This post has the potential to create a lot of flames. Please try to keep your flames of either side to a minimum.
On Wednesday my "friend", Saint, forced me to go to a live showing of Al Fraken's show in downtown Phoenix at The Phoenix Theater. I really don't like downtown Phoenix that much. No reason, really. The worst part is that the local Air America affiliate's "headquarters" is right down from where I live (in the cool part of Phoenix).
Anywho, the show was really good and really funny. Something that differentiates Al Franken from Bill O'Reilly, Bill Mahr, and Michael Moore is that Al Franken is 1. a good comedian, 2. lets his guests speak (unlike the two Bills), and 3. actually tries to make what he says as accurate and as "special cased" as possible. Case in point, he was complaining about an article in The Wall Street Journal and made sure to say multiple times that his criticism only applied to the editorial page and that otherwise The WSJ is a good rag.
And yes, I did actually just put Bill Mahr, Bill O'Reilly, and Michael Moore in the same group. They're all the same. With Bill O'Reilly and Michael Moore being nearly identical. They'll omit facts that make the other side look less "evil", they'll make their interviewees "shut up" if the conversation isn't going how they want it to, or they'll just flat out edit out parts of interviews that make some of their interviewees look like decent people. On the other hand, some of the things said at the live showing didn't quite make Al Franken's arguments stand up as well as he intended, yet he didn't tell the other person to shut the hell up and get out of his studio.
Although one thing I really didn't like about Al Franken was his willingness to use the terms "liberal" and "progressive" so easily. I believe labels like that unfairly pre-categorize people as sheep. I don't like sheep. Being called "liberal" and only "liberal" implies the person/entity always goes along with that side of thinking and that they'll always agree with whatever any other liberal says. Call me what you will, just don't call me liberal or conservative. I might have beliefs that form a union with the set of ideas in one side, but that doesn't mean I don't have ideas/ideals/beliefs that aren't shared with that side.
OK, the title has to do with the fact that my "friend" brought a metallic Sharpie with him so Al Franken could easily sign his shirt. Yes, I implied Franken would have such a pen already, and yes, I was wrong. After Franken had signed Saint's shirt with Saint's pen, Al Franken asked if he could use it to sign the next person's shirt, then reminded Saint to not forget it. As soon as he was done signing, Al Franken asked if he could keep the pen. And yes, he kept it.
Below is a photo of Saint and Al Franken. Please note that Saint is on the left and is five and a half feet tall.
Posted by rosyna at 02:15 PM
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I have to say, I agree 100% with your assessment of both "liberal" and "conservative" labels for people. Bravo for hitting the nail on the head. :)
Posted by: EVula on March 19, 2005 2:30 PMThe biggest problem with the label "liberal" is how it has been turned into a negative label. I have always thought the term liberal meant that one looks at all sides of an issue and keeps an open mind. Afterall that is the definition of the word.
Everyone is both liberal and conservative. I am socially liberal but, somewhat, fiscally conservative. Call me crazy but I think America should have a balanced checkbook. I also believe that we can balance the checkbook without turning our backs people that need help.
Posted by: Bryan on March 19, 2005 5:10 PMActually, the ARE only 3 comments (and now, counting this one, 5)
Posted by: Erin on January 6, 2006 7:03 PMKeep comments on topic. If a comment is unrelated to this post, it may be removed or moderated.