Argue all you want about whether Matt and Trey are Libertarians, Greens, assholes, millionaires. They make me laugh, they make me think, they make me uncomfortable. I believe they are the premiere satirists of our time.

South Park took on the deteriorating Fourth Estate in "Britney's New Look" earlier this season, in which CNN interrupted a Democratic Presidential Debate because ...BREAKING NEWS!! Britney had peed on a ladybug while camping. Britney's "new look" was that, later in the episode, she'd blown off most of her head in a suicide attempt she'd survived, and the media didn't notice. Didn't notice she HAD NO HEAD. They were too busy pointing out her cameltoe and a boob-job scar, and trash-talking her "live" MTV performance. The cable "news" wheel just kept on a-turning.

I've never seen a more eviscerating commentary on the media's mania for celebrity.

Follow this with this week's episode in which TV news couldn't report any news because the internet was down. (HEL-LO......)

Keep applying that cluestick, guys.

http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/play.shtml?mea=239693

"I just pooped in my pants."

"Beach books?" WTF?

Are these books not highbrow enough to read at other times of the year? Does a well-written story have a season, an expiration date? Am I supposed to be embarrassed that I read these books in the middle of winter- on an airplane? In public? HORRORS! That my book club picks these books apart with glee, instead of allowing Oprah to sanction our choice? Quick. Someone better take away my English degree.

In my mind, a good story is a good story regardless of what time of the year it's written, published or read. Calling the books in this story "beach books" marginalizes and ghettoizes them. Ask the authors who invested a year of their lives to write them, to motivate the characters, to craft the plot, to create inviting settings, just how fun and -- beachy it was.

Scott McClellan is a whore.

To quote the name of a TableTalk thread, this guy really has sorry-ass tiny little first world problems.

I hate that this "Flipping Out" crap is what the world's citizens see of America when they watch our TV programs. I double-dog DARE him to talk to the folks in Iraq, Afghanistan or - hell, the flooding Midwest - about his frickin' 140' latte.

You know what I'd like to see? An episode where Lewis has to deal with someone's punch splitting open his collagen-plumped lips.

Jayzus, what a waste of oxygen this guy is.

DragonScholar said:

"I also should note that if they consider abortion to be murder they should OPENLY campaign for performing an abortion to be treated as murder. They should be honest and say, straight out, "we want abortion to carry the same penalty as killing someone intentionally.""

Best of luck to them trying to work out those logistics. Especially if they support the death penalty. (There would be some irony, hmm?)

And speaking of economics: I have never seen any of these folks put their money where their mouth is and a) volunteer to adopt and raise a non-aborted child until its adulthood, b) pay for this care if they can't provide it themselves, c) pay taxes to communally pay for it, or d) even pay for condoms to prevent accidental pregnancies from occurring in the first place.

Talk is cheap.

Quote from Dan, waaayyyy upthread: "The cover is brilliant and to anyone with a brain, clearly meant to be a joke."

See, that's what I see as the problem. Some people no longer possess critical thinking skills. Some people wouldn't recognize satire if it hit them upside with a Rush Limbaugh-sized stick.

It's only "clearly" a joke to those who... don't take it literally.

Oh, this show just cracks me up. And for all its sometimes raunchy subject matter, there's definitely a soft center. Staunch Catholic Maggie and her perpetual glass of wine, coming to terms with the death of her husband, and her daughter's outrageousness. Kathy's struggles with her unruly dogs, Chance and Pom-Pom. Assistant Tom's unabashed love of porn, assistant Jessica's fear of drag queens.

And just how good a sport has Kathy's (then) beau, Apple gazillionaire Steve Wozniak, been? So willing to be the butt of the joke, so willing to place himself in the middle of what I imagine are new experiences. Though I must say, he fit right in at the Bear convention, so perhaps I'm underestimating him.

This show rocks.

... how it is assumed that announcement of the veep candidate will dominate the media coverage for a week or so, so the timing of the announcement is critical?

The political campaigns have accurately pegged that the media will glom all over the announcement, give it saturation coverage. No one is even pretending this isn't the case.

On second thought, it's not funny. It's sad.

If this Olympics is like recent ones, it will be bloated, overwrought, overly nationalistic, and way, waaayyyy too expensive. The Chinese appear to have followed the money by agreeing to change event start times to capitalize upon the American prime-time TV audience.

Just goes to show ya, there is nothing we can not commoditize - even so-called amateur sports. Yay, capitalism.

Suck it up and deal with it. Hillary clearly has.

It's time to stop letting emotions - hurt feelings - control your decisionmaking. Put your frontal lobe, your critical thinking skills, in the driver's seat. NOW.