Please help me understand this Ghanan music video

By Dan Brooks in Being Cool 6 Comments

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2HSo3yywDU

 Jason McMackin implanted this song in my brain via the demon Facebook, and now I am periodically blurting out “Uncle Obama!” before falling into silent recrimination. It’s subtle, but this song about how a man named Uncle Obama has an enormous banana that Sister Deborah would like to feed to her monkey contains a double entendre. Yet so many questions go unanswered. It can’t be a coincidence that this Ghanan Milton Berle is named “Obama.” And who is Sister Deborah? And how is this song being received in Ghana, which has historically been kind of conservative?

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So, what’s in the Pakistani news?

By Dan Brooks in Church People 2 Comments

Yesterday’s All Parties Conference in Islamabad (not pictured: various parties)

Because I am a curious fellow in dire need of supervision, I spent several hours yesterday reading the Express Tribune of Pakistan. Granted, now seems like an especially interesting time in Pakistani news, but man—that place is a den of insanity. The photo above comes from this story about a meeting of the All Parties Conference, which threatened to block NATO supply routes to Afghanistan if the United Nations does not pass an anti-blasphemy law. They also threatened to leave the UN and form a separate, Muslim United Nations, which would pretty much be the best thing ever to happen to American talk radio. It gets better after the jump.

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Guns and religion vs. 47%

By Dan Brooks in Republican Candidates 0 Comment

So long, fuckers!

As the Mitt Rombot inches closer to becoming self-aware, pundits across the internet have turned to deciding how his “47% of Americans will never care for their lives” remarks compare to the worst gaffe in American history: Barack Obama’s 2008 “guns and religion” comment. Both statements cost the speakers their respective elections. But which is worse? Mary Bruce of ABC News put the question to Jay Carney at yesterday’s White House presser. William Saletan quotes 500 words of 2008 Obama in what is definitely not a half-assed run at his deadline. And Jamelle Bouie at the American Prospect points out that each gaffe came at a different point in the horse race. Unifying theme after the jump.

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Santorum possibly working in satire now

By Dan Brooks in Reactionary Populism 1 Comment

I have laughed at this picture so many times that I don’t even need Photoshop to put a dick in it.

Speaking at the Values Voter Summit in Washington yesterday, Rick Santorum said that conservatives “will never have the elite, smart people on our side.” Don’t worry; he made a face when he said “smart people,” so everyone would understand. Santorum knows that smart people are dumb, and people who oppose his plan to make a series of laws against abortion and gay sex and selling liquor on Sundays “want to tell you what to do.” Quote:

We will never have the media on our side, ever, in this country. We will never have the elite, smart people on our side, because they believe they should have the power to tell you what to do.

On first blush, it’s an airtight logical argument. It’s possible there are a couple of holes, though, and they go beyond whether Santorum was being sarcastic, as David Weigel oddly argues. You get that straw man, David Weigel—shake him! Video after the jump.

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That was fast

By Dan Brooks in Republican Candidates 5 Comments

Missouri congressman and Republican senatorial candidate Todd Akin, with novel-tie

On Sunday, Todd Akin (R-MO) opined that if you really hadn’t wanted that man to penetrate you, you wouldn’t have gotten pregnant. By yesterday afternoon, multiple Republican groups had withdrawn their support and asked him to leave the senate race. It turns out you can’t say absolutely anything you want into a microphone in the United States of America, despite the occasional impression to the contrary. Now, approximately 48 hours after he tried to explain why he believes women who have been forcibly impregnated by strangers should have to bear their children, Representative Akin has produced an apology. Forgiveness video after the jump.

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