Pure genius. I’m not sure if it’s a good thing, or a bad thing, that the only journalist covering American Politics right now who really seems to get it has a show on COMEDY CENTRAL, but I guess it’s rather fitting.

Not being much of a TV watcher, and having no cable access, I must admit that the writer’s strike hasn’t really affected me. Still, I had to see what John Stewart and Steven Colbert had to say about the ordeal of them crossing the picket lines and returning to the air waves, sans writing staff. Seeing as I have no cable, I of course checked out the comedy central web site. This simple action cuts right down to what the strike is about. I watched their content, Comedy Central made their money by advertising a credit card, a new movie and a new [adult swim] video game , and the writers believe (justly, in my opinion) that they deserve a cut for their work on the content that I watched. As of 10:40 AM PST, the first clip from Jon Stewart’s temporarily retitled A Daily Show has accrued 64,496 views (and is currently growing at roughly 100 hits a minute).

Meanwhile, Daily Show writer (and Chico expat) Jason Ross’s YouTube video, which tells their side of the story (in a very Daily Show manner) has garnered over 500,000 hits. Check it out. Make Google some money.

Also, get a load of Letterman’s hippy beard. He’s growing it in support of the striking writers (while his own company has struck an independent deal with the Writers Guild of America).

Today, October 9th, is John Lennon’s birthday. The former Beatle turned 67 years old today, and despite having not released an album of new material in over 27 years, remains a relevant rock icon today.
(I hold the unpopular position that John Lennon faked his murder in 1980 and lives on a private, uncharted island with Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix, Elvis Presley, Andy Kaufman and my schnauzer, Bentley. They are all very happy there and my mom says I can visit them some day.)

This morning I caught Terry Gross‘ interview with Steven Colbert on NPR. They were discussing his new book entitled I Am America (And So Can You!), which might be the most awesomely titled piece of literature since War and Peace. The reason I bring this up is because I’m reminded of one of Colbert’s bits he had during his tenure on The Daily Show with John Stewart. This was a long time ago so I’ll have to paraphrase, but it went something along the lines of this:

“And now for some news that will be depressing for bong-clutching college graduates: By the time they were 30, the Beatles had already broken up.”

(I totally stole that last picture from The Onion.)