Well, you can't just say "Don't be interested in these things" nolo. Interest doesn't work that way. One cannot control what they find interesting and I am EXTREMELY interested in that stuff. But I respect your right not to be.

On a related subject, whatever it was you saw when you were younger, nolo, I'm glad it's gone now. I'm sure you've been sleeping better.

Can you describe these ghosts and UFOs that you've seen but don't believe in? I only ask because -- no lie -- one of my dreams in this lifetime is to see a verifiable, no sh*t ghost or apparition and a bonafide UFO at least once before checking out for good.

Very funny, Crowder. And the Bible-study sequence -- where M.M. is fielding the question about Jesus -- was a CLASSIC.

Yeah, well, I'm not so sure. We live in a PC world, and Obama's the first black president. This "honeymoon" you refer to will never be really "over."

Anyone who thinks the comic mainstream will EVER be ripping into Obama the way they did with Reagan, Clinton, the Bushes, etc. is kidding themselves.

Friend of a friend once worked with McKay at Saturday Night Live and said he was a decent guy, all the time buying food vouchers and handing them out to the homeless, etc. Not a bad guy at all. And unbelievably funny. That being said, some of the things he believes in are borderline loony. Go through his twitter archive and you will find gems like "What has Michael Moore ever said or filmed that wasn't 100 % true?" and "All this talk about waiting in line for 5 hours in countries with single-payer health care is pure propaganda" etc.

Propaganda? Is this guy on CRACK? Again, he is very nice, incredibly smart, supremely funny -- and completely out of touch.

The comedian Tom Dreesen pointed out (in one of his more serious moments) that many of the high-profile Liberals claiming to "support our troops" aren't really supporting them as fighting men and fighting women -- as military personnel -- as warriors battling for liberty -- but only as "victims" of a pair of unjust and indefensible wars.

I bet I pop in DIAL M FOR MURDER at least once a year. One of the most purely enjoyable thrillers ever made. Ray Milland is so charming as the homicidal former tennis pro Tony Wendice -- so smooth, so ingenious, so funny -- that you are practically rooting for him to succeed in his plot for murdering Grace Kelly!

Now THAT'S charming!

Goggles, for the life of me I don't know why your post would be scoring a "minus one." It's almost as if you lost points for doing nothing more than making a credible argument, which is not fair. Let the OTHER SIDE pull crap like that. Because you're right: The Onion DID run the article you mentioned. And I can remember how relieved I was at seeing Obama being made the object of humor for a change -- however feebly, however indirectly -- by a major publication.

Lead, I agree with you that race IS irrelevant, but just to be fair, Obama in this particular instance was arguing the conservative point of view. He was condemning the idea that Obamacare was being rejected on the basis of his being black, and not on the policy itself. He indicated the entire race-based theory was ludicrous, and I happen to agree.

I just hope Jimmy Carter was watching.

Quick Gelbart story. Dateline: Los Angeles. Two years ago. The Writer's Guild is on strike. I was still technically a memeber of the WGA East at the time, but living out here in Los Angeles, so as far as the WGA was concered I was on the wrong coast, with no designated "strike captain" telling me where to go to do my picketing.

But the Guild's always done right by me -- by providing minimum script fees, residuals, insurance, a pension, and other benefits I enjoy that thousands of brave, bygone writers once stuck their necks on the line to achieve... so even though I had effectively "fallen between the cracks" that fall, and could've sat the strike out if I wanted to -- reading, watching TV, surfing the net -- I decided I would contribute to the strike effort any way I could.

So I picked up the phone and called the Writer's Guild WEST, and explained my situation. The person on the other end said "Just a moment please, while I connect you with one of our strike cooridinators" -- and Larry Gelbart picked up the phone!

Now, I know it was Gelbart because he introduced himself -- and I think I may've stammered something deathless and Shakespearean like, "Hi, I- I've been waiting my whole life to talk to you." -- which was essentially the truth. Gelbart was and remains a legend in our business: Riotously funny, thoroughly professional, and a man of real integrity -- as evidenced by the fact that here he was at the age of 79 ANSWERING THE GODDAMN PHONE AT THE WRITERS' GUILD!

Anyway, we spoke for all of four minutes, and he couldn't have been more gracious or more helpful (although all he told me to do was go down to any studio being picketed, present my Guild I.D. to the strike captain there, grab a sign, and join the fray. So I did...)

Two years on we are still toting up our wins and losses from that strike, but for me it was a net win... if only for my close encounter with Gelbart.