If you want to have a funny remembrance of a distinctly unfunny year, have a look at Dave Barry's Year in Review, which is his annual satirical look back. This year's offering is called Bailing out of 2008.
If you've not read Dave Barry, he is a satirical columnist and humorist who works for the Miami Herald. His website can be found here.
Please keep in mind that Barry is a satirist and a humorist. If you have no sense of humor, or if you are politically partisan and your feelings are easily hurt, you might want to read something else instead, like the Washington Post or Rush Limbaugh.
Aside from your gratuitous shot at Limbaugh (who had Walter Williams as his guest host today, you like him right?), I agree. Dave Barry is hilarious, as is his end-of-the-year review.
ReplyDeleteDear Peter:
ReplyDelete"Gratuitous shot"? Was my comment about the Washington (Com)Post also "gratuitous"? Boy, I sure hope so. I don't want people to get the idea that I'm a "librul." ;-)
Actually, I was pairing up the Washington Post and Rush Limbaugh as a kind of literary device to personify diametrical partisanship. Sometimes, people who are particularly partisan (such as *some hardcore* Limbaugh listeners and Post readers) don't appreciate the kind of "equal opportunity" satire that Dave Barry writes. Some people are just overly sensitive when *their* ox is being gored. Barry doles it out across the spectrum. That was my point. I do think Limbaugh's show will vastly improve now that he is in the opposition. He's just not very entertaining as a "company man".
Indeed, I would have listened to Dr. Williams today, but we were at the Audubon Zoo to ring in the new year at noon (we do things a little different here, Napoleonic Code and all that, Bonne Annee, by the way...).
But you can count me in with the obligatory caller who will chime in and tell Walter Williams *he* should be the full-time host, not Limbaugh (which always makes the good doctor chuckle).
No. I just like Dave Barry and Rush Limbaugh, and don't think it's somehow contradictory. (Librul? Is that how dumb conservatives speak?)
ReplyDeleteDear Peter:
ReplyDeleteNo contradiction at all. That's the nice thing about Barry. Left-wingers will love his pokes at Sarah Palin, and right wingers will enjoy his lampooning of Barack Obama. Of course, some of the thin-skinned on either side of the aisle will be "offended" - some by his (obviously racist) making fun of Our Historic First African American President and Savior, others by his (certainly anti-Christian and anti-woman) Gratuitous Shots at the Remarkably Intelligent and Articulate Chief Executive of the Largest State in the Union.
My point is that some folks need to lighten up. Dave Barry is not everyone's cup of tea, but then again, he might be good therapy for the overly-sensitive. Barry has a knack for pounding down nails that stick up, whether on the left or the right side of the fence.
And yes, there are indeed both smart and dumb conservatives, some utterly brilliant, and others who are downright neanderthal. By way of example, the well-meaning patriotic country singer who crooned boastfully: "I don't know the difference between Iraq and Iran" is not, at least in my opinion, the greatest flag-bearer of the conservative cause.
Yeah, I like his pokes at Obama, Biden, Bush, McCain, Palin, and Ron Paul. He's a funny guy. And,Williams is great, I agree. I'm glad he and Rush are good friends.
ReplyDeleteAs a bit of a postscript, a lot oc conservatives rightly took Jimmy Carter to the woodshed for saying: "nucular" (usually with the implication that this was evidence that Southern = Ignorant). But the same conservatives suddenly clammed up when President Bush and Gov. Palin also said "nucular."
ReplyDeleteThe nice thing about Dave Barry (which is not the case with Rush Limbaugh) is that *he* will lampoon Jimmy Carter and George Bush (and Sarah Palin) with equal verve. Does Rush Limbaugh make fun of the way the POTUS speaks? I know he had a lot of fun with Clinton's raspy voice, Barney Frank's lisp, and Jesse Jackson's patter (and Limbaugh is a funny guy!), but he's just not going to dish out the same to any Republican he deems conservative.
But Dave Barry will, and does. That's why I give Dave Barry much higher marks. Besides, I think he's wittier (though, like I said, Limbaugh is really funny).
The funniest pokes at Ron Paul and at paleo-conservatism are on www.fark.com. Now THAT is truly equal opportunity satire - in fact, I'd call it the "nucular option" of satire. Lots of left- and right-wing neanderthals hang out there too, but you can tell them by their scraped knuckles.
ReplyDelete