Bill Donahue’s extraordinary defense

Bill Donahue, the head of the Catholic League, makes his living by loudly defending the Catholic Church against any and all criticisms. What is extraordinary are the arguments he uses. For example, one of his pet peeves is that the media is biased against his church and picks on them needlessly. His evidence? He actually asserts that they ignore the fact that most priests are not pedophiles but were merely molesting adolescent boys. So that’s all right, then. [Read more…]

Disappointing result in North Carolina

The constitutional amendment banning same sex marriage and civil unions in North Carolina passed yesterday. Defeating it was perhaps too much to expect in a state that in 1875 passed an amendment that prohibited inter-racial marriage that stayed on the books until 1971, and even has a pastor who advocates that parents beat any children who show any signs of not being heterosexual. [Read more…]

The truly discriminated people of Missouri

How stupid/bigoted/ignorant (circle all that apply) people like Wanda Brown ever get elected to office is beyond me.

(This clip appeared on May 3, 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.)

Austerians take a beating in Europe

All those governments in Europe who thought that it was a great idea to combat the recession by imposing drastic austerity measures and balancing their budgets by squeezing the poor, labor, and middle classes are taking well-deserved drubbings. Yesterday, the governments of France and Greece joined that of the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, and Denmark in getting kicked out of office. [Read more…]

Language in Veep

HBO has a free online screening of the first episode of the new comedy Veep starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus. It has the same pacing, cross-talk, multiple storylines, and political infighting of The West Wing except it is played strictly for laughs. Some have suggested that it may even be a more accurate portrayal of life in the executive branch of the government than its more serious predecessor, and I can believe that since the principals in Veep are quite ambitious, cynical, and manipulative. There are no high-minded moralists in this crowd. [Read more…]