How to Make It Funny

I came across this. It's a rant about Rich Lowry. The writer obviously thought it was funny as he was writing it. The piece goes something like, "Lowry said this... ha ha ha. Lowry said that... he he he," but the pull quotes are just bits of arguments Lowry has made, not gaffes.

Is it funny? "Sadly, no."

But you can make it funny. Just erase everything you know about economics, put on your giving money away good, profit bad, intentions are more important than results goggles, and it works.

How to Be a Successful Activist

In five steps. Well, sort of five steps. It cheats that number quite a bit by having sub-steps a, b, c, etc.

It culminates with this step:

5. How to bring down the dominant culture
a) Ask yourself if you’re content with your relatively high quality of life being possible thanks to the poor quality of life of others elsewhere
b) Ask yourself if you’re content with your relative freedom being possible thanks to the oppression of others elsewhere
c) Accept that we are all accomplices to the perpetual global crime called “civilization”
d) Bring down the dominant culture

Maybe before doing any of these steps, you should investigate the fallacious assumptions of a, b, and c. What good is it to be an activist if you're supporting a harmful cause? Suddenly, you're the bad guy.

Identify the good fight. That would make you a better activist.

It's So Hard Being Goode

I was researching something else and happened upon this. It's hard to even know what to pull quote. All of it is must read material. (As it happens, there was an episode of The Goode Family about very much the same thing.)

Here's a tiny snip to lure you over:

Needless to say, I spent the next few days trying to dismantle my privilege and the analyze why I felt so uncomfortable with a) our lack of gay role models in our family life, and b) my eager reaction to “Quick! Find them!”

Do not make the mistake of thinking that is parody. It isn't. Read the rest of it. The comments are worthwhile too.

I emailed the link to someone who sent this back:

Ring.
"Hello?"
"Hello. You don't know me, but I noticed you're a person of color and I would like to be your friend."
"What???"
"Oh, it's not like I'm collecting you or anything. I just need you as a reference."
"You need me as a reference for work?"
"No. I need you as a family friend so that if my daughter says black people are bad I can reference you to prove we know a black . . . a person of color who is nice. It's an educational thing."
"I don't even know you."
"Unfortunately, there isn't time for that. My daughter is already five, and we've got lesbians, Muslims, and Puerto Ricans to reference but no persons of color. It's only a matter of time before she says something derogatory about black people."
"Why would she do that?"
"We don't have any black friends to reference."
"And why is that?"
"Well, we didn't need any until recently. By the way, we're looking for gay married men, homeless people, and Native Americans, if you could direct us to any."
"Er . . . "
"Could you come to dinner this week? Obviously, there's no point to being your friend unless my daughter can see that you're our friend. Oh, by the way, please be on your best behavior!"

Heh.

Coburn Lays It Out on Health Care

Begins eight seconds in:

UPDATE: I wonder how many are aware that Coburn is a doctor.