when he created the universe and parted the seas. Now he cannot even get his people the Republican nomination. Perhaps appearing on pieces of toast is the best he can do now. [Read more…]
Here’s a puzzle that more internet savvy readers may be able to help me with.
On March 7, I received the following email with the subject line “Broken link on your page”.
Hi Mano,
I came across your website and wanted to notify you about a broken link on your page in case you weren’t aware of it. The link on http://www.case.edu/provost/UCITE/learning/general.html which links to http://www.hcc.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/teachtip.htm with the anchor text of “teaching tips is no longer working. [Read more…]
The actor has become an anti-fracking, clean water activist. (Link corrected)
The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive
(This clip appeared on March 28, 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.)
Stephen M. Walt wants to know, since he is confused by the mixed signals sent by the Obama administration, first saying that they want to talk and then putting forward proposals that were blatantly unacceptable to the Iranians, who predictably rejected them.
Justin Raimondo poses similar concerns, saying “For all this administration’s alleged attempts to “engage” the Iranians, there were never any serious efforts to come to any kind of agreement: unconditional demands, exemplified by this latest ultimatum, were always at the core of various Western “peace” proposals. Now that the Iranian drama is coming down to the wire, virtually all pretenses at real negotiations have been rapidly discarded.”
Is there anything that symbolizes the absurdity of US attitudes towards Cuba more than the fact that Ozzie Guillen, the manager of the Miami Marlins baseball team, was suspended by team owners for remarks he made about Fidel Castro? What did he say that was so outrageous? “I respect Fidel Castro. You know why? A lot of people have wanted to kill Fidel Castro for the last 60 years, but (he) is still there.” How horrifying! This is despite the fact that even pope Ratzo just had a friendly meeting with Castro and called for an end to the embargo. There goes the pope’s chance of ever being made manager for the Marlins. [Read more…]