Originally Posted By: samwik
and....

Just want to say that there's a panel discussion including Stephen Colbert and others, notably Christopher Hitchens, tonight on BookTV (CSPAN2).

I can't imagine a more promising scenario, and I've SEEN stuff that's better than I can imagine, involving these folks individually, so I'm hopeful (Pythonesque comes to mind)!

Later,
~Samwik

I don't know who picked Stephen Colbert to be the host of the author's panel on BOOKTV last Sunday, but they should either be fired or given a big bonus. I'm leaning toward the bonus side; but wow, it was difficult to transition from the heart-wrenching stories told through tear-strained voices over to the usual Colbert wit.

I did enjoy:

"...mindless, in the present, consumerism that keeps us from understanding the ways in which we have so much in common, and the ways in which this mindless consumer society divides us apart...." -K. Burns

...and a reference to Arthur Schlesinger's "Too much pluribus, and not enough unum."
...also....
"Stitched together by words...and their dangerous progeny, ideas." -Ken Burns (Sunday 6/3/07)
talking about why Americans "agree to cohere." It sounded as if he was quoting (maybe his book) the "dangerous progeny" part also, but I enjoyed the image.

Eric Sevareid was also referenced:
"War happens inside a man; and that is why, in a certain sense, you and your son's (from that war), will be forever strangers. If...."
-wow....
-transcribed quotes so, may not be totally accurate....

...other than that....

Don't know if you caught the recent (6/5, 6/6) Colbert Report's comments on the Hansen controversy. It's probably available on youtube. "It ain't the Heat; it's the Hubris."

Terry, I thought of you when he said that the climate is evolving (w/ "ice caps recessive").

Hansen's boss talked about the arrogance of people who decide what the "best" climate should be. Some comment was made about how we shouldn't be deciding if islanders want to live above sea level. I hope you get to see this, Wolfman. You might also enjoy his concept of "meteorological colonialism."

I especially enjoyed the comments about Eskimos not needing so many words for snow anymore...
...but "beach" would translate as "hot snow."

Busy week,
Later,
~SA

Pyrolysis creates reduced carbon! ...Time for the next step in our evolutionary symbiosis with fire.