Last night Stephen Colbert got the opportunity to interview former President Jimmy Carter. He also got the chance to reflect on Carter's presidency, making some fun of him and the conservatives that worship Carter's successor, Saint Ronald Reagan... er Ronald Reagan. Below are all the pieces of the show and the Carter interview. Plus there's Billy Beer! Update. Looks like there may be problems with the embedded video so here's the hyperlink to the complete show. Okay, I just checked other sites that tried to embed Colbert videos from the Comedy Central website. As of this date on March 28, there are problems. So, I'm using the URL for each piece. Sorry. Damn conservatives. :-)
Carter show opening piece
Review of Carter's presidency, Colbert style.
http://thecolbertreport.cc.com/videos/0k0w7y/president-jimmy-carter---the-colbert-interviews
The Colbert interview with former president Jimmy Carter, Part One
The Colbert interview with former president Jimmy Carter, Part Two
Wednesday, March 26, 2014
Jon Stewart on the news coverage of Malaysian flight 370
It's hard to say anything funny about the tragedy of Malaysian flight 370. So Jon Stewart of The Daily Show looked at the news coverage and his piece is funny. Of course, if you have funny takes on news coverage, you've got to look at Fox News. CNN also gets taken down a notch. Oh, by the way I defended CNN's coverage. Here's the video from The Daily Show.
Saturday, March 22, 2014
Bill Maher: Democrats should use Republican tactics for midterm elections
Comedian Bill Maher has some advice for Democrats. They should use Republican language strategies to win over voters. For example, the Republicans don't want to tax the rich so they say something like "it's punishing the job creators." Hey, it sounds better to the uninformed voter. Anyway, here's his funny New Rule courtesy of Meidaite and HBO. Love Maher's rebranding of food stamps.
Rand Paul is no libertarian
Republican presidential hopeful Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is no libertarian. Yes, he takes the classic conservative Republican view on guns. But when it comes to personal liberty, he's a conservative Republican. You see the libertarians represented by the Libertarian Party believe in gay marriage and more importantly, the right of a women to choose, i.e. abortion rights. Rand Paul does not support gay marriage or abortion rights. He's so far right of the political spectrum, that he is against abortion in cases of rape and incest. So don't be fooled. Rand Paul is just another form of conservative Republican.
Wednesday, March 19, 2014
Star Trek 3 (2016) news from screenwriter J.D. Payne lecture
I watched the new Star Trek 3 (2016) writer J.D. Payne on YouTube last Sunday. He was lecturing at the LDS Film Festival. Here's what I learned and there is news from the lecture.
1. He's a Trekker. Yeah, he dropped the name of of one of the best TNG episodes, "The Best of Both Worlds." But he showed some real enthusiasm for Star Trek. He also talked about Trek fans with bat'leths. In case, you non-Trekkers don't know, it's a Klingon bladed weapon.
2. There was competitive process to find the writers to help Star Trek writer and producer Bob Orci.
3. He recognizes that at time Star Trek raises ethical questions.
4. He likes and knows jazz. Talked about John Coltrane. Okay, now Mr. Payne you're getting on my good side.
5. His Mormon faith may interfere with his writing. He talks about how he had a hard time writing a sexual assault scene because of his faith. So don't expect him to write the film adaptation of The Book of Mormon.
6. He seems to be a devout Mormon. He talks about dealing with gay people in Hollywood. Don't worry, he doesn't say anything bad about gays.
7. Here's the news. Paramount liked the writing team's pitch. First draft of Star Trek 3 comes in May. So that you know where in the tape that comes from. It's at the one hour twenty five minute mark. I'm giving you the time because the tape lecture was removed. However, Trekcore has the first few minutes of it. Video below.
UPDATE: TrekCore has the final few minutes of the lecture with the news that the first draft of Star Trek 3 comes out in May. Check out the video below courtesy of TrekCore.
1. He's a Trekker. Yeah, he dropped the name of of one of the best TNG episodes, "The Best of Both Worlds." But he showed some real enthusiasm for Star Trek. He also talked about Trek fans with bat'leths. In case, you non-Trekkers don't know, it's a Klingon bladed weapon.
2. There was competitive process to find the writers to help Star Trek writer and producer Bob Orci.
3. He recognizes that at time Star Trek raises ethical questions.
4. He likes and knows jazz. Talked about John Coltrane. Okay, now Mr. Payne you're getting on my good side.
5. His Mormon faith may interfere with his writing. He talks about how he had a hard time writing a sexual assault scene because of his faith. So don't expect him to write the film adaptation of The Book of Mormon.
6. He seems to be a devout Mormon. He talks about dealing with gay people in Hollywood. Don't worry, he doesn't say anything bad about gays.
7. Here's the news. Paramount liked the writing team's pitch. First draft of Star Trek 3 comes in May. So that you know where in the tape that comes from. It's at the one hour twenty five minute mark. I'm giving you the time because the tape lecture was removed. However, Trekcore has the first few minutes of it. Video below.
UPDATE: TrekCore has the final few minutes of the lecture with the news that the first draft of Star Trek 3 comes out in May. Check out the video below courtesy of TrekCore.
CNN is doing the right thing in its coverage of Malaysian Airlines 370
CNN has been getting a lot of flak over its extensive coverage of the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines 370. I've read everything from CNN's Don Lemon using a model of the Boeing 777 to others calling CNN's coverage an obsession.
I say the critics are wrong. Look, the loss of flight 370 is and probably will be the most interesting story of the decade. We're talking about the complete disappearance of large commercial jetliner in an age of cell phones, radar and GPS. Two hundred and thirty nine lives are at stake. The passengers are from all over the world. Most of them are Chinese. They come from New Zealand. Malaysia. The United States. Australia. Theories about what happened to the plane abound. Mechanical failure. Hijacking. Terrorist theft. Pilot suicide. Pirates. Maybe the pilots flew the plane to Pakistan and landed there for the plane to be used by the Taliban. There are even crazy theories. UFOs. With a story as fascinating as this, CNN is doing the right thing by covering it extensively. And one last thing about the model plane. It is a model plane not a toy. I remember watching newscasters use model rockets to ips to illustrate parts of the ships during NASA missions. So, lay off CNN.
I say the critics are wrong. Look, the loss of flight 370 is and probably will be the most interesting story of the decade. We're talking about the complete disappearance of large commercial jetliner in an age of cell phones, radar and GPS. Two hundred and thirty nine lives are at stake. The passengers are from all over the world. Most of them are Chinese. They come from New Zealand. Malaysia. The United States. Australia. Theories about what happened to the plane abound. Mechanical failure. Hijacking. Terrorist theft. Pilot suicide. Pirates. Maybe the pilots flew the plane to Pakistan and landed there for the plane to be used by the Taliban. There are even crazy theories. UFOs. With a story as fascinating as this, CNN is doing the right thing by covering it extensively. And one last thing about the model plane. It is a model plane not a toy. I remember watching newscasters use model rockets to ips to illustrate parts of the ships during NASA missions. So, lay off CNN.
Sunday, March 16, 2014
Paramount treats Trekkers badly
Trekkers unite. You're being treated badly by Paramount. First, they made Star Trek Into Darkness DVD extras retail and internet exclusive, i.e. different stores had different extra features. If you wanted deleted scenes you have to buy the movie through XBOX SmartGlass. This milking of every last cent from the fans stinks. I bought one edition of Star Trek Into Darkness and thanks to Trekmovie.com, they told me which one had the extras on a Blu-Ray disk. I am not going to buy every version of STID to collect all of the extras. I'm guessing that many Trekkers feel the way I do.
Second, Paramount is dumping two newbie writers, J.D. Payne and Patick McKay, on the next Star Trek film. You got that. It's going to be fiftieth anniversary and Paramount is giving partial control of the Enterprise to two unheard of writers. Now let me clarify that Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness writer Bob Orci will also be involved in the next film.
But let's compare our franchise with what's happening with Star Wars VII. They at one time had Oscar winning writer, Michael Arndt. They've replaced him with Lawrence Kasdan. (Raiders of the Lost Ark) Star Wars also has taken our talented director J.J. Abrams. We, Trekkers get two guys that I can't find one produced screenplay. Movie? No. TV? No. Now how important is the screenplay? If the screenplay is bad, the movie will likely be bad. I'll accept the fact that there's no script hence no director. But I suggest that Paramount not go cheap here. To keep their credibility, Paramount should be bold with the director. Name talent for director.
"Come, come, Mr. Scott. Young minds, fresh ideas. Be tolerant." Captain Kirk in Star Trek 3: The Search for Spock.
Okay. I'll try to be open minded. But this is the fiftieth anniversary of Star Trek. To allay our fears, I suggest Paramount march out the writers to demonstrate their Star Trek credentials. Let these guys talk Star Trek for about two hours.
Second, Paramount is dumping two newbie writers, J.D. Payne and Patick McKay, on the next Star Trek film. You got that. It's going to be fiftieth anniversary and Paramount is giving partial control of the Enterprise to two unheard of writers. Now let me clarify that Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness writer Bob Orci will also be involved in the next film.
But let's compare our franchise with what's happening with Star Wars VII. They at one time had Oscar winning writer, Michael Arndt. They've replaced him with Lawrence Kasdan. (Raiders of the Lost Ark) Star Wars also has taken our talented director J.J. Abrams. We, Trekkers get two guys that I can't find one produced screenplay. Movie? No. TV? No. Now how important is the screenplay? If the screenplay is bad, the movie will likely be bad. I'll accept the fact that there's no script hence no director. But I suggest that Paramount not go cheap here. To keep their credibility, Paramount should be bold with the director. Name talent for director.
"Come, come, Mr. Scott. Young minds, fresh ideas. Be tolerant." Captain Kirk in Star Trek 3: The Search for Spock.
Okay. I'll try to be open minded. But this is the fiftieth anniversary of Star Trek. To allay our fears, I suggest Paramount march out the writers to demonstrate their Star Trek credentials. Let these guys talk Star Trek for about two hours.
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