BIGOTRY IN ACTION: Wasn't the Boston Catholioc archdiocese the one which considered pretended to be bankrupt to get out of paying compensation to the kids its priests had sexually abused? There were so many altar boys emerging with tales of Confessional touching and vestry fumblings that the Catholics thought that pretending to be broke would be exactly what Jesus would do.

Now, the same archdiocese is pulling out of all the adoption work done by the Catholic Charities of Boston rather than comply with State Law which allows gay parents to adopt.

Again: Jesus would be very proud of them.

 
WHO HECKLES US ARMY FUNERALS? This one might come as a bit of a surprise: there are jerks turning up to shout abuse at families mourning Bush's war dead in the States. But they're not anti-war protesters. They're Extremist Christians, who are angry that the soldiers were killed fighting for a country that allows homosexuality.

Interesting that in a country where Cindy Sheehan only has to think about writing a stiff letter to the New York Times and she gets arrested, there doesn't seem to be any attempt made to discourage these hate-filled attacks on families who have suffered a loss.

 
"WHY JON STEWART ISN'T FUNNY" The Daily Show might not be C-Span, but it's probably fair to say that by presenting news in a way that people can digest more easily, it offers a way in to the process. Yeah, some people might not go beyond laughing at the Brokeback Mountain gags, but others will take the jokes as a starting point to investigate matters more deeply. You're more likely to tempt someone with a half-hour comedy show than a half-price subscription to New Republic.

At the very bottom, in a nation whose TV news output is dominated by Fox, having a show which says "it ain't neccesairily so" can only be considered a public good. Right?

Apparently not: Micahel Kalin, writing in The Boston Globe has decided that he doesn't like the idea of Jon Stewart and his show making questioning the media trendy. Why?

Unfortunately, the rise of mass media and the domination of television news give Stewart's Menckenesque voice a much more powerful influence than critics in previous generations. As a result, a bright leader who may have become the Theodore Roosevelt or Woodrow Wilson of today instead perceives politics as a supply of sophisticated entertainment, rather than a powerful source of social change.
Although Stewart's comedic shticks may thus earn him some laughs Sunday at the Oscars, his routine will certainly not match the impact of his greatest irony: Jon Stewart undermines any remaining earnestness that liberals in America might still possess.

We wonder if a guy who would toss a "Menckenesque" into a TV review might be clinging a little bit too hard to his "remaining earnestness" there.

So, Kalin reckons that the Democrats will just dry up because they spend their evening laughing their faces off at Comedy Central rather than painting placards. (He could have a point - since Crank Yankers came on the air, there's been a 37% dip in the number of stunt phonecalls being made across the mid-West.)

But does Kalin have any proof to back up this claim? Well, yes he does: he introduces us to Joshua Goldberg (in case you don't pick up the gentle hint in the name, Joshua is Jewish):

Born in Newton, Goldberg attended Newton South High School where he played an integral role in securing the school's debate championship. His 3.8 grade point average and impressive array of extracurricular activities earned him a scholarship to Vassar, where he majored in political science and joined a Jewish fraternity. Throughout his formal education, Goldberg stayed up-to-date on national politics through nightly coverage on ''The Daily Show" and even led a petition to protest the genocide in Darfur.

Many of Stewart's die-hard supporters might use this persona as proof that ''The Daily Show" engages disillusioned viewers who otherwise could not be reached. This argument, however, fails to consider the ultimate career path of Josh Goldberg: Upon graduation in 2004, he accepted a prestigious job as an analyst at Morgan Stanley. Although he no longer follows Washington's daily political squabbles, Goldberg gives a significant annual contribution to the Democratic Party.

So... watching Jon Stewart makes you turn into a merchant banker? Who knew.

But we know what you're thinking: one guy from the audience shouldn't be taken as typical of the entire audience. But you're wrong.

It's not that Joshua isn't a typical viewer; he's not even an actual viewer - Kalin admits that he just created him as "a fictional composite of the typical apostle of the Daily Show."

We can do that - meet Henry McSquirrel, a fictional composite of Michael Kalin's friends. McSquirrel - a Presbyterian - really likes Kalin, and enjoys hanging out with him. But he can't help feeling that, you know, Kalin is a bit of a knob. He really wants Michael to be a success - that way, he can pay for the bowling lane once in a while - but he doesn't really have much faith in him. So, when Kalin asked McSquirrel to have a look through this article he was going to submit to the Boston Globe, he didn't pay very much attention to it. "Yeah... Jon Stewart... right, dude, send it in." Now he wishes he'd saved his friend from making a bit of a knob of himself in print.

 
THIS ISN'T ACTUALLY A THREAT, YOU KNOW: The BBC is reporting that Coke tried to throw its weight about:

"Coca-Cola warned the education secretary it might withdraw its vending machines network from schools over her ban on 'junk food', letters show"

So... Coke was afraid that Ruth Kelly was going to throw them out of schools, and warned if she planned to do that she would have to face up to the threat of them, erm, pulling their machines out of the schools?

Maybe that stuff really does rot your brain.

 
EXTRAORDINARY EXPLANATIONS OF RECENT EVENTS:
I've just heard someone from the Labour party saying that the reason why there's so much about the Tessa Jowell story isn't because her husband has done anything wrong having his mortgage paid off by Berlusconi, but because... the media like putting "photogenic women" on the front page.

Tessa Jowell: she's the Kate Moss of the cabinet...

Actually, her husband was doorstepped by the 10 O'clock news last night, and denied the money had come from Berlusconi at all - when asked, not unreasonably, who had suddenly given him six hundred grand, he replied 'wait and see', like it's going to be a surprise. It's hard to imagine who could be so very bad that he decided to pretend to his own accountant he'd taken dropsy from a foreign politician.