Hardware Stuff

(Note: I just updated We Mars'd It, so be sure to read the next post also.)

In his continuing Stephen Colbefrajilympic Expealacoverage '012, Stephen saluted the Olympic spirit and paid tribute to our patriotic team members. Stand proud, team members, stand proud.

And on to politics. We got to follow along in that reporter(s) followed along while Mitt Romney did some everyday, normal Joe, run of the mill shopping errands. He went to the Hardware store and bought hardware stuff. He went to the grocery store and bought, well probably grocery stuff. This of course naturally leads to a discussion of possible Vice President picks. The way to know who it will be is Wikipedia. Just see which candidate had the most updates on Wikipedia and that will be the VP pick. We know this is true because back when John McCain went all mavericky and picked Sarah Palin, her Wikipedia page had been updated about 68 times the previous day.

Can you guess what comes next? Of course. Stephen encouraged everyone to update the Wikipedia page of their favorite candidate for Mitt Romney's running mate. He demonstrated with the Wikipedia page of friend of the show Tim "T Paw" Pawlenty of Minnesota. The updates were quite interesting, however, I looked at the Wikipedia page for Tim Pawlenty and I did not see the changes. Either Wikipedia already scrubbed the updates that Stephen did, or Stephen did not press the correct Wiki Wiki button after he made the changes. But anyway, go update your favorite potential candidate, whether it be Chris Christie, Paul Ryan, Marc Rubio, Rob Portman, or Rafalca. I guess, in a way, members of the Colbert Nation just might be the ones to pick Mitt Romney's running mate. I can hardly wait!

Animal rights issues are important to almost everyone, but not to Congressman Steve King of Iowa. We got to hear examples of Congressman Steve King talking about what dogs should and should not do.

We also got to hear Congressman King talk about this possible scenario: A sexual predator impregnates a 13 year-old girl, picks her up at the playground of her middle school, hauls her across state line to have an abortion and brings her back to the swing set. According to him, that's not against the law in the United States of America.

Luckily, Stephen Colbert has people off stage who talk to him during the show. "What? What? I'm being told that all of that is against the law." Stephen then explained situations that illustrate his understanding of what Congressman Steve King said. Stephen has such a way with words.

Stephen's guest was Mark A. Shriver, who talked about his dad Sargent Shriver, and the book he wrote about his dad. "A Good Man, Rediscovering My Father, Sargent Shriver" is the book. Sargent Shriver had quite the resume. Peace Corps, Head Start, Job Corp, VISTA, and Legal Services.

With Pete Seeger on Monday, and Sargent Shriver's son Mark on, it is starting to seem like Liberal Week over at the Colbert Report. But, since Stephen is a Conservative, that just shows that he is fair and willing to listen to both sides.

Fiscal Cliff

I know what you're thinking. Curiosity has landed on Mars and fell off the Fiscal Cliff. No, you're jumping ahead to tonight's guest and getting that confused with what Congress is doing.

First things first. Contraception. August 1 was a day to celebrate, ... or not, depending on who you are. After taking quite a few birth control pills (Stephen is one of the hottest women in the world), Stephen suggested a simpler plan for ladies is just to think of Mitch McConnell. I guess what Stephen is suggesting is something similar to a cold shower.

I was not paying close enough attention to the segment on the Economy, so I may have gotten stuff mixed up. I think what Stephen said is that some guy named Grover Norquist will push chickens off the Fiscal Cliff if anyone tries to shave him. Like I said, I might have that wrong. Perhaps a better explanation can be found here from Ezra Klein. It kind of worries me that Stephen was willing to so easily make some sacrifices last night. I think He Who Must Not Be Shaved has way too much power.

With the Olympics going on still, we got to see another segment of the Stephen Colbefrajilympic Expealacoverage '012. Gymnastics was the sport du jour. I was disappointed not to see good photos and video of what happened. What I did see was a bunch of letters and envelopes. Something about Olympic lawyers and "cease and desist" showing of footage of the games. Darn. Luckily, Stephen was able to accurately portray women's gymnastic without any worry about legal sanctions.Such form. Such speed. And she stuck the landing!

Speaking of landing, Curiosity! That's right, Curiosity is heading to Mars. You can watch live at 10:31 PDT. (11:31 in Mountain Time, 12:31 Central, 1:31 New York Time if I have my time zones correct.) More information over here at Wikipedia.

Oh, yeah, the guest. Well, NASA astronaut John Grunsfeld showed up to talk a little bit with Stephen about getting to Mars. Pretty exciting stuff! Planetary travel and all. You can go to the main NASA website page and spend hours looking at Earth, the Solar System (my personal favorite set of planets), the Universe and more. Be sure to go there soon and see if you don't recognize a certain Image of the Day person. If he's not there, try the "View Image Gallery" button and look for someone with the initials S.C.