Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert was the featured speaker at this year’s White House Correspondents’ dinner. The White House correspondents are, of course, those journalists we see in the White House briefing room, asking questions of presidential spokesmen and (under this administration) getting few answers. Their dinner guests are the President and many of his staff.… Continue reading Stephen Colbert Roasts the White House Press Corps
Category: politics
Crawling to Conclusions
I mentioned that I was going to be on TV, part of the audience on the Italian political talk show L’Infedele hosted by Gad Lerner. Lerner showed far more political bias than he had in the previous show I attended (partly about Microsoft, partly about taxes – two inevitabilities of modern life?). My friend David Callahan and I were flattered… Continue reading Crawling to Conclusions
Pirate Politics
The Usenet, that free-for-all haven of digital pirates, is an interesting place to observe grassroots political opinion. Generally, any new movie is uploaded (made available, illegally that is) for only a week or two around its release date, but “Fahrenheit 9/11” has been uploaded over and over again for months. Michael Moore has said that… Continue reading Pirate Politics
Vote!
I’m going to say this only once: if you value your middle-class lifestyle, America’s reputation in the world, and your personal safety from terrorism, register NOW, and vote for John Kerry in November. No, I don’t believe that John Kerry’s a saint, nor that George Bush is the devil – they’re all politicians, everybody is… Continue reading Vote!
The Greeks
A few months ago we watched The Greeks, a PBS (American public television) series which I bought on DVD because Ross was studying ancient Greek history. From this account, it appears that the Athenians invented not only democracy, but also politics as we know it today. The way PBS tells the tale, Themistocles, an Athenian… Continue reading The Greeks