Bughouse Square

Links and commentary -- Thrilling!

 

Stephen Colbert's Balls, for the President

It seems they let Colbert speak at the White House Correspondent's Dinner.  He stood not two meters from the president and delivered a scathing parody of knee-jerk support for the administration's policies. 

YouTube.com has it in three parts:

Part One
Part Two
Part Three

Much of the material will be familiar to those who have been watching The Colbert Report.  The only difference is that Colbert is delivering this material right to the president.  His Job Interview video is arguably not as funny as Bill Maher's take on the same gag, but it does confront the president only slightly obliquely with his failure to rationalize our invasion of Iraq.  You can judge for yourself whether you think the president or first lady were smiling when they exchanged polite handshakes at the end, but it seemed to me there was a lot of tension in the room.  Just imagine what they'd have gotten if Al Franken had been allowed to speak, as he had been when Clinton was president.

There's this to say about Stephen Colbert -- his persona allows him to do certain things Jon Stewart can't do.  Stewart has to play the glad-handing shill in order to get guests with different viewpoints on his show.  Colbert's guise as a shill allows him to level more stinging criticisms or just let the guests reveal their own preposterousness.  Witness his interviews with Bill Kristol or Caitlin Flanagan.

posted by: JohnnyAngel at 04/30/06 15:57 | link | comments |

Bush Picks the Name by Which He Will Be Taunted from Now on

In response to the cries for Rumsfeld's resignation, Bush declared himself "the decider."  This is already being turned into a humorous nickname in the style of "Tricky Dick" or "Slick Willie" only more ironic.

The Daily Show zings "The Decider"
Some wag has done a parody song based on the Beatles' I am the Walrus

posted by: JohnnyAngel at 04/24/06 06:32 | link | comments |

McClellan Rennt

Best known for being a lying sack of shit, Scott McClellan will be remembered as a man badly used by his own administration.  He was repeatedly kept out of the loop and made to look foolish when the truth came out.  His attempts to work with the White House Press Corp were quashed when, having vowed to get information the reporters asked for he was later sent back to repeat that the White House "Never gets into commenting on that sort of thing."  I.e., he walked off stage and somebody gave him the atomic wedgie, and he never tried to be friendly with the corp again. 

Scott McClellan took it in the nuts for this administration every day.  Why?  Dedication.  He was the first guy to take it in the nuts in the morning, and he was the last guy to take it in the nuts at closing time.  The saddest part is that rumor has it, he did not himself choose to leave, but is being pushed out in a scramble to boot anybody but Rumsfeld.

posted by: JohnnyAngel at 04/21/06 05:16 | link | comments |

The Jury is In -- Video Games Ruin Society

It seems that young people who play GTA 3 experience higher heart rates, laxer attitudes toward alcohol and marijuana consumption, and are more paranoid. 

You heard it here first.

posted by: JohnnyAngel at 04/12/06 09:08 | link | comments (1) |

South Park vs. Family Guy vs. Mohammed

OneGoodMove.org has a clip of the panic that ensues in the latest South Park when Family Guy threatens to show a depiction of the prophet Mohammed.  You might also check out the link they provide to the previous episode in which South Park has already depicted the prophet as a flame-wielding super-hero, if you dare.  Notice that the initial criticism of Family Guy in the episode is similar to what you hear about South Park as well.  People who object to either show on the grounds that they have been offended often feel the need to mention that they don't think the shows are particularly funny or well written and that they rely on toilet humor.  But the upshot for the writers of South Park seems to be that their humor is very different from the surreal non-sequitur pop culture references that Family Guy traffics in, and so apparently they don't care to have their show compared to the other.

Conspiracies Galore!

A long lost Gospel of Judas is coming to the surface lately, and some guy at Fox seems to think that this is part of a conspiracy to destroy Christianity.  But gospels that contradict the recieved cannon have been around for a long time.  Controversies about the recieved cannon are not at all new, and occasionally one of them produces heresies like the ones that the DaVinci Code are based on.  It's not a conspiracy, just a controversy.  The establishment of the cannon we know out of the many gospels that were floating around after the death of Christ was based at least as much in church politics as it was in theology, but Christianity has survived the understanding of this fact for a good long while.

Meanwhile, some other guy is claiming that the immigration of Mexicans is part of a very patient conspiracy to reconquer parts of former Mexican territory ceded to the U.S. during the Mexican-American war.

posted by: JohnnyAngel at 04/10/06 06:29 | link | comments (1) |

Using the "Force"

Although they're using the language of "force fields" to discuss it, the new system being developed to defend against Rocket Propelled Grenades appears to be a point defense version of the Patriot missile defense.  They show a translucent sphere around the tank, but in fact there is no field.  There is only a detection scheme that perhaps is sensitive within such a bubble, and the actual prevention is handled by a launched counter-measure.  Given that systems like the Patriot have not necessarily proven as effective as we have wanted it to be, one wonders what they're not telling us about the real success rate of this new device. 

posted by: JohnnyAngel at 04/08/06 16:45 | link | comments |

Jon Stewart takes on the Gephardtization of McCain

Crooks and Liars says Jon Stewart "pressed McCain harder than Tim Russert." Stewart did give McCain a treatment that I was surprised McCain showed up for over speaking at Jerry Fallwell's University, but Tim Russert confonted McCain with a number of reversals and sell-outs.  I felt that just by not even mentioning the Russert interview, Jon Stewart was letting him off easy.

posted by: JohnnyAngel at 04/07/06 05:15 | link | comments |

Say it Ain't So, Joe

As perhaps an indication of his chances for the Democratic nomination this time around, Lieberman was heckled by an audience recently.  He responded recently with "pre-emptive ssssh's," prompting Crooks and Liars to make fun of him. 

Chevy Chastened

It seems that the geniuses at Chevrolet decided to give net users a chance to design their own ads for the new Tahoe using set clips and music, adding their own text.  The goal is to make advertising websites interactive, to keep people on longer and make them think more about the product, but they ought to have predicted the outcome. 

posted by: JohnnyAngel at 04/05/06 07:02 | link | comments (1) |

Video Game Law Delcared Unconstitutional in Michigan

Judge cites lack of proof of any causal relation between video games and real-world violence.

posted by: JohnnyAngel at 04/04/06 05:01 | link | comments |

Aw, Shucks

The Washington Post discusses Bush's new strategy, in light of poor showing in the polls, of informal speaking.  He's generally avoided this kind of thing because of his tendency to put his foot in his mouth, but when let loose apparently his self-effacing humor apparently charmed even Democrats present.  Yet, I kind of suspect it will come back to haunt him.

posted by: JohnnyAngel at 04/03/06 11:52 | link | comments |

McCain Sells Out

John McCain, who despite being a hard core conservative often commands surprising ethos with liberals, gets called to the carpet by Tim Russert for selling out.  Seems McCain was once fond of making bold statements that he must now backpeddle on in order to position himself as a presidental candidate.

posted by: JohnnyAngel at 04/03/06 05:43 | link | comments |