Jonah Goldberg’s Twitter feed is pretty funny. I like Nick Gillespie’s comment that it’s like a stage show at a water park. I’ll be curious to see how much of a mess they leave. They may be media savvy enough to clean up, though, given recent experience. This sounds about right, too:
Criticize the political content & you’re reminded it was a comedy show. Point out it wasn’t funny & you don’t have a sense of humor. Repeat.
I might have watched, but I think that space settlement is more important. Besides, the Spartan game took up all my multi-tasking capability. And I was at a secure undisclosed (well, unless you went to the SSI web site) location at NASA Ames Research Center, nowhere near a teevee.
“F’ING CATALINA WINE MIXER!”
from CNN:
“This was not a rally to ridicule people of faith, or people of activism, or to look down our noses at the heartland, or passionate argument, or to suggest that times are not difficult and we have nothing to fear,” Stewart told the crowd as the rally drew to a close. “They are, and we do. But we live now in hard times, not end times. And we can have animus and not be enemies, but unfortunately one of our main tools in delineating the two broke.”
He was speaking of what he called “the country’s 24-hour politico pundit perpetual panic conflictinator.” It did not cause the nation’s problems, Stewart said, “but its existence makes solving them that much harder … If we amplify everything, we hear nothing.”
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So much for “smugness”.
Smugness on YouTube from Instapundit.
I’ll be curious to see how much of a mess they leave.
Me too. The first words out of Stewart’s mouth when he came up on stage after hello and thank you were “Don’t litter!”, followed by a discussion of the Trust for the National Mall and the good work they do, etc.
Bob-1:
That’s good.
I used to go to Grateful Dead concerts in the 80s and early 90s. Many of them were at large outdoor venues, and many Deadheads also fancied themselves as environmentalists. Some of us (too few) became disgusted at the massive amounts of trash left behind, and got into the habit of bringing trash bags with us and cleaning up our areas afterwards. I remember some other fans seeing me picking up trash and asking me if I had any extra trash bags. I did, and gave them to them.
I’m not saying that we invented the idea of bringing our own trash bags to events, but that’s where I first heard of it.
Picking up after oneself should not be a partisan political issue.
So much for “smugness”.
Well, it’s hard to judge from one small excerpt, but if that was typical, I’m glad to hear that it didn’t live up to its implicit billing.
According to my friends who attended, there were a few hardcore liberals in the crowd who were making fun of the Tea Party, but most of the people there had non-partisan signs promoting communication and cooperation.
I think my favorite was the transparent sign that read “My sign is courteous to the person behind me.” I also liked that there were WWII vets with signs that decried calling people we disagree with Nazis.
I also liked that there were WWII vets with signs that decried calling people we disagree with Nazis.
*shrug*. If people don’t want to be called Nazis, they probably shouldn’t advocate for the expansion of state power, state control of economic production, state intrusion into all levels of civil society, and civilian disarmament. If the jackboot fits…
That seems to be the very definition of a strawman argument, pdb.
Skipped the first two hours, huh?
If people don’t want to be called Nazis, they probably shouldn’t engage in mass-movement racism, nearly conquer Europe, murder 12 million people, and threaten civilization itself — that other stuff you mentioned is important, but it wouldn’t have gotten the Nazis into the history books and our consciences.
(My list of the Nazi’s defining characteristics could no doubt be refined and improved, but your list didn’t list mass murder, and I think any good list would feature it prominently.)
You have to start somewhere, Bob. A -> B -> C -> D. Can’t jump from A -> D. Zelaya showed that.
“So much for smugness”
I’m willing to give Jon Stewart himself the benefit of the doubt, but there were a lot of people in that crowd who were insufferably smug, and there is an insufferably smug element hanging over the whole enterprise that comes from the notion that Tea Partiers, Glen Beck fans, and Fox News watchers are all if not really “insane” then at least need some sort of cool down. And then there is the completely wrong-headed stunt of bringing Cat Stevens a.k.a. Yusuf Islam onstage. Yeah, I get the whole idea of “Crazy Train” segueing into “Peace Train” but it’s a really slender joke on which to hang the heavy fact that Stevens/Islam has never given any indication that he is a “moderate” Muslim, on a show that supposedly was all about “moderation.” What ever gave Stewart and Co. the idea that that would be a good thing to do?
Here’s how I would have done it: I’d have had Ozzy Osbourne himself start singing “Peace Train” after first starting out with “Crazy Train.” For one thing, it’s not like “Peace Train” is any more difficult to sing — it’s toddler-simple and you don’t have to be Pavarotti to hit all the notes; surely Osbourne could have handled it. For another thing, it would have actually been funny. Think about it.
Andrea, great suggestion — that would have been quite funny!
Justin Kugler Says: ‘So much for “smugness”.’
Right, because a handful of pious words counteracts years of words AND actions.
Talk about smugness!
First, their audience is not just ignorant, but proud of its ignorance (“Cha! I, like, get all my news from ‘The Daily Show!’, dude!”).
Second… wait, no, that covers it.