He was actually a staffer (speechwriter) within the Nixon Administration. I expect you were not intending any particular negative or positive commentary by the term “apologist” – naturally the guy’s going to say things consistent with the guy who pays/paid his salary. Stein’s conservatism (to me “conservativism”-- neo with more than a tinge of theistic – he’s still working that out so it can be a bit garbled, and he veers from ardent fiscal hawk to weepy compassionate conservative) credentials (such as credentials are) run further than that as his father, also employed by the Nixon Administration, was one of the early figures associated with neocon economics. I don’t love Stein but ranking him (not you, the post before) with a true simpering moron like D. Miller was out of line I say!
Ben Stein actually wrote Nixon’s “I’m not a crook” speech, but he says that Nixon changed that line.
I think it’s fair to say Stein is a Nixon apologist. I’ve heard him defend Nixon’s anti-Semitic comments, and I think at that point you’ve crossed over into apologetics. We know what Nixon said about Jews.
Anyway, yes, Victoria Jackson is a fundamentalist whacko. She’s been one for a long time. I liked her on SNL and she used to be cute, but I guess these things happen. I don’t think anyone’s going to lose any sleep over this one.
Norm MacDonald (a) if he is a conservative, is hardly a hard core fundie, and has been known to say shit just because he thinks it’s funny to get a rise out of people and (b) is doing very well on the standup circuit.
My point was the slightly different one(s) that he was more than just a fanboy who agreed with Nixon, he was a fanboy who got paid to agree with Nixon, and not just a fanboy either but an operative. I guess I objected only to the implication/inference (if any, I doubt the post intended it) that he was a peanut gallery sycophant. He got paid for it dammit!
Well, I can’t argue with that.
My problem with Miller isn’t his conservatism so much as the fact that he has to know how full of shit O’Reilly and Beck are and yet he panders to them. Unlike Jackson he has a choice- he had a career once. Not only has he not been funny material wise in a decade, but he rehashes material we’ve heard him use several times before and has become a pale and gross parody of himself blaming the fact that audiences turning away from his increasingly embittered phoning-it-in monotonous and memorized speech delivery as “they hate me because I don’t play the liberal game, man!” He also must hate the Tea Party nutjobs as much as most liberals do but he won’t speak out against them.
To be fair to him, it’s the funniest damn material he’s ever heard! We know this because he’s been smirking and laughing at himself, sometimes unable even to get his lines out, since the first time he delivered them.
Himself was a parody. Remember that he was allowed – by whom I don’t know, I kind of want to find out and punch them – to become famous and rich and allegedly cutting edge on the back of
Yes, he became a millionaire comedy genius by constructing and memorizing artificially elaborate simulacra of “eloquent” and “angry” spontaneous emotional outbursts. People – he openly entitled his heavily rehearsed stage act “Rants.” If that’s not a phony, I’m Holden Caulfield. When you let a smug bastard get HBO specials and (god help us) co-host Monday Night Football (not that it’s sacred for god’s sake, but just that I wanted to watch it without him eagerly trying to adapt and awkwardly shoehorn his pre-canned rants and bits into the color commentary of an unfolding game I might actually be trying to watch) – well America the terrists has already won.*
*That, ironically, was an ACTUAL rant on my part. Carried away . . . .
[QUOTE=Huerta88]
Yes, he became a millionaire comedy genius by constructing and memorizing artificially elaborate simulacra of “eloquent” and “angry” spontaneous emotional outbursts. People – he openly entitled his heavily rehearsed stage act “Rants.” If that’s not a phony, I’m Holden Caulfield. When you let a smug bastard get HBO specials and (god help us) co-host Monday Night Football (not that it’s sacred for god’s sake, but just that I wanted to watch it without him eagerly trying to adapt and awkwardly shoehorn his pre-canned rants and bits into the color commentary of an unfolding game I might actually be trying to watch) – well America the terrists has already won.*
*That, ironically, was an ACTUAL rant on my part. Carried away . . . .
[/QUOTE]
Another irony: Miller named his oldest son after Holden Caulfield. The younger one is Marlon.
What, like Charlie Sheen?
Of course he f’ing is.
Of course.
A sad thing about Jackson on the video clip is that she clearly has memorized a few catch phrases and has no idea when or how or where to use them. “What’s your problem with a gay kiss on GLEE?” becomes "Um… Obama’s a socialist… ". “Do you think anybody is going to become gay because they watch GLEE?” = "Liberals like when Muslims like behead women… ". Admittedly I’m sure that those phrases earned her treats from the trainer at some point so it’s a hard habit to break, but one must learn.
John Cleese famously compared Palin to a nice looking parrotwho has no idea what the words mean but says them nicely. In this analogy Jackson is maybe a brain damaged cockatiel.
That would explain her appeal. Many social conservatives have had a cockatoo.
Yeah, I’ve never seen him say anything that would provide much insight to his politics. He’s not out there like he used to be, but he still travels within a circle of fairly subversive comedians (the kind who will pop up at a Comedy Central roast but spend the rest of the year working the clubs). As far as I can tell, he’s pretty respected in the comedy world, at least among younger generations (and, of course, he’s the most underrated Weekend Update host ever).
Yep. (Former at this point) cheerleaders. And, strangely, two of the best characters on the show.
Well played. 
I can’t believe I’m going to do this but I’m actually going to defend Kirk Cameron. He was a fairly religious conservative way back when Growing Pains was still a popular show. So far as his talent went I just don’t see him as being any worse than any other sitcom star his age. Kirk’s current career is a result of the choices he made. He didn’t turn to Left Behind and other stuff like that because he had no other choice. He turned to them because he wanted to.
Yeah, he got Julie McCullough kicked off of Growing Pains for being un-Christian.
Mind you, John Cleese doesn’t exactly have a good track record with parrots… 
He called a major executive of the studio at home claiming they were trying to make him do pornography. His word- pornography. The scene in question had him sharing a bed with a woman, fully clothed, in a stage play within the sitcom. Because the show was a cash cow the exec caved and cut the scene; personally if I’d been the exec I’d have called the head writer at home and tell him I wanted Kirk’s character having a 3-way with his girlfriend and Boner added in pronto, and make it clear that Mike Seaver took an 18 inch dildo like a pro during it, just to punish him for disturbing me at home and then I’d have sued the hell out of him for breach of contract if he refused to do it.
His sister was on the news earlier today though I only caught part of it and wasn’t really listening. Quick google shows… She had her meth smoking Growing Pains co-star expelled from her wedding many years ago and somehow it’s relevant today.
Kirk Cameron admits he didn’t invite any of his co-stars to his own wedding because they had said he was a holier than thou, which he now admits he was. And still is, though he doesn’t admit that and seems blissfully unaware of his Victoria Jacksonian degree of dumbassery.