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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
Because he delivers better news coverage than most networks whose putative job it is.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"Yes, which makes the fact that a comedian does it better than they do shameful in the extreme. Still, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report both enjoy a huge audience, making them a de facto outlet for quality reporting, especially among younger people who don't watch regular news.
Whether Stewart considers himself a comedian first or not, the fact is that people count on him to deliver penetrating analysis of the crap that goes on in politics. When he fails at it, he causes actual harm.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"It likely is just Alaska — you're kind of an extreme outlier as far as population density, even in Anchorage. I mean, googling the stats it's got half the population of Portland spread out over ten times the area.
You're aware a good chunk of the unemployment welfare you're talking about not only has a bunch of qualifiers, but is also transitional and only pays out for a limited time, right? Because I'm guessing you're not disabled, retired, a veteran, or have a massive fuckton of kids. You don't just walk into the office and say "yo, give me money".
Agreed on that much at least — it shouldn't be bereft of oversight. I was required to sit in on a few of the middle school's tests and such just to show that, yes, I really was learning stuff.
I've read books on that. At least in the case of one woman who decided to try living like a poor person for book research to see how they stretch a dollar so far?
she realized by the end they dont. That the middle class and upper class dont see how bad it actually is because they never talk to the poor seriously.
edited 12th Jan '13 12:30:25 PM by Midgetsnowman
To be fair, many of the older folks who are against government assistance have — my mother, for example — just in a vastly different economic paradigm where they actually had opportunities to pull themselves out, and in the rural areas could often rely on hunting to make up the difference.
I mean, pulling yourself up by the bootstraps was in most places a totally doable thing in the aftermath of the New Deal and during the Boomers.
edited 12th Jan '13 12:44:01 PM by Pykrete
Yeah, I remember seeing a thing put on by the San Francisco Food Bank where people were challenged to live off a food-stamp budget for a month, and I was amazed at how many people had their head up their ass. Quite a few of them completely missed the point and used their Costco/Sams Club cards to buy in bulk or used their store-brand credit card to get large discounts on food, or in a couple of cases, bought coupons online, then turned around and said "See, it can be done!". Which is completely ignoring the fact that if you're poor enough to get food stamps, you can't afford a Costco/Sams Club membership, and you sure as hell can't get a store credit card.
Senator Rubio (R-FL): Obama has 'poisoned the well for people' on immigration reform.
Obama leans toward Dennis McDonough as selection for next chief of staff
edited 12th Jan '13 1:18:50 PM by DeviantBraeburn
Everything is Possible. But some things are more Probable than others. JEBAGEDDON 2016Depends on how it's worded. A huge, huge chunk of the prostitution going on in the places AIDS groups need to go is human trafficking (as well as at home anyway), and it's not uncommon for johns in the third world to require the prostitute not to use protection. This is not the kind of idealized industry that exists only in Dr. Ruth's one-track mind.
edited 12th Jan '13 1:48:42 PM by Pykrete
White House responds to secession petitions, calls for unity instead
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HIV/AIDS was initially spread by prostitution as well - the thing had existed in the African jungle for probably millenia, playing jiggy-jiggy with the monkeys, until they paved motorways through the jungle and one of the workers fucked a monkey (or, more likely, was bitten by one). It then spread by prostitution at truck stops throughout Congo, Uganda, and Kenya, and on the "floating towns" on the River Congo.
The massive raping that seems to accompany every African civil war can't have helped either.[
edited 12th Jan '13 1:43:50 PM by Achaemenid
Schild und Schwert der ParteiWait what?
If you're poor you can't afford a Sam's club membership?
It's 50 dollars. Seriously, I get that people live paycheck to paycheck, but even with a 30% yearly interest rate, if you just borrow the 50 dollars, that's basically 65 dollars; if you save 65 dollars in food expenses over the course of the year, then it's better off than not buying at Sams, whether your budget is 100 dollars a month or a thousand.
Obviously, if you can't get ANY credit (Even one of those ridiculous credit cards that have horrible rates), then certainly this doesn't apply.
edited 12th Jan '13 1:45:22 PM by TheyCallMeTomu
That's not entirely true: my family was that poor for large chunks of my childhood, and during those times we could have afforded those things had we chosen to accept the food stamps that we qualified for.
The issue isn't that some people don't need help, it's that the qualifications for getting help are such that many people, like my family, qualify for help they don't actually need.
<><They certainly are, but my point is that they may not be so atypical that statements about the economic conditions of welfare recipients are "sure as hell".
I think some studies of what percentage of people on food stamps possess various luxuries could be very interesting, but I've never seen any.
edited 12th Jan '13 1:50:44 PM by EdwardsGrizzly
<><

I just read that, Tomu. I watched Stewart's segment on the platinum coin and I agree that he and/or his writing staff failed at basic research. It's one of the few times that I've been starkly disappointed in them.
edited 12th Jan '13 11:45:34 AM by Fighteer
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"