Billy Beer

It's getting to be the busy time of year for me. So much to do, so little time. And of course that's when the important stuff happens. So, catching up again.

President Jimmy Carter was the focus of an entire show. That doesn't happen very often. Stephen talked about Jimmy Carter and the Jimmy Carter Library & Museum, but unfortunately, he kept getting confused and talking about Ronald Reagan. Eventually he was able to stay on track and talk about Jimmy Carter.

Jimmy Carter has yet another book out, "A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence, and Power" twenty-eight books and counting!!! I found this about him doing a book signing. (I bet he could write a blog entry pretty darn fast also.) You may also be aware that he builds houses for Habitat for Humanity. In fact, the two men talked about that on the show. These houses are not just given away to people. The recipients of the house have to help build them and they have to buy the houses. Talk about your "teaching a man to fish" story. I think Stephen was gaining a lot of respect for this man who is a lot more liberal that Stephen is. Note to readers: Stephen Colbert is a Conservative. Just ask him.

No interview would be complete without a discussion of religion and so Stephen Colbert, who is Catholic, waded into the subject of religion with Jimmy Carter who is Baptist. Although the two did not try to convert each other, Jimmy Carter did reveal he would consider becoming Catholic if the current Pope Francis stays in office and if a female Catholic priest invited him to join her church. (Awkward.)

You can read a lot more about Jimmy Carter over at Wikipedia. We all know Stephen has a lot of awards but you should take a look at how many Jimmy Carter has! Also interesting over at that Wikipedia link is a memory young Jimmy Carter had of a sermon. "If you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?" That has influenced how he lives his life and why he continues to help people around the world including working to eradicate Guinea worm disease..

Hold It Right There, Nunsie

Wrapping up last Thursday's show and the last episode of 2012 it is time for bid adieu to Ham Rove. In a strange turn of events though, his memory will live on. You see, Stephen got a letter from The Ham Rove Memorial Fund, of which he, Stephen Colbert, surprisingly is on the Board! In this letter which Stephen sent to himself, it says that they recently received an anonymous donation of $773,704,83. This is amazing because it is exactly the same amount of money that was left over in the Colbert Super PAC. The letter came from P.O. Box Bite Me. Stephen suggested that this donation go to Unicef but the other Board members found out that Unicef is the name of Stephen's yacht.

Therefore, the money will be divided up as follows:

$125,000 to Donors Choose Sandy Relief Fund

$125,000 to Team Rubicon's Sandy Outreach

$125,000 to Habitat for Humanity to build houses for storm victims

$125,000 to Yellow Ribbon Fund

The remaining money, per Ham Rove's wishes, will be split between the Center for Responsive Politics and The Campaign Legal Center, but if, and only if, some conditions are met. Conference rooms for those two organizations will be renamed. One gets to be The Colbert Super PAC Memorial Conference Room and the other gets to the The Ham Rove Memorial Conference Room.

Stephen's guest for the last show of 2012 was Sister Simone Campbell, of the famous Nuns on a Bus. They had a very spirited interview. I have come to the conclusion that Sister Simone won the interview by a few points. Stephen tried his best, claiming that Jesus wanted him to prosper. Sister Simone came back at him with the story of how the rich brought presents to the baby Jesus and left them at the manger.

Stephen did compliment her that she was named one of Atlantic's Brave Thinkers of 2012. He went on to note that she publicly disagreed with the Pope, yes - that Pope (!) - on issues such as contraception and all male priesthood. He also commented that he had no way to be sure she was a nun since she was wearing just normal clothes. However, she has a pin on her lapel, what Stephen called a "Nun Badge."

In her never ending quest to help the poor, she also explained why she "took on" Paul Ryan and his budget. This is the budget which Paul Ryan said was informed by his faith. She said we should, in a pluralistic culture, be all about community: "We have to let go of our stuff to hold hands with each other."

Thursday's show was only 30 minutes long as usual, but it seemed like Stephen packed a lot in to end the year. We had another musical treat for the Christmas season. Musicians Jeff Tweedy, Mavis Staples, Sean Lennon and members of the Harlem Gospel Choir all appeared to sing John Lennon's "So This is Christmas."