When we last saw Stephen, he was packing his suitcase. He's had it up to here. He's leaving the country and moving back to South Carolina. (Is that a commentary on South Carolina, or just a slip of the tongue?) No matter. What does matter is that it's the filibusters, or lack of filibusters, that drove Stephen to this desperate course of action. If the Senate doesn't have filibuster after filibuster, or just a hint of filibuster, well then, something might get accomplished and where would that leave us?
Stephen highlighted all the wonderful things about Oklahoma. For one thing, there was that musical, Oklahoma! But there's also the other side of Oklahoma, the one where spouses of National Guard members who are homosexual are being denied benefits. Since that might be discriminatory towards them, now it just makes sense to deny benefits to any spouse of a National Guard member. I hope that makes sense to you. It sounds a bit senseless to me.
It's Thanksgiving and so Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. In case your holiday dinner looks like it will be boring, you can get a real treat from Stephen. It's the "Stephen Colbert's Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? It's me, Stephen Colbert" DVD. We got a free sample of what to expect. Stephen treated himself to a nice glass of Rosemount Shiraz, partook of a delicious turkey feast and shared such tidbits as, "I'm fat," and "Here's a bird I cooked for you," and "Who wants seconds?" I'm thinking he should not have had quite so much wine as he did.
Stephen's guest last Thursday was J.J. Abrams, author of "S." Finally. A book with a short title. This is a treat of a book as you can see if you follow that link to see a picture of the book and all that comes with it. And no, that's not a used copy of the book, that's what the book looks like once you dig into it! Cool. Go buy it.
Just two things I wondered about the show. What's with the squirrel? What's with the basket? Were they just meant to distract J.J. Abrams or do they have some mystical meaning?
Also, if you are really bored, you can go over to Google to see this year's Thanksgiving animated short.
Showing posts with label Filibuster. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Filibuster. Show all posts
Thursday, November 28, 2013
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Polar Bears Going Door to Door
If you are looking to head to the beach this weekend, you could head North. The North Pole is now sitting in the North Pole Lake. That's right, for the past 10 summers, the North Pole has turned from ice to water. This should make you think about Climate Change with a whole new perspective.
Congress. Still working just as hard as you think they are. That is not much of a compliment, in case you are wondering. Stephen mentioned HR 2904, a House bill that the Republicans are hoping Obama will sign and sign quickly. It's that one that says, "This is not another repeal of Obamacare, we swear, but don't look inside, just sign it! sign it!"
Senator Mitch McConnell was given a shout-out on the show. Although he has the nickname of Senator Gridlock, in part because of his numerous filibusters, he is taking heat from Tea Party groups who complained about his progressive liberal voting record.
This points up a problem in Washington. Some members of Congress might try to get stuff done, but then voters hold them accountable for what they have done. The solution is to keep it all secret until the year 2064 when Honey Boo Boo is president. So, Congress will do the People's Business, but it's just none of the People's Business to know about it.
Another Senator was mentioned, that Canadian favorite son, Ted Cruz. He and Stephen Colbert are in some sort of (private???) contest to see who is the most humble. Every day Ted Cruz (apparently) reminds himself of how humble he is. I just wish there was some way the two men could meet and have an official humility contest. Stephen Colbert would be way better than Ted Cruz. His humility is one of the traits he is proudest of.
Stephen's guest was Atul Gawande, a surgeon AND journalist, among other things. Go just read that first paragraph about him here at Wikipedia and you'll probably agree that he's a busy man. And yet he had time to be on the The Colbert Report. He also is an associate professor over at Harvard. I think that might be why he was one of those guests who is surprised when Stephen interrupts him. (Sorry Stephen, but it's true. Sometimes you don't let your guests finish saying what they were talking about.) Perhaps as a surgeon and a professor, Atul Gawande is used to people listening to everything he says and not asking questions until he asks if there are any questions from anyone. This is pure speculation on my part.
Anyway, he wrote an article for The New Yorker about "Slow Ideas." You should read it. If you think it is too long, then just read one page per day and in a week you will be done reading it. I will mention that Stephen did joke a bit with him about writing about Slow Ideas and then publishing it in a magazine.... Whatever.
Okay, let me check:
__ Title for this post - done
__ North Pole - done
__ Congress - done
__ Mitch McConnell - done
__ Honey Boo Boo - done
__ Ted Cruz - done
__ Atul Gawande - done
Great. I remembered to write about everything on my checklist. (And only one day late.) Well done. Pat myself on the back.
Congress. Still working just as hard as you think they are. That is not much of a compliment, in case you are wondering. Stephen mentioned HR 2904, a House bill that the Republicans are hoping Obama will sign and sign quickly. It's that one that says, "This is not another repeal of Obamacare, we swear, but don't look inside, just sign it! sign it!"
Senator Mitch McConnell was given a shout-out on the show. Although he has the nickname of Senator Gridlock, in part because of his numerous filibusters, he is taking heat from Tea Party groups who complained about his progressive liberal voting record.
This points up a problem in Washington. Some members of Congress might try to get stuff done, but then voters hold them accountable for what they have done. The solution is to keep it all secret until the year 2064 when Honey Boo Boo is president. So, Congress will do the People's Business, but it's just none of the People's Business to know about it.
Another Senator was mentioned, that Canadian favorite son, Ted Cruz. He and Stephen Colbert are in some sort of (private???) contest to see who is the most humble. Every day Ted Cruz (apparently) reminds himself of how humble he is. I just wish there was some way the two men could meet and have an official humility contest. Stephen Colbert would be way better than Ted Cruz. His humility is one of the traits he is proudest of.
Stephen's guest was Atul Gawande, a surgeon AND journalist, among other things. Go just read that first paragraph about him here at Wikipedia and you'll probably agree that he's a busy man. And yet he had time to be on the The Colbert Report. He also is an associate professor over at Harvard. I think that might be why he was one of those guests who is surprised when Stephen interrupts him. (Sorry Stephen, but it's true. Sometimes you don't let your guests finish saying what they were talking about.) Perhaps as a surgeon and a professor, Atul Gawande is used to people listening to everything he says and not asking questions until he asks if there are any questions from anyone. This is pure speculation on my part.
Anyway, he wrote an article for The New Yorker about "Slow Ideas." You should read it. If you think it is too long, then just read one page per day and in a week you will be done reading it. I will mention that Stephen did joke a bit with him about writing about Slow Ideas and then publishing it in a magazine.... Whatever.
Okay, let me check:
__ Title for this post - done
__ North Pole - done
__ Congress - done
__ Mitch McConnell - done
__ Honey Boo Boo - done
__ Ted Cruz - done
__ Atul Gawande - done
Great. I remembered to write about everything on my checklist. (And only one day late.) Well done. Pat myself on the back.
Thursday, November 29, 2012
And They Lived Happily Ever After
Well, I didn't win. Not that I wanted to. Stephen won, or at least he was pretty sure he had won the huge Powerball drawing. His fantasies of the win went from sheer exuberance all the way to utter despair at spending his imagined winnings so quickly. Then he found out that he didn't win, and, luckily for all of us in the Colbert Nation, he went on with the show. Money can't buy you happiness.
First up on the show, Marriage. Polls show that while it used to be that men want to get married more than women do, now the reverse is true. More women want to get married than do men. That presents a problem in that there's not enough marrying men to go around. Here's what Suzanne Venker over at Fox News had to say about marriage.
"I've accidentally stumbled upon a subculture of men who've told me ... that they're never getting married. When I ask them why, the answer is always the same. Women aren't women anymore."
I've got some questions about all of this. First of all, where and how did she stumble upon this subculture? Who are these men in that subculture? Do they all actually say, "Women aren't women anymore?" And then I have some answers to the questions I just asked. If she stumbled, it was probably in a bar, that's where people usually stumble. The whole subculture and same answer thing. Well, it sort of goes in a circle. They are a subculture because they all had the same answer and yes they all said the same thing, that's what put them in the peculiar subculture. (How many men are you talking about anyway?)
Stephen had advice for women. Stop voting. Stop talking. This is how to return to that feminine ideal and thus solve the marriage crisis. Most likely Suzanne Venker will now see the errors of her ways for being a writer and get out of that business and become a docile woman that is the marrying kind.
This should make everyone happy.
Not making people happy is the Filibuster. If you thought the majority party was in control, you were wrong. Here's some more information about Filibuster. Stephen talked about the good old days when you could filibuster by reading the actual phone book. Boring? Yes, but worth every dollar we are paying those Senators to stand up there and waste time while important legislation is being ignored. Why does Harry Reid want to monkey around with this? Mitch McConnell is not happy about what Harry Reid wants to do. He wants to keep the ability to obstruct everything and if he can't, then he will obstruct everything. (That's called win/win. Only the taxpayers, voters, citizens end up losing.)
On to the fun part of the show, Frank Oz. Stephen introduced him as the voice of Miss Piggy, Grover Fozzie, Animal and Yoda. Frank Oz pointed out that 90%, no, make that 92% of the character is the puppetry part. The voice is important, but much of what is done for the characters is the puppetry part. Being a puppetry artist allows someone like Oz to go out and buy pork and beans or do his laundry at a laundromat and still be sort of a regular guy. People aren't likely to look at him and think of Miss Piggy.
Did you know that Frank Oz directed "Little Shop of Horrors?" Well, yeah, you have been paying attention, so I suppose you know that. Stephen and Frank Oz discussed the movie a bit, especially the fact that originally the ending wasn't the typical "happily ever after" ending. People were loving the movie until it got to the end. Then, not so much. And so, the ending was changed and it was happily ever after. Now, there's a new release with... well... with the original ending. Ahhhhhh.
Stephen asked a very important question then. "Are you ever tempted to use your voices to get out of situations?" For example, if pulled over by a cop, would Frank Oz ever say something like, "Not speeding was I, Officer," in his best Yoda voice. No, Oz does not do that, or at least if he does, he did not fess up.
I'm worried about Stephen. He was elated about winning the Powerball, then sad, but then went on as if nothing was wrong. And he did well with the interview. But, when he signed off for the night with his usual cheery "Goodnight Everybody," he just didn't look like himself. I can't quite put my finger on it, but he seemed to have shrunk and lost weight and his eyes were kind of buggy and he seemed sort of mechanical. Something was different. I'll pull some strings and see if I can't get more information from an inside source.
First up on the show, Marriage. Polls show that while it used to be that men want to get married more than women do, now the reverse is true. More women want to get married than do men. That presents a problem in that there's not enough marrying men to go around. Here's what Suzanne Venker over at Fox News had to say about marriage.
"I've accidentally stumbled upon a subculture of men who've told me ... that they're never getting married. When I ask them why, the answer is always the same. Women aren't women anymore."
I've got some questions about all of this. First of all, where and how did she stumble upon this subculture? Who are these men in that subculture? Do they all actually say, "Women aren't women anymore?" And then I have some answers to the questions I just asked. If she stumbled, it was probably in a bar, that's where people usually stumble. The whole subculture and same answer thing. Well, it sort of goes in a circle. They are a subculture because they all had the same answer and yes they all said the same thing, that's what put them in the peculiar subculture. (How many men are you talking about anyway?)
Stephen had advice for women. Stop voting. Stop talking. This is how to return to that feminine ideal and thus solve the marriage crisis. Most likely Suzanne Venker will now see the errors of her ways for being a writer and get out of that business and become a docile woman that is the marrying kind.
This should make everyone happy.
Not making people happy is the Filibuster. If you thought the majority party was in control, you were wrong. Here's some more information about Filibuster. Stephen talked about the good old days when you could filibuster by reading the actual phone book. Boring? Yes, but worth every dollar we are paying those Senators to stand up there and waste time while important legislation is being ignored. Why does Harry Reid want to monkey around with this? Mitch McConnell is not happy about what Harry Reid wants to do. He wants to keep the ability to obstruct everything and if he can't, then he will obstruct everything. (That's called win/win. Only the taxpayers, voters, citizens end up losing.)
On to the fun part of the show, Frank Oz. Stephen introduced him as the voice of Miss Piggy, Grover Fozzie, Animal and Yoda. Frank Oz pointed out that 90%, no, make that 92% of the character is the puppetry part. The voice is important, but much of what is done for the characters is the puppetry part. Being a puppetry artist allows someone like Oz to go out and buy pork and beans or do his laundry at a laundromat and still be sort of a regular guy. People aren't likely to look at him and think of Miss Piggy.
Did you know that Frank Oz directed "Little Shop of Horrors?" Well, yeah, you have been paying attention, so I suppose you know that. Stephen and Frank Oz discussed the movie a bit, especially the fact that originally the ending wasn't the typical "happily ever after" ending. People were loving the movie until it got to the end. Then, not so much. And so, the ending was changed and it was happily ever after. Now, there's a new release with... well... with the original ending. Ahhhhhh.
Stephen asked a very important question then. "Are you ever tempted to use your voices to get out of situations?" For example, if pulled over by a cop, would Frank Oz ever say something like, "Not speeding was I, Officer," in his best Yoda voice. No, Oz does not do that, or at least if he does, he did not fess up.
I'm worried about Stephen. He was elated about winning the Powerball, then sad, but then went on as if nothing was wrong. And he did well with the interview. But, when he signed off for the night with his usual cheery "Goodnight Everybody," he just didn't look like himself. I can't quite put my finger on it, but he seemed to have shrunk and lost weight and his eyes were kind of buggy and he seemed sort of mechanical. Something was different. I'll pull some strings and see if I can't get more information from an inside source.
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