A member of the custodial staff in a Berlin art museum came across what looked like a water stain on the floor and after diligent efforts managed to scrub it away. Unfortunately, it turned out that the ‘stain’ was part of an exhibit by artist Martin Kippenberger titled When it Starts Dripping from the Ceiling, valued at $1.1 million.
Oops.
The Daily Show looks at how politicians pander to their constituencies.
This clip appeared on January 31, 2012. (To get suggestions on how to view clips of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report outside the US, please see this earlier post.)
Listen to Newt Gingrich speaking yesterday in Cleveland:
“You think about an Iranian nuclear weapon. You think about the dangers, to Cleveland, or to Columbus, or to Cincinnati, or to New York,” Mr. Gingrich said. “Remember what it felt like on 9/11 when 3,100 Americans were killed. Now imagine an attack where you add two zeros. And it’s 300,000 dead. Maybe a half-million wounded. This is a real danger. This is not science fiction. That’s why I think it’s very important that we have the strongest possible national security.”
He’s right when he says that this is not science fiction. No self-respecting [Read more…]
… and will set soon.
The Republican nominating race continues on its bizarre trajectory.
I wrote a couple of months ago during the first Newt Gingrich surge that Rick Santorum had a right to feel aggrieved with his god because although he is a true believer, god had not granted him his moment in the sun the way that he had with all the other candidates (Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Rick Perry) who also felt that god wanted them to be president. It is true that god being so fickle and a bit of a tease pulled the rug from under all of them, like he did with Tim Tebow, but at least they all briefly enjoyed the limelight. Even Donald Trump, of all people, briefly rose to the top of the polls, even though he never declared his candidacy.
But his god has answered Santorum’s prayers. Although none of the caucuses and [Read more…]
I have tried to read the Koran on several occasions but have never been able to make it all the way through. I keep getting stalled because the writing is so turgid that its meaning is hard to determine without great effort. The fact that I have strong suspicions that after all that effort I am not going to end up with anything useful also dampens any motivation.
Since it is supposed to have been directly dictated by god, this does not reflect [Read more…]
Yesterday a three judge panel of the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in a 2-1 decision upheld the ruling of US District Court judge Vaughn Walker that Proposition 8 (that reversed the policy allowing same sex marriage in California) was unconstitutional. This ruling will likely be appealed to either the full Court of Appeals or the US Supreme Court and until such time as they uphold the appeals court ruling or decline to hear it, the ban on gay marriage in California will continue.
One of the things that really puzzle me is [Read more…]
It is no secret that it is an article of faith in the Republican party that tax cuts are always good and almost all their candidates had tax proposals to do so. Via Kevin Drum, I came across a handy chart created by the Tax Policy Center that showed the effect of these cuts and what is clear is that most of the benefits go to the very wealthy. Herman Cain’s plan even raised taxes on lower incomes while cutting those of the wealthy.
These people could not be more transparent about their devotion to serving the interests of the rich.
They say that at social gatherings one should avoid politics and religion to avoid disharmony. But this rule is frequently broken when people feel that they are with like-minded people where they can say things without fear of being contradicted. My social circle consists of self-described liberals who are all Obama and Democratic party supporters. They are people who view themselves as politically conscious and they raise issues of politics all the time and, at least in the US, politics is closely intertwined with religion, so that supposedly taboo topic comes up too.
During the period leading up to the elections of 2008, these social gatherings were pretty much a love fest, with all of us hoping that Obama would win and [Read more…]
Some time ago I posted a link to an article about the growing emergence of open skepticism in the black community, traditionally viewed as one of the more religiously observant groups. Many famous black people of the past had been skeptics but they were often viewed as outliers and exceptions. It is now being realized [Read more…]
John Hodgman of The Daily Show tells the 99% to be patient, that soon they too will be in the 1%.
To get suggestions on how to view clips on The Daily Show and The Colbert Report outside the US, please see this earlier post. This clip appeared on February 2, 2012.