Not sure how much buzz (outside of the Internet, where everything is buzzworthy if you find the right forum) it's generated at home, but Jon Stewart's tirade on CNN's Crossfire was rad. (The segment with Stewart starts about 1/3 of the way down the transcript. Searching for "nerf" with your browser's Find function should take you there.) If you don't care to read it, a hyper-abridged summary: rather than plugging his new book, he berated Begala and Carlson - and really, the media in general - for allowing themselves to become a tool of politicians and corporations rather than serving ordinary citizens. He also mocked Carlson's bowtie.
I rarely enjoy talking politics. Do it with people who lean your way, and it becomes a depressing bitchfest. With a mixed group, it becomes a polarized, equally-depressing shouting match. We all know I lean well to the left - mailed my vote for Kerry last week, though I'm not terribly happy about it - and so does Stewart. This, in addition to the fact that he really tore into Carlson, the right's representative on the show, will no doubt result in his views being dismissed by most of those on the right. But the issue Stewart was trying to raise - that politicians have effectively castrated journalism by threatening to relinquish access from those reporters/outlets who deviate from watered-down, talking-point appropriate lines of inquiry - seems awfully non-partisan to me. In what way is demanding honest answers on issues of concern to the public a bleeding-heart liberal issue? It is not partisan in the traditional Republican/Democrat sense, but perhaps it is in the sense of politicians/constituents.
This Bill Moyers interview with Stewart is a more articulate and a less piss and vinegary discussion of the same stuff. It seems a bit odd that a celebrity needs to get involved before these issues get any attention. Wait, on second thought, it's not odd at all.
Unlike junior high, elementary school is positively bursting with happy memories for me:
- Advancing to State in Odyssey of the Mind in spite of a submarine that looked more like a mobile home for paraplegic tin-foil fetishists. (Mom, you've got to send me scans of the pictures you no doubt have of our dubious vessel so I can back this Completely True And Thus Not Quite So Offensive Statement up.)
- Discovering the joy of the Scientific Method through mealworms, creatures so ridiculous that even hypotheses of basic, well-known biological principles, e.g. "mealworms will eat in order to continue living", were promptly discredited.
- Classmates almost breaking their necks after snowtubing/sledding off of the Haystack Hill jump (hand-built by legendary PE teacher Tim French - that guy knew what gym was all about!).
- And of course, Henrik Hudson humping Meredith Fox during recess.
I'm hoping to see a similar degree of mayhem during my monthlong stint at various elementary schools (nine of 'em, for those of you keeping score)! Today was a bust in that regard. Though some 3rd graders did make me the most hideous sandwich I've ever seen, and I used to be a Subway regular. Cabbage, ketchup, mayonnaise, and something resembling incredibly curdled milk which was apparently potato salad. Couldn't look at the thing, much less take a bite, without getting nauseous. So I guess it's good to see that kids' sense of taste hasn't changed much.
Anyway, if I survive, I'll try to post some supa-cute pictures.
Aside: on "[sic]". I don't really know why I'm surprised that there exists a literary element whose meaning is, effectively, "I am a fucking arrogant cock who delights in pointing out the mistakes of others", but still, I am.