Yes, an article in today’s Huffington Post by Jason Linkins is actually reporting that conservative viewers of comedian Stephen Colbert’s satirical Colbert Report actually believe he is serious on some issues. A study of both conservative and liberal opinions by Ohio State University for the International Journal of Press/Politics entitled “The Irony of Satire: Political Ideology and the Motivation to See What You Want to See in The Colbert Report” concludes that conservatives feel Colbert earnestly dislikes liberalism and only pretends to be joking while liberal-leaning viewers take the show as a total satire of the ridiculous. Ultimately, the final results showed that “perceptions of Colbert’s political opinions fully mediated the relationship between political ideology and individual-level opinion.” In other words, one’s party line directly affects how Colbert’s humor is read.
Posey actually responded to the “alligator alegations in The Orlando Sentinel remarking wholeheartedly, “I expected there would be some civil debate about it, but it wasn’t civil…There is no reason to say that I’m the illegitimate grandson of an alligator.”
Could it be that politicos of all types take themselves too seriously - that they are so blinded by ideology that an unambiguously satirical fake news show on a network actually named Comedy Central has people taking umbrage with it for its “serious” suggestion that Representative Posey actually has a grandpa who is an alligator? Yes… apparently that is the case. To paraphrase Father James Martin, humor keeps one humble about oneself and speaks to a certain truth. What does this speak of any more than partisans blinded by their own self-importance?
Wax well in good humor!
Photo of the Day an Video of the Day return tomorrow.
This woman in northern Ghana gathers water from a well installed in her village with the help of the WaterAid organization. Before she was force to use a stream teaming with potential sicknees and disease.
Photo: “Elizabeth” by Jon Spaull
As seen in this year’s CIWEM’s Environmental Photographer of the Year 2008 Exhibition.
Master satirist Stephen Colbert directed his show toward a unique and seemly critical serious conundrum. Wednesday night when his guest for the night author Dambisa Moyo discussed her new book Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is Another Way for Africa. Moyo’s book concludes that while aid to Africa may have charitable and sincere motives, it is simply a “band-aid solution” in the way it is used and distributed among its recipients. She argues that rather than rationing out goods, nations should help build economic stability by lending money to those Africans engaged in sustainable businesses plans similarly to the way loans and grants give an initial push but do not seek to coddle or manage the programs further.
There is of course the Chinese proverb of “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” This has been a standing conservative argument against social welfare programs - that they don’t foster self-starting and independence. While I agree that throwing assistance at someone of something without a long-term vision for growth can be crippling, the the question remains, “What of the aid programs with decades-long bureaucracies turning the machine so to speak? How will that be compensated if at all? It may be that charity has sadly become like all else in a modern, corporate structure - a game of leverage and showmanship under the clever and cunning guise of good will and compassion. Though in many cases, the hopeful may like to think otherwise. Although Moyo’s solution may be the right thing to do on may levels, I fear that said bureaucracies will fight change on all fronts.
The story so far: In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a
lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move.
— Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
Why is this? Why is that? Why is there evil? Why is there sickness? How come UFOs never visit cities? Why is tofu so repulsive and why do hot dog buns come in packages of ten and hot dogs come in packages of eight? What does it all mean? You gotta love life, eh?
Wax with some thought.
The image in the link below captured by photojournalist Matt black depicts one man’s struggle with a ladder five times his height. One might think of a job he doesn’t want to do as possibly as inconvenient as stocking shelves or packaging hamburgers, but climbing 30 feet into the air to pick frost-bitten fruit might be another issue altogether!
Due to copyright, the image cannot be posted here with prior approval. Here is the link.
For 5 days in 2008 Liverpool became host to the worlds largest spider, La Princess. She was first spotted on Wednesday and a team of scientists arrived to investigage. On Thursday she was moved to the research lab at the Echo Arena where she was studied. But on Friday she woke up and went for a little walk. Soothing music and magical snow put her to rest though. However by Friday evening she was awake and off for a walk. She left the area by Albert Dock, wandered down the road and back into the dock for a bath. After that she slept outside Liverpool’s iconic 3 Graces. On Saturday she woke up and headed into town to take a look around. She was blasted with jets of water by the law courts and headed up to McDonalds. Magic snow put her back to sleep but then 2 hours later she was off again heading back up to Concourse House where she was first spotted. She slept for the night and on Sunday made a dramatic break for the Birkenhead tunnel. An epic battle ensued with water, fire, dramatic music and a team of soaking wet photographers. (From Carr’s Website)
In this 18-minute video feature from fora.tv and City Arts and Lectures, author and New Yorker staff writer Malcolm Gladwell waxes rather poetically on the his latest 2008 release Outliers:The Story of Success. The book is his most recent attempt at outlining and defining the social sciences in a way your blue-collar grandpa can understand without need of a PhD. Outliers finds Gladwell asking the question of whether genius is born, or simply made from blood, sweat and some good ol’ deliberate practice. His book reveals that while so many people like Bill Gates, the Beatles and Michael Jordan are considered prodigies of their fields, the case is much more likely that much of the so-called spark of greatness was due to circumstance and ambition, and may have in fact been “rigged” in some way.
For more on Mr. Gladwell, visit gladwell.com
Wax with hard work.
I’ve been waxing poetically for Today since April of last year, in that time, I’ve written quite a lot about everything from Einstein, aliens, Mexico’s Day of the Dead, movies I’ve seen and books I’ve read and a few actual news events albeit they were at times, immersed, entrenched, double-dipped and deep-fried in my own quirky, semi-quixotic, idealistic, deeply- spiritual, neo-wheelchairian politically independent, culturally-speckled cult of personality. But with that comes the integrity of what I hope is a balanced opinion derived from and arrive at through, research, reason and 28 years of living - often as person somewhat outside himself as the only guy in a chair in most of my social groups - and the guy who finds that clipping his toenails (due to his Cerebral Palsy) is infinitely more difficult, or shall I say, arduous than writing a multi-chapter, Joseph Campbell- inspired poem deconstructing the origin of the Universe as being as dynamic as Star Wars and as violent and bold as a Jimi Hendrix-Jackson Pollock duet.
It’s time for a change. In the coming days, I will be deciding on several themes for my two blogs Waxing Poetically an Art from the Outskirts. However the current specials on each blog with remain as they are. Each day will have a theme. for instance, Waxing Poetically might now enjoy a day devoted to international news, while Art from the Outskirts might have a day just for crafts. It’s all up in the air a bit as of right now. Feel free to drop a line and suggest a theme.
Stumble It!
