Catch-up

Let's see. What have I missed discussing this week while I've been playing outside with the boys?

Last Saturday's White House Correspondent's Dinner featuring the Truthiest Stephen Colbert ever

After watching this last Sunday (no, I don't watch C-Span, so I caught it after my DH emailed me a link), I was shocked. It was almost painful to watch at times, as I got caught up in the feelings of the audience. You could hear a pin drop at times. After having a few days to process, though, I am blown away by how ballsy Colbert is, delivering biting comments right and left, and often looking directly at Dubya to deliver these blows. I really think the people who decided Stephen Colbert would be perfect for the job were either very stupid, and didn't realize he plays a part on his show, or were very smart, and realized he'd totally cut through the crap (darn, I typed carp again! I think that must be my fave typo!) that a "regular" comic would perform. But, since this is the Bush White House we're talking about, I'd have to go with they were very stupid.

Here's a transcript of the performance. Reading it again, I laughed a lot. I wasn't able to laugh while viewing it because it was so shocking the first time. That, and I missed some of the jokes because they were coming so fast!

My favorite lines:

I believe the government that governs best is the government that governs least. And by these standards, we have set up a fabulous government in Iraq.

And though I am a committed Christian, I believe that everyone has the right to their own religion, be you Hindu, Jewish or Muslim. I believe there are infinite paths to accepting Jesus Christ as your personal savior.

"Oh, they're just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic." First of all, that is a terrible metaphor. This administration is not sinking. This administration is soaring. If anything, they are rearranging the deck chairs on the Hindenburg!

You can ask him anything, but he's going to say what he wants, at the pace that he wants. It's like boxing a glacier. Enjoy that metaphor, by the way, because your grandchildren will have no idea what a glacier is.

Stephen, I love you!

Elizabethan England as featured in HBO's Elizabeth I

Jeez, you people are violent! I realize you learned it from your big fat dad, Lizzy, but can't we all just get along? You'd think that after your mother, and another stepmother for good measure, were put to death by your father, you'd be less likely to execute family and loved ones. But, this doesn't seem to be the case. Just watching the dramatic re-enactments of hangings, beheadings, and traitors being drawn-and-quartered was enough to make me want to puke. I never really knew what was involved in the "drawing" part of drawing and quartering. A clue: it doesn't involve pencils and artist's sketchpads, or as I thought, being pulled by a horse.

Then again, the French version of drawing and quartering does involve horses. Aren't our great Western Civilizations civilized?