People are trying to determine whether he’s this guy or that guy or what his role is in journalism vs. political activism vs. social activism.
I think I’ve got the final answer (and no, it’s not 42.) It’s actually rather simple.
A quote attributed to Eldridge Cleaver is, “Either you’re a part of the solution or part of the problem.”
Jon Stewart is part of the solution.
PAD
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Nah.
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If you’re not part of the solution you’re part of the precipitate.
So this is gonna be a thread about Stephen Wright quotes now?
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PAD
Imagine how deep the ocean would be if there weren’t any sponges…
Maybe. I know Nancy Lebowitz was selling buttons with that line on them in the first half of the 1980s at conventions…
Sorry, PAD. You can’t have everything.
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Where would you keep it?
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HAPPY NEW YEAR! Remember to tip your waitresses! “EEK!” >Thud!<
Heh. Steven Wright may have popularized it, but I knew that joke in the early 80s.
It’s going to be a thread about being a smart-ášš. That is the tone set by the OP in virtually all cases, and that seems all right with most participants.
My favorite is that hobby, in which I fill the bathtub with water, turn off the lights, get in the tub, turn on the shower, and pretend I’m in a submarine that’s been hit.
Very good answer, I think. How you get the news doesn’t really matter. What matters is you get the information that you’ll need to be an informed citizen, which is … something that is getting to be rather rare these days. As long as Stewart is willing to savage both the democrats and the republicans (which I have seen him do, the very few times I’ve gotten to see him) I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Profane, insightful, influential… some of Jon Stewart’s qualities we’ve seen before in history (Mark Twain comes to mind), and some are simply a product of our times; cable television, ironically one of his most deserving targets, provides a platform that is higher profile than a blog but with more freedom than the major networks. There will always be people of insight and conscience among us… our times just decide how they manifest.
Eldridge Cleaver? I thought that phrase was a John McClane original (when he was talking to Deputy Chief of Police Dwayne T. Robinson in the first “Die Hard,” if I recall correctly)…
of COURSE he’s part of the solution. He’s a GREEN LANTERN for frig’ sakes!
Oh wait, sorry, wrong John Stewart.