Tag: sausage grinder of snark

Mar 25 2015

The Daily/Nightly Show (Cruz Control)

Ricky Valez and Mike Yard- Awkward

I haven’t screened this clip myself.  I understand it’s about two men’s search for an extinct flightless bird in Greenland.

Tonight the Twitter comes through (h/t TMC).  Our topic is Ted Cruz’s prospects for election (hint: think snowball in a volcano).  Our panelists are Lewis Black (always a pleasure), Amy Holmes (ick), Kristen Anderson (the voice of Kanga), and Kal Pen (Harold and Kumar, the White House Office of Public Engagement).

It’s all part of Larry’s Blacklash 2016 election coverage.

Continuity

He prefers just ‘The Doctor’

This Week’s Guests-

Jon Ronson is perhaps best known for his book (and subsequent film) The Men Who Stare at Goats.  Less well known (at least here in the States) is his work on BBC Radio 4 and Channel 4 Television.  He’s also managed and played with some Bands.  He’ll be on tonight to talk about his new book So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s 2 part web exclusive extended interview and the real news below.

Mar 24 2015

The Daily/Nightly Show (Starbucks)

Batman was always Black

Like my coffee.

Tity Boi, Rosie Perez, Kenneth Cole, and Phoebe Robinson are our panel tonight.

Continuity

Chess News Roundup!

This Week’s Guests-

Have you ever read Rational Wiki? you might give it a try.  Here’s some of what it says about Ayaan Hirsi Ali–

I think that we are at war with Islam. And there’s no middle ground in wars. There is infiltration of Islam in the schools and universities of the West. You stop that…there comes a moment when you crush your enemy.

-Ayaan Hirsi Ali, replacing the word “Communism” with “Islam” in Joseph McCarthy speeches

Whet your whistle (TMC told me never to do that, she has an ex who whistled and besides it hurts her ears)?  There’s more-

She is married to wingnut historian Niall Ferguson, with whom she has one son, Thomas.

Ali is a rabid critic of Islam and multiculturalism, going so far as to advocate amending Western constitutions to make it possible to shut down all Muslim schools because “the jihadi genie is out of the bottle”. Her books, columns and talk-show appearances helped pave the way for the rise of Dutch populist wackaloon Geert Wilders.

…

Ali was elected to the Dutch Parliament in 2003, but had to resign in 2006 because she had given some false information to obtain citizenship. She then moved to the United States and now works for the American Enterprise Institute, a neoconservative think tank.

Ali has authored several books: Infidel, her autobiography; The Caged Virgin, a set of essays on the role of women in Islam; and Nomad, the story of her life after leaving Somalia. In the Netherlands, her main impact came from her criticism of the country’s diversity policies, and her openly hostile attitude to Islam. The fact that she was a refugee, a woman, an African, and an ex-Muslim atheist lent political credibility to her views. She worked with other Dutch critics of multiculturalism, such as Paul Scheffer and Paul Cliteur, and was to some extent their spokesperson. She advocated a rigorous policy of ‘integration’ (cultural assimilation) for immigrants, insisting that they must abandon their identity, or actually not their identity, but rather those traditions being practiced by Muslim immigrants that ran contrary to the beliefs and practices of the established community.

…

Ali is perhaps unique in that unlike many wingnuts she splits her time fairly evenly between having genuine critiques of Islam and being a raving Islamophobe. She is probably one of the best examples of “Your mileage may vary” when it comes to her writings on the subject.

To be fair she was subjected to female genital mutilation under the influence of her traditionalist Grandmother and received a death threat pinned with a bloody knife to the chest of the assassinated Theo van Gogh.

While a famous critic of religious and societal norms, van Gogh wasn’t really the most eloquent writer in the business. He was well known for consistantly calling Muslims ‘goatfuckers’, dubbed Jesus the ‘rotten fish of Nazareth’ and apparently found the Holocaust hilarious, joking about ‘copulating yellow stars in the gas chamber’ and ‘the smell of caramel because they’re burning diabetic Jews’. While these are of course extreme examples, Theo van Gogh often expressed himself in this confrontational style and there is still much discussion over whether he should be seen as a ‘martyr’ for free speech or someone who willingly made those statements to piss people off.

I wonder what she will talk about?

The real news below.

Mar 20 2015

The Daily/Nightly Show (Nerds!)

Extended Panel!

The extended panel!  Now this is an idea I can get behind and I think it will improve the show tremendously.  It means you can discuss the topic in depth AND broadcast the funny bits.

Bravo.

Tonightly’s panel is Sana Amanat, Mike Lawrence, Jean Grae, and Phil Jimenez.

With 2 comic book artists, a comedienne, and a rapper we will be talking about Nerd stuff.

Continuity

More corrupt than I thought

The poor interns

Next Week’s Guests-

Sigh, I’ve never seen a Will Ferrell movie that I liked.  I didn’t even like his W on SNL.  We continue that streak with Get Hard if last night’s appearance by his co-star Kevin Hart is any indication.

He might want to talk about that, but I’m sure Jon will be more interested in his recent appearences with the Arizona Diamondbacks, Los Angeles Angels, Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres, Cincinnati Reds, Oakland Athletics, Seattle Mariners, Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, and the San Francisco Giants, playing all 10 positions, including designated hitter.

The web exclusive extended interview with Kevin Hart and the real news below.

Mar 19 2015

The Daily/Nightly Show (Did I mention Basketball?)

Especially during the Rounds of 64 and 32 it’s difficult for me to concentrate on anything else because the set up is tricky.  I try to keep up, but I’ve got a lot of irons in the fire.

Green about the O’Gills

Hey, at least tonight we have a Panel- Bradley Whitford, Kurt Metzger, Alexander Bullock, and Shenaz Treasury (Nightly Show regular).  We still don’t have a clue as to the topic.

C’mon Larry, I’m trying to help you out here.

I will say the show is much funnier now that he’s mostly doing a monologue and a bit before the panel, but they need to be tighter, 3 minutes each tops so you have 8 minutes for the panel and 2 for Keep it 100.

And throw me a bone will yah?

Your Popeye is spot on.  You really ought to do a show in character dare or not.

Continuity

If you can’t make it at Arby’s there’s always CSPAN2

This Week’s Guests-

Kevin Hart is one of the Real Husbands of Hollywood which probably explains why I’ve never heard of him.  He’s probably on to talk about either The Wedding Ringer or the Comedy Central Roast of Justin Bieber.

The real news below.

Mar 18 2015

The Daily/Nightly Show (Opera)

Poo Mountain

Larry has left no clue, not even on Twitter, what the heck tonightly’s subject is.  Thanks for nothing Larry.

Continuity

Jim and Artie would not approve

This Week’s Guests-

When last we saw Amanda Seyfried, Cosette was pledged to Marius, Eponine was dead, and Jean Valjean was dying to be welcomed in heaven by Anne Hathaway and pretty much the whole massive body count of Paris.

Remember Rule #3 of Opera– “Everyone must die, hopefully in an ironic and gruesome way.”

She’s a big fan of taxidermy (eew) with a baby horse, a fox, an owl, a moose, a goat, a hybrid deer, and butterflies in her collection.  She’s probably on to talk about Ted 2, another in a long list of movies I will never watch except by accident.

Andrew Cockburn’s 2 part web exclusive extended interview and the real news below.

Mar 17 2015

The Daily/Nightly Show (Basketball Jones)

What use is an album no one will hear?

So we’re going NCAA today.

Just want to point out that we’ll be covering both the Men’s and Women’s tournaments starting with the Play-Ins.

Continuity

Fat, Drunk, and Stupid is no way to go through life

Pick any two.

And I can’t neglect this-

As you know TMC lives on Staten Island and I’ve had a tour.  It is really much worse than this.  I live 200 feet up the side of a valley.  Rain doesn’t bother me though my basement has been known to get a mite damp.

This Week’s Guests-

Andrew Cockburn is on to shill his latest- Kill Chain: The Rise of the High-Tech Assassins.

The real news below.

Mar 13 2015

The Daily/Nightly Show (Drain Bamage)

Training Games

This is a variation on a pretty common Leadership Training game (been at many, moderated more than a few) that I also saw a takeoff of today on Girl Meets World.  In the game I played you broke into problem solving groups where you were treated according to your label.

These were not randomly assigned and I knew my moderator and later worked with him as State Membership Recruiting Co-ordinator.  It was a job I thought I’d loathe because I hate selling and I only took it to keep an eye on this guy and keep him 100 because at the time my Rebel Alliance thought the primary problem with the Club was fake growth and cooking the Memberships books.  I had no reason to trust him nor he me.

As it turns out we made quite a team.  Flushed the paper, organized 10 new locals, added 300+ members.  I worked hard, but no harder than he did.  Capped 5 consecutive years of growth.  I thought I’d hate selling but I didn’t understand what it was that we sold-

Opportunity, success, and leadership to people who might otherwise go through their whole lives thinking that they were hopeless and inferior.  As I look back it’s perhaps the best work I’ve ever done.

You may ask what this moderator labeled me on my team.

Expert.  Listen to him.

Tonightly we’ll be talking about Boxing and Brain Damage.  I’d have more thoughts about this if I hadn’t been pounding a deeper dent in my desk today.  Was that a bell?  I’m sure I heard a bell.

Continuity

Why is it NEVER about racism?

Next Week’s Guests-

Rob Corddry will be on to pitch Hot Tub Time Machine 2 (some people say it’s funny, I’ll probably never know) and most definitely NOT to remind Jon that he’s getting old and quitting.

Honest.

Just a gentle reminder. We’re coming up on Silly Season (me for doing it) with March Madness looming and Melbourne Sunday.  Expect more incoherence and distraction.

Common’s web exclusive extended interview and the real news below.

Mar 12 2015

The Daily/Nightly Show (A Rose By Any Other Name)

Your Racist Update

Tonightly we are talking about banning words.

“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but whips and chains excite me.”  You know, I never let words bother me, but I’m a child of privilege and maybe I don’t experience them the same way.  If I can provoke you to a mass of incoherent rage and name calling, good for me.  That means I win, you got nothing.  Now get your sorry ass back to a dictionary and learn some vocabulary fool.

On the other hand I am sensitive to the fact that other people may have different life experiences so I’m as careful as I can be to avoid inflamatory language.  I may call you a pea brained ignoramous right to your face, but because of your mental deficiencies you probably won’t notice anything other than the sneering tone with which I deliver it.  I rarely curse, and only for effect.

Do you think Twain should be shunned or bowlderized because he uses a certain term that accurately conveys how people thought about the Institution of Race Slavery?  I don’t.  It may surprise you to learn that the initial complaints about the language of Huckleberry Finn didn’t involve that term at all and were instead that Huck spoke the dialect of itinerant Missouri and the Victorian prudes were afraid that children would copy his ‘ghetto grammar’ in admiration of the character and defiance of the proper English of parental authority.

Heaven forfend we should give our kids any freedom.  Next thing you know they’ll be talking street and wearing hoodies and their pants around their ankles.

Banning words never makes the ideas go away.

Continuity

Heffalumps and Woozles

This Week’s Guests-

Common is a Chicago rapper, writer, and actor.  In Selma he portrayed civil rights leader James Bevel and co-wrote the Oscar-winning song “Glory”.

The real news below.

Mar 11 2015

The Daily/Nightly Show (Women’s Rights)

Amish Comedy

Well it’s somehow appropriate that on a night Jon is hosting Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer, two of the names mentioned by The Great Mentioner as potential replacements for Jon (the other being Amy Schumer) the topic is Women’s Rights, but it’s not surprising given that it’s Women’s History Month.

It’s an extremely broad subject and as usual Larry’s site is singularly unhelpful.  He doesnt have the topic up, you have to glean it off the segment subjects, and forget about listing the panelists.  It’s rare when he does.

For my part I consider myself a raging feminist and it comes down to this-

Women’s Rights are Human Rights.

I’ve always tried to treat people the way people should be treated.

Continuity

I always did hate this house.

This Week’s Guests-

Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer are the two principal writers and characters of the TV series Broad City, now in it’s second season and renewed for a third.

Broad City follows Ilana and Abbi, both are self-professed Jewish feminist women who perpetually experience misadventures of carelessness and frivolity in New York City. Ilana seeks to avoid working as much as possible while pursuing her relentless hedonism and Abbi tries to make a career as an illustrator, often getting sidetracked into Ilana’s hijinks.

At least the episodes I’ve seen are much raunchier and cruel than the synopsis.  Think of a cross between Sex and the City an It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.  Unlike the gross out and violent prank comedy that fills so much of what’s considered the ‘cutting edge’ it’s actually funny at points if you don’t think about the human misery and degradation that drives many of the plots, kind of like Seinfeld on steroids.

Your web exclusive two part extended interview with John Lewis along with the real news below.

Mar 10 2015

The Daily/Nightly Show (Selma)

Acting Out

Consumer Accountability is tonight’s topic and as near as I can tell from quick Google News scan it refers to the effort by Health Insurers in particular to blame you, as the customer, for making actual Health Care too expensive for them by not shopping well enough for Emergency Rooms while you’re bleeding out.

There is a larger penumbra of references to other ways Corporations are trying to make the purchasers of their products and services responsible when the Companies screw up and deliver defective goods.  Apparently it’s based on the Libertarian idea that bad Companies will eventually be forced to improve their practices because informed consumers will shop elsewhere and it’s your own damn fault if you are maimed by a poorly engineered air bag because every expert automotive engineer knows about that problem so you are either a) too lazy to do your research, b) too stupid to understand it, or c) too cheap to buy a car with a good one.

And probably all three.

Of course, it may mean something else entirely.

Continuity

Booted

This Week’s Guests-

What can you say about John Lewis?  The man is a Giant of the Civil Rights Movement

At the Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church

“Still Work to Be Done”: Rep. John Lewis Returns to Selma 50 Years After He Was Beaten Unconscious, Democracy Now

Well, maybe this- he’s drafted a bill to correct the misguided Supreme Court decision in Shelby County v. Holder.  It has only 2 Republican Sponsors in the House, Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin and Gibson of New York (and but a paltry few Democrats) and none at all in the Senate.

The real news below.

Mar 06 2015

The Daily/Nightly Show (Lobachevsky)

It’s a good thing last night was funny because tonight we’re going to be talking about Ferguson and that’s not very funny at all.

Continuity

In the category of bad news I spoke too soon about, as it turns out Sam Bee will not be staying with The Daily Show and will instead be joining her husband Jason Jones at TBS.

Variety reports that Comedy Central is looking for a new host in their 30s with a distinct take on culture, news and politics.  They mention Amy Schumer or Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer of Broad City as being candidates.

Censoring Doctors

Next Week’s Guests-

Gerald Posner will be on to talk about God’s Bankers, the history of the Vatican Bank.  He has a rather checkered past having been involved in several plagiarism scandals and a law suit by Harper Lee over the publication rights of To Kill A Mocking Bird.  Since Lee has been in the news recently and Miami Babylon (one of the allegedly plagiarized works) has been optioned for TV it’s possible those subjects will come up, but knowing Jon I somehow doubt it.

Viacheslav Fetisov’s web exclusive extended interview and the real news below.

Bonus Video

Mar 05 2015

The Daily/Nightly Show (Drugs are bad. Mmmk?)

Shooting Hitler would have done no good and might just have prolonged WW II or (worst case) led to a bad outcome.

One of the defining features of the Third Reich was Hitler’s poor Generalship and the inefficiency of his Administration which were responsible for things like the failure of the initial Soviet invasion (at least arguable, Russia BIG and not particularly wedded to Moscow as a capital so maybe inconclusive even if it is captured), Stalingrad (no arguing on that one), delays in the development and deployment of Jet propulsion, flaws in the allocation of Naval resources to strategic goals (Doenitz never had enough subs in the Battle of the Atlantic), etc.  I mean his Military tried to put together a couple of coups he was so bad.

We’d be living in a different world today if Hitler had been competent.

What’s not arguable is that given the punitive sanctions of the Versailles Treaty and collapse of the economy in the Depression, Germany was a failed state and likely to have fallen under the sway of one Dictator or another, so Hitler didn’t really matter that much.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.  Virulent anti-Semitism.  Look, virulent anti-Semitism was popular and pervasive throughout Europe so I’m not sure many Jews would have been saved.

Shoot, shiv, or shout?  I’d have shouted a little louder and not at Hitler who was already a hopeless psychotic by 1920, but at the Allied governments about the potential threat of Germany and their own stupid economic and moral (did I mention pervasive anti-Semitism?) policies.

Now, if you’d have shot him after 1942 when the war was clearly lost…

Tonight we talk about marijuana legalization, but probably not about the racism and tobacco and alcohol monopolism that led to its prohibition.  Most likely it will be a bunch of sophomoric stoner jokes.

Continuity

Admiral Zhao

This Week’s Guests-

Viacheslav Fetisov is one of Russia’s most recognized Hockey players and did several years with the New Jersey Devils and the Detroit Red Wings, returning to the Devils as an Assistant Coach.  He’s one of 4 people to win the “Grand Slam” of Hockey (Stanley Cup, World Ice Hockey Championship, Winter Olympics, World Ice Hockey Junior Championship, and Canada/World Cup Championship).  He was head of the Russian organizing committee for the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics and currently serves in the Russian Parliament as a Representative from the Vladivostock area.  In 2009 he became president of HC CSKA Moscow and after injuries to many key defensive players took the ice himself at the age of 51 after an 11 year layoff.

The real news below.

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