There is so much to like here: the lyric, the visual imagination, the beat…the fact that you don’t actually see “Weird Al” Yankovic during the performance (not if you blink). Make all your illiterate friends watch and wisen up!
Category Funny
You don’t give Mrs. O’Leary a forum to bad-mouth the firefighters, or let Capt. Hazelwood criticize how they clean up the oil spill
So extreme that they even scare Al Qaeda? OK, you’ve got my attention.
What the hell is The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, and how is it able to take over major Iraqi cities apart from the luck of only encountering feeble resistance from American-trained Iraqi government forces? I don’t know, and it’s a little unsettling to read and hear the stories of these religious extremists blowing through city after city summarily executing those who don’t worship properly—as Sunni Muslims—and setting up their own governing authority. The Iraqi government has asked the U.S. for help and our government is thinking it over.
In the meantime, because news networks have lots and lots of air time to fill, the punditocracy has cranked into gear to do what it does best: blow hot air. Well, that’s just fine, I suppose, but…why, why, why, in the wide wide world of sports are they asking the opinions of the men who got us into the quagmire of Iraq in the first place for their opinions on what President Obama should do now?
Thanks Ben Sargent and GoComics.com
Want to read some more—try here and here and here and here and here. But as one might imagine, some of the best remember-what-these-nutballs-said-and-did-and-what-happened-because-of-it recollection has come from Jon Stewart on The Daily Show. (click the pic to see what I mean)
Hey, talk show bookers and assignment editors: think, just for a minute, before you make your next move. Looking for a good summary of what happened way back when–here’s one.
The totality of the Bush administration’s failure in Iraq is stunning. It is not simply that they failed to build the liberal democracy they wanted. It’s that they ended up strengthening theocracies they feared.
And it’s not simply that they failed to find the weapons of mass destruction that they worried could one day be passed onto terrorists. It’s that a terrorist organization now controls a territory about the size of Belgium, raising the possibility that America’s invasion and occupation inadvertently trained the fighters and created the vacuum that will lead to al Qaeda’s successor organization.
And all this cost us trillions of dollars and thousands of American lives.
(UPDATE: Yes, I did change the headline once I realized the error…I figure it’s never too late to get it right–PR)
Dear Pat Ryan,
I just thought I’d check in to see how things are going with you. Some of us have gotten a little curious because we haven’t heard much of anything from you in a while now and we started to wonder what was going on. I mean, if you say you’re going to write a blog, it is customary to actually write something from time to time. You know, something to make the customers realize that you’re not stone dead, or ignoring them, or “too busy with work and other things” to be bothered keeping up with your commitments. C’mon, just six damn posts in the last four months? What’s the deal?
I mean, fercryingoutloud, in just the last few months you’ve passed up the chance to say something about:
- Hobby Lobby’s argument that a business’ religious freedom (say what?) trumps a requirement to obey the law;
- the whole Omigod-did-you-hear-what-Phil-Robertson-said-I-think-he-may-be-a-racist-as-well-as-a-redneck! thing; and
- the more recent report that Americans, bless their hearts, refuse to believe scientific facts that prove inconvenient.
You’ve sort of led people to believe that you cared about civil liberties and the whole gay marriage thing, or were at least interested in the subject, but when
- more courts tossed out state gay marriage bans, and one court even exposed the corrupt tactics of the anti-gay activists, and
- Arizona lawmakers tried to make it OK for businesses to refuse service to homosexuals on religious grounds, and
- Disney stood up to the Boy Scouts over BSA’s ban against gay scout leaders,
you observe radio silence. I mean, you gotta understand why the people would at least wonder if you’ve given up, or converted or something.
You even let this great picture on Twitter go by without any acknowledgement!
So anyway, I’d just like to say I hope you get your shit together and try to be a little more regular contributor in this space, or the owners may start thinking seriously about changing the name up there at the top of the page.
Happy Olympics Friday, America
Are you like me, did you think that the downhill skiing could be both exciting and dangerous? Well, we don’t know the half of it: at Sochi 2014, it’s extreme!
After all, it’s all about the kids
It’s not that I don’t like the Olympics, it’s that I am thoroughly disinterested in the Olympics. Oh, I like athletic competitions just fine, both watching them and taking part in them, and I’m fine with competing on behalf of one’s country. But there’s something about the Olympics that over the years has left me feeling…who cares? And the Winter Olympics, even more so.
On top of that I’ve heard nothing but bad things about this Olympics. The horror stories of the past week about how ill-prepared is Sochi to host the visitors; the waste and corruption in the Russian government and Olympic committee to have spent as much on this event—$51 billion!—as all previous Winter Olympics combined; the Putin government’s transparent lies about its treatment of its gay citizens—none of that would sway me over to watch even a little of the spectacle were I somehow to have had a weak moment when I couldn’t find something to watch on any of the other hundred or so channels that flow freely into my home.
But, that was all before I got the straight dope from the Russians…via Tom the Dancing Bug. Now that they set me straight on why they’ve done the things they’ve done to be ready to welcome the world to Sochi, I feel a whole lot better. I’m sure you will, too, once you know what I know.
Thanks TDB and GoComics.com
