‘I Didn’t Do My Job Today’

at

http://youtu.be/SaW47WxcwPQ

Jon Stewart of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show delivered a solemn monologue to his audience last night in reply to the Charlestown church shooting in South Carolina.

America, in five minutes.

Charlestown Church Shooting Leaves Jon Stewart Jokeless (NBC News)

Previously: Are They False?

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72 thoughts on “‘I Didn’t Do My Job Today’

  1. Peter81

    I really hope he goes into some more serious broadcasting, drop the fawning audience.

    As for this, you wonder what it would take for all of America to be suitably horrified enough to even make the slightest move towards sanity. This won’t do it, it’ll happen again in four months, but you wonder what it would take.

    1. Lorcan Nagle

      You know what’s terrifying? USians who rely on the Daily Show for news are generally better informed than those who watch mainstream media. Imagine if the best news outlet in Ireland was Scrap Saturday.

      I do think John Oliver’s show is a good next step from the Daily Show, because he does the snark quite well, but he also attempts to get people angry and active as well.

      1. Mé Féin

        The quality of mainstream news in Ireland is crap. Broadsheet just proved that. If Ireland got a Daily Show, news quality would take a quantum leap.

    2. TG

      The stats in Mr Stewart’s country for black people murdering other black people is, on average, 20 a day. Hardly any of these deaths get reported. But when a white person kills a black person(s), there is a mainstream-media circus. But you won’t hear Mr Stewart or the rest of the controlled “media” puppets mention any of this.

  2. Jimmee

    US has a racial problem. But it also just has a general problem with violence. They love resorting to violence. It’s in their nature. And it’s not just about guns laws. They’re inherently violent people who seem to enjoy flying off the handle when the opportunity arises. That’s the difference between us in Europe and them in the US. We seem to be able to keep our composure while they lose theirs.

    1. Odis

      Though not having a .45 to shoot my neighbour’s dog when it craps on my freshly mowed lawn, helps somewhat – in fairness.

      1. Jimmee

        I don’t buy that line that you fix gun laws you solve US violence. Their love of violence is a bit like our love of booze. A few rule changes aren’t going to make a difference. It’s more about a cultural change to the problem that is needed which is done through long term campaigning and education and an eventual generational shift in the right direction.

        1. Odis

          “It’s more about a cultural change to the problem that is needed which is done through long term campaigning and education”. – Yeah, they’ve been at that a while.And now its easy to portray the reformers enthusiasm as somewhat Orwellian and ridiculous, in as much as it seems to be a failure.

        2. Don Pidgeoni

          Except you need both. Removing the means stops people from carrying out these shootings. States that toughen gun laws have fewer suicides by gun for example.

          1. Odis

            That means removing guns Don.
            And that ain’t going to happen, because of the “right to bear arms”, in the Constitution, and powerful Lobby groups like the National Rifle Association, and just the sheer mountain of them.

    2. Peter81

      I really wouldn’t use Europe collectively as a paragon of composure. I won’t spoil it for you, but read some history books.

        1. Mark Dennehy

          Agincourt? On an Irish forum? You don’t think maybe he was talking about how half of us were killing the other half of us for thirty years in acts of domestic terrorism? Does that not sound like a better match to you?

      1. Jimmee

        Surely you must be able to distinguish between peace time violence in your own community than huge armies marching across the country side. But as of today we’ve very similar living standards and aspirations about what it means to live in a peaceful community, and culturally we’re not that far apart. However, violence is much more prevalent there than here. For instance, gun murder rate in the US is nearly 10 times higher than it is in the UK. 10 times!!

      2. ahjayzis

        That’s precisely WHY Europe is more war-averse.

        Take a country, put it isolated between two huge oceans, it’;s only neighbours minnows in comparison, have them constantly refer to themselves as the city on the hill, the indispensable nation, the exceptional nation, devastate the rest of the world with territorial wars on a global scale so it has no real competition as a power, and you get a country that can’t critique itself and can’t govern itself – it’s already perfect.

        The US is ungovernable.

        1. Mark Dennehy

          Eh, no. The years since WW2 set aside as a new historical trend (because that’s what they are), Europe’s a lot less war-averse than you’re suggesting.

          Hell, even if you ignore the overall decline in wars since WW2, we still managed to have the Troubles here, terrorism throughout Germany and Italy in the 70s and 80s, a civil war where a major European capital city was besieged and civilians killed for months right in front of us, and a host of other fairly non-war-averse events.

          The US is pretty bad, but we’re no paragon.

  3. Odis

    Interesting point about the roads named after Confederate Generals in the South. Presumably, he means the roads should be named after someone else.

    Ignoring the fact that a century and a half ago the two halves of America fought a bitter and bloody civil war and the “Damned Yankees” came out on top.
    Doubtless, some Southern whites will see this as part of a continuing attempt to rub the Confederacy’s nose in it. And we would say they are just n****** hating red necks. This is probably an over simplification.
    History we’ve been sold by the victors.

    Elsewhere I read, Texas is building its own gold repository, to repatriate some of its gold from the Federal Reserve. And they’ve written it into a statute, that this gold may never be re-possessed, by the Federal Government.
    Clearly, the lack of homogeneity here, is far more complex than yer mans “simple” solutions.

    1. fluffybiscuits

      Was in Texas years ago for a few weeks. Its a weird sort of place , one of contrasts. You have this conservative state that make the DUP look like a gay pride parade. Yet Austin is this really liberal open city in a sea of conservatism. Amazing place

      1. Odis

        My good lady always said that about Austin. She’s from the NE btw. Two of her sibs are/were gay (to be blunt). So you can imagine what the average Texan thinks, if you’ll excuse my stereotyping.

  4. phil

    If it were the other way around , black people randomly killing white people in America, you can bet they would form millitas and patrol the streets to protect ‘their people’ , I find it amazing that the black community keep taking these incidents on the chin , in the 60’s there was a posibility that the black panters and other militant black groups were going to take the initiative , but thankfully MLK’s message of non violence and forgiveness prevailed …

    Do they have a black leader like MLK to calm tensions today? Should tensions be calmed ?

    1. Odis

      Apparently, the Black on White murder rate is very high. Far higher than the White on Black (and OK I’ve not got the stats to hand, I don’t make a study of it ).
      Its something that’s covered up by the media (so I read).
      Even the black sport, which the blacks call “Polar Bearing” (beating a white person, within an inch of their life) is given a different name, in the media (the “dropping game” or something like that) and the people who carry out this crime are referred to as “youths”.
      And yes, they do have militant groups, but they are rather more sophisticated, than those of yesteryear.

      Matters aren’t that simple as they appear.

      1. Condor

        Odis, I’m shocked. Please tell us more. I’m willing to believe everything you say on the matter.

        1. Odis

          Condor,
          http://nypost.com/2013/11/23/i-was-in-shock-they-were-all-laughing-knockout-game-victim-speaks-out/
          pro tip: Go to Google and type in “Polar Bearing”,

          Those stats here’s a quote. “Yet they are no statistical anomaly. While most violent crime is indeed intrarracial, 26.7 percent of homicides where the victim is a stranger are interracial. And in 2008, the offending rate for blacks (24.7 offenders per 100,000) was seven times higher than the rate for whites (3.4 offenders per 100,000), according to the latest figures from the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS).”

          Thats from this link

          http://www.startribune.com/black-on-white-crime-in-america/223696071/

          It was the first link I came to. I arrived at it by the ingenious means of typing in “Black on White crime statistics in America”.

          And of course there’s plenty more links.

          I hope this will bo of some use to you.

          1. dereviled

            I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest that racial violence is engrained and moderates and the law-abiding are suffering.

          2. Odis

            I would have thought that’s almost invariably the case.
            Its also the case that there’s so much academic hubris invested in the process, questioning the answers are pretty much verboten.

          3. dereviled

            Well 90% of the world isn’t “white” anyway so it will all be academic in a generation or so.
            Probably be religious wars again.

          4. Odis

            God knows, from a Malthusian perspective, its a strictly glass half empty situation. But yeah, religion has been powerful force for evil in the past.
            Sorry if that seems gloomy.

          5. dereviled

            I think we can abuse any ideology when we carry illogical premises to their logical conclusions.
            Environmental feedbacks may lead us to recognise our interdependence as a species in a limited environment which is contrary to many of our traditional models of expansion and domination.

          6. Odis

            I would have to disagree, to an extent. The very environmental feedbacks, are now skewed in favour, of models, that as you state, were based on flawed ideology, in the first instance.
            An academic industry, of well remunerated “philosophers” has sprung up around these ideologies. They are also served by a business/enterpise community, that has worked out how to best exploit the flaws in these models, and have the wealth to buy the politicians.
            A gravy train of ****, if you will.

          7. Odis

            Indeed you can borrow my nightmare vision goggles anytime, they seem to have stopped working for me. :-)

      2. Jon

        I love that use of “apparently”.

        When what you really meant to type was “I’d like to think that”.

          1. Formerly known as @ireland.com

            @Odis
            Says you, you extrapolated a massive amount (of rubbish) from my short comments, in previous articles.

          2. Odis

            @ Formerly.
            The comment you are replying to was aimed at Jon. And I believe it was fair, given that he was trying to imply, that he could delve into the racist motivations of my tiny mind.
            I believe him to be a person of shallow stereotypical views, given freely to him by a society, which to a degree, is almost as shallow.
            I could equally be wrong.

            Your comment “Predictable” was to a large degree, the same. Please don’t take my replies personally. Its a problem that you get on discussion boards, when you can’t see/ don’t know, the person you are having the discussion with.
            One tends to build up a mental picture of that person.

            I come here for what is often an enjoyable discussion, though in truth I can also have a tendency to troll a bit.
            I’m sorry if any of my replies have caused you unnecessary personal offence, over and above their immediate purpose, or some sort of cumulative effect, as you state.

            But hey have at it. I’m always up for a challenge ;-)

  5. Mark Dennehy

    “OK I’ve not got the stats to hand”

    Then maybe go get them first? Becuase otherwise you sound like you don’t know and are just making it up.

    1. Odis

      Sorry Mark, Remiss of me I know. I don’t collect statistics for Racial Crimes in America. That’s just the kind of chap I am.

        1. Odis

          Really, I don’t question your reporting on the subject of firearms in Ireland and in general. I trust what you are saying is correct.
          I feel if we have citations for everything we say, even if they are “controversial”, like a set of figures published by the US Department of Justice, one would never get around to saying anything.
          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reliability_of_Wikipedia

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