Spilling into Summer

It's been over two months since the horrendous oil spill started happening, and we don't seem much closer to plugging that leak. This should have been old news by now. Most people at this point are rapidly losing hope with, well, everyone and everything. It's like Hurricane Katrina all over again, except worse, as the environmental and economic toll will likely reverberate throughout the country for months, even years, to come.

As the saga has gone on, I've noticed something about its coverage. Specifically that outright lies have been exposed, and the public is getting increasingly angry and frustrated with the government. Perhaps because I have gotten the bulk of my information on the spill from The Daily Show, I think no one has done a better job of conveying this outrage at BP and federal lawmakers than Jon Stewart. Though I can take or leave The Daily Show a lot of the time, it's really been in top form in its coverage of the oil spill. Like a real news program should, The Daily Show has exposed the truth behind all the fabrications and contradictions (which politicians seem to do a lot) surrounding the oil spill. Stewart has also made some very valid criticism about President Obama in some recent episodes (that article is a great read, btw). In some cases it's less of a satirical news program, and more of a media-critique show.



And though it's old news, a lot of people, when polled, have cited The Daily Show as their primary news source. In a Time Magazine online poll, 44% of Americans said that Jon Stewart was the most trusted newscaster, significantly ahead of the competition. People have said it before, and I'll say it again: though it's great that The Daily Show has good writing and sharp wit, it's a sad state of affairs when a comedy show is the most trusted, unbiased source for news. Our news circuit has become a circus, the majority of which - some newspapers, magazines, and websites included - simply parrot bias, ideology, and sensationalism over substance and even the facts. It distracts, rather than brings to light, the important issues, like why America hasn't gotten off of oil when every president since Nixon has said that we must do so, and why politicians seem to conflate "small businesses" with huge corporate conglomerates, and questioning the merits of a two-party system and closed primaries.

However, from the few clips of the mainstream media's coverage that I have seen, it seems like maybe they're actually doing journalism for once. On The Daily Show, (for the most part) the joke's been on the businessmen and politicians, not the media. Perhaps this massive disaster is finally prompting some real reporting on issues that people actually care about, and this could bring about some real change. Sorry, Obama, but your impressive vocabulary will not power our cars and our homes. Solar panels and wind turbines will, though.
We can all hope that maybe this time, people will stop talking and start doing.

The Best Bad Movie Line...Ever

Hey there invisible readers. I've been pretty busy lately, and uninspired, so not much time for blogging.
But the other day, I came across this movie, The Wizard. You wouldn't think of it as a contender for "Best Worst Movie", like Troll 2 or The Room. It's just a forgettable 80s kid's movie, right?
Wrong. The following clip is the worst attempt at incorporating slang into dialogue that I have ever come across. The line is obviously forced, and the execution is terrible. And it's hilarious. I've watched it at least five or so times since I first came across it, and I still crack up! It's just so bad.


The best part is at the end, around 2:15.

That kid really nailed down the irony of that line.
This alone makes me want to see The Wizard...