Letters to the Editor
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Hey achilleselbow -- atheism is a religion? What isn't then?
I agree with much of your letter, but atheism is not a religion, although it is clear that many militant atheists are just as dogmatic as fundamentalist religionists.
But, if you are warranted in calling any ideology a religion, then capitalism, communism, anarchism, et al. are religions also. But, then, the word 'religion' loses any meaning that can separate it from 'ideology'.
Also, according to this novel semantics, even though I am an atheist, if someone asks me my religion, and I say, "I don't have a religion," then I am a liar.
Moreover, since theism and atheism exhaust the possibilities (although one can be religious, in the standard meaning of the word--like some Buddhists--and also be an atheist), everyone is religious, because everyone believes in some god (or god-like being) or they do not.
But my religion is a strange one. It involves not believing in gods, demi-gods, ghosts, immortal souls, goblins, wraiths, were-rabbits, succubi, etc.--not on faith, but due to the absence of credible evidence that such beings exist.
I am awaiting the evidence. The burden of proof is on theists and their fellow travelers.
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samantha bee
Karen, Ms. Bee had a child about a year and a half ago, is certainly appears to me to be in the process of birthing number 2. She's on at least once a week, and she's very bright and very funny just like the rest of the gang. Is giving birth sexist? Is taking care of an infant sexist? Grow up. OOOOh, there's sexism everywhere- even in biology.
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karenfinan
Jon Stewart has NO reporters. It's a comedy show. You DID get the memo, yes?
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DAILY SHOW GLOBAL EDITION : a letter from the CET Time Zone
Yes, we get the Daily Show Global Edition here on the old continent. Johnny tailors his short monolog for €uroids- always freshly self effacing in that way that would turn off even his most loyal CONUS viewers. He cracks wise on the American parochial and keeps the GangIlluminati reminded how pop culture- obsessed we Yanks are. Then the show (a weekly) turns on the "best-of" from the week's gleenings back home.
It is my only connection to the Irony Culture and ClimateMendAmnesia which, together with that funny backward date inscription and nonmetric measument and Worldfootball hatred,and really bad cheeses which so characterize that madhouse wonderland we expats left behind.
Why can't CNN give us The Daily Show, like DAILY? You know, shave off a few "Airlines are Gods" or "Buy More Blue Chip Stocks" features and give us the dang half-hour of sanity that our stay-at-homes get to watch?
I can only hope to gods that FOX has yet to plan a GLOBAL broadcast tyranny that reaches my exile here in the CET time zone.
Yes, €uros (expats included) are insufferable as ever- we are liking the new world a bit better now, in the late autumn of the Bush/Cheney nightmare, but there are still many issues , besides the Atlantic which divide our continents.
I actually use Stewart and Co. for my ESL lessons- I never let on to the students at first that the show is a parody- that's a big part of the first lesson.
I have caught Stewart being too soft on Climate Deniers and too tough on some of our favorite enemies- he sure gave Perino a pass last week!
Some of these letters disappointed me. Why, for instance would one expect to find "fair and balanced" in a powercomic's newscast? I mean FOX is unintentionally funny and everyone knows how fair and balanced Mordoch's Murrauders are!
Yeah, I saw John literally pull the plug on Firing Line- that was masterful. Now, THAT he did without irony- or a smile or appeal to laughs and he was truly effective in his casual wear "After Hours" sincerity: "You are hurting the Country!" he repeated.
Without The Daily Show Global Edition I would be isolated here amoung the smugs and the Too Clever. I mean here, these guys invented The Modern Western Culture. I this town alone, lived Klee and Brecht and Wagner and Herzog and Wenders and Mary W.S. wrote "Frankenstein" just up stream a bit.
But we only get "Daily", weekly.
Barbarians!
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women in the media
No, I don't think there is a problem with Samantha Bee having children. I think there is aproblem wiht her being the only woman on the Daily Show. I think there is a problem with all of these shows having so few women on them. We are 52% of the population,and 10% at best, most likely less, in mainstream media. This is a problem. It is a problem when all of the shows discussed in this article have so few women on them. Yes dTina Fey has a successful career as a writer, producer and star of her own television show. And so does...um, so does.....yep, that's about it. There is a great imbalance, and sorry guys for being so impolite as to mention this. I also wonder why this blog has a women's ghetto, broadsheet to discuss "our" issues.
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Can the clowns save America?
If it takes Comedy Central to "save democracy," then America is an ignorant shithouse of utter stupidity revelling in its own futility.
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Prof. Andmaryann
although it is clear that many militant atheists are just as dogmatic as fundamentalist religionists.
Since atheists have only a single thing to be "dogmatic" about, how can they possibly be as dogmatic as theists who have a whole catechism of things about which they can be dogmatic?
I'm really surprised you used "militant" atheist instead of the more preferred "rabid" modifier. You need to be sent back to atheist bashing school for reeducation.
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If you get all your info from the Daily Show
that's like reading all your information exclusively from Salon. Maybe not qualitatively but it's close to the same thing.
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Quality control?
I presume since this book has already been published that the writer was able to deal with an earlier period in The Daily Show history. Maybe when the TDS correspondents were Colbert, Carrell, Rocca, Corrdry, Helms? It was the best show on TV night after night.
The show has become so popular that the correspondents can no longer go out and do in-the-field interviews because everyone knows who they are, or at least know the show. So now the show is stuck doing in-the-studio standups in front of the phony screens (I know they have done this forever, but now it's the only thing the correspondents do). This has led to the show having an increasingly isolated, preaching-to-the-choir feel.
I am also mentioning this because I want someone to address it and say, yes, we can't go out anymore because we are recognized. Or, we had our budget cut and we can't afford it.
Recently, Tina Fey was talking about political humor whose goal is to get applause as opposed to laughs. She refers to it as "clapter." She then references the Daily Show.
And as some real-world examples: TDS just took on McCain this week in a shockingly long, SNL-like one-joke bit about how old he is.
Stewart praising Obama's race speech as a politician speaking to us as adults on race. There was a similar headline on a blog on Huffington Post that day.
In closing, Colbert's show is perfect (Bears!).