Humor & Culture Blog 261 items | updated Nov 29 2012

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    • 'Millionaire Matchmaker' Patti Stanger's advice for bipartisan dating

      // November 29, 2012 by ctv

      By Jo Piazza / current.com / @jopiazza

      spacer James Carville and Mary Matalin may make interparty dating look idyllic and a little bit saucy, but what are the realities of a progressive Democrat dating someone who staunchly believes rich people shouldn’t be taxed more than their secretaries?Or of a proud card-carrying member of the GOP spending nights with someone who spends Sundays marching in pro-choice rallies?

      One of the first rules of dating used to be to leave your politics at the door.

      In today’s mixed-up and confusing world of hookups and cyberdating, there are apparently no more taboos. And that is according to “Millionaire Matchmaker” Patti Stanger, when we chatted up this week while she was promoting the low-calorie sake TY-KU.

      For more on the intersection of politics
      and celebrity, watch "Joy Behar: Say Anything!"
      every weeknight on Current TV at 6E/3P.

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    • Up close and personal with California weed farmers

      // November 29, 2012 by ctv

      By Jo Piazza / current.com / @jopiazza

      spacer Nearly everyone in the Emerald Triangle in Northern California grows pot — but no one really wants to talk about it, particularly on camera.

      There’s a reason there hasn’t been a “Real Housewives” iteration on pot growers. It’s because they live under the radar and simply don’t want the publicity. The closest we can get to being a fly on the wall in their fields and their living rooms is “Marijuana Outlaws,” the award-winning documentary (premiering on Current TV this Saturday night, Dec. 1, at 7P/4E) that follows a year in the life of three separate outdoor marijuana farms, one owned by a veteran grower who hires migrant farm workers, one a mom and pop and sons shop that grows as a family, and a pair of rookie bachelors who are growing on the cheap.

      Access to the farmers was difficult for the filmmakers, and winning the farmers’ trust was a constant battle.

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    • Why we want Twinkies only when we can't have them

      // November 28, 2012 by jopiazza

      By Jo Piazza / current.com / @jopiazza

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      You probably haven't had a Twinkie in years, maybe decades. But the second you learned that you might never be able to have a Twinkie ever again, you wanted one bad. Real bad.

      Maybe you rushed out to the grocery store and bought up every box of the spongey confection you could find. 

      However, it is more likely that you were unable to find any Twinkies at all. Lots of Americans felt the way you felt. After years of ignoring the high-fat, high-sugar snack, everyone these past couple of weeks has wanted, no, needed a bounty of Twinkies in their cupboard.

      In Tampa, Fla., people waited in line for hours on Sunday outside the Hostess Wonder Bread outlet just to purchase wholesale Twinkies. The outlet was sold out within a half hour.

      For more on who killed the Twinkie,
      watch "The War Room with Jennifer Granholm" tonight at 10E/7P.

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    • What if you could watch polar ice disappear?

      // November 26, 2012 by jopiazza

      By Jo Piazza / current.com / @jopiazza

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      In spring 2005, National Geographic photographer James Balog was sent to the Arctic on a tricky assignment — capture images that would tell the story of climate change.

      How do you tell that story in still photos?

      Balog, initially a skeptic on climate change, was inspired by that assignment to begin a mission to alter how we view our changing planet. He deployed more than 25 time-lapse cameras across the Arctic to capture a multiyear record of the world’s changing glaciers.

      These visual records, which are woven into the new Jeff Orlowski documentary "Chasing Ice," compress years into seconds and capture ancient mountains of ice in motion as they disappear.

      Director Jeff Orlowski talks about his documentary
      "Chasing Ice" tonight on Viewpoint at 8E/5P.

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      • 1 Comment >>
    • Call to Caption: Black Friday

      // November 26, 2012 by rluz

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      UPDATE, Nov. 29: This frantic crowd got a head start on the traditional Black Friday sales by rushing the stores on Thanksgiving night. The community submitted some hilarious captions but surprisingly this week's vote ended in a tie! Since there could only be one winner, our team had the tough decision to choose one:

      • Hurry in, China wants their money back. - by Jesse Martinez
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      • 24 Comments >>
    • 13 foods America should say goodbye to, but won't

      // November 21, 2012 by sgwhites

      By Stephanie Whiteside / current.com / @stephgwhiteside

      spacer Hostess may or may not actually close, but Americans this week were forlorn at the thought of losing Twinkies, Ding Dongs and Wonder Bread. While it may not be the end of the line for the Twinkie, these treats may have become staples of America's culinary identity. As loaded as they are with nostalgia, they're also packed full of chemicals and preservatives. Sad as it would be to say goodbye, our bodies would probably be better for it.

      But Twinkies aren't the only unhealty snack habit in the U.S. At the risk of destroying our collective childhood memories and playing the role of "Debbie Downer," we've come up with 13 other foods that America should probably bid a fond farewell to – but probably won't.

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      • 24 Comments >>
    • Snappy comebacks for your conservative relatives

      // November 21, 2012 by JessMag

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      Ah, family gatherings. Nothing says the holidays quite like a tense dinner with your extended family. Especially those cousins and uncles who spent the last six months decrying Barack Obama as a Kenyan, socialist, fascist, Muslim, white-hating, health-care-destroying, tax-raising, gun-stealing sham of a president. Just in case that particular topic comes up, we’ve put together a selection of smart responses – complete with facts, charts, and comebacks – to help you win the holiday brawl. Let the merriment begin!

      1.      BENGHAZI!!!

      If you have a relative who watches Fox News, we can almost guarantee they’ll be frothing at the mouth to discuss the SUPER SEKRIT BENGHAZI COVERUP!!!!!

      First of all, you can show them this:

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      (via Americans Against the Tea Party)

      And then say this: How long did it take Bush to figure out who was responsible for 9/11? Like, three years and two wars? Yeah. This took a week. Obama called it an act of terror on Day 1. Four Americans died that day, which is tragic, but by serving as consulates in dangerous places like Libya, they accepted a certain level of risk.

      Conservatives have tried to link every single thing that’s happened since the Benghazi attack back to Benghazi. Hillary Clinton stepped down as Secretary of State … because she’s gearing up for her 2016 campaign. Petraeus resigned … because he leaked classified information to the biographer he was having an affair with. And, yeah, Obama isn’t commenting on Benghazi any more. He’s not commenting on the Aurora shooting or Trayvon Martin any more either. Because they happened in the past, and he – like every other sane person – has moved on and is allowing the process of justice to unfold.

      For more information, see Media Matters’ great article on myths and realities about Benghazi, and Mother Jones’ piece about the history of embassy attacks.

      2. The number of states planning to secede is proof that America doesn’t want Obama as their president!

      Response: No state has filed a formal petition to secede. Many people have started Internet petitions, but those don’t have any legal bearing. (See: Best of ... secession petitions to the White House). Gov. Rick Perry went on the record saying Texas has no plans to secede. And a Supreme Court ruling from 1869, Texas v. White, stated that seceding from the Union is illegal because there is no Constitutional right to secession.

      Also, many of the people who signed those petitions didn’t live in that state, so lots of those signatures are invalid. Finally, while the White House does say it will respond to any petition with more than 25,000 signatures, “will respond to” does not mean “will give in to.” And there aren’t nearly as many petition signers as there were Obama voters, so it seems like most of America still wants him around – you know, since he won that whole election thing.

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      • 128 Comments >>
    • Dumpster diving for the holidays

      // November 21, 2012 by jopiazza

      By Jo Piazza / current.com / @jopiazza

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      It was a combination of curiosity, Thanksgiving anxiety and a week of Current coverage on hunger that landed me in a dumpster behind a Trader Joe’s in East Knoxville, Tenn., just before midnight on a Tuesday.

      An hour earlier, two peace activists I had been staying with informed me they would be "dumpstering."

      I asked what I should wear.

      “Something warm, you don’t mind getting dirty,” Jake W., a part-time puppeteer, told me. I put the question out to the universe. A friend on Twitter recommended something Dickensian. I settled on ill-fitting jeans with a persistent grease stain and a flannel, as Jake told me he thinks he could write a Broadway show about dumpster diving.

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      • 3 Comments >>
    • The top 12 political turkeys of 2012

      // November 21, 2012 by sgwhites

      By Stephanie Whiteside / current.com / @stephgwhiteside

      spacer An election year can bring out some of the more interesting political moments. And by interesting, we mean completely ridiculous.

      The year's election gave us some lasting memories from poltiicans.

      We've rounded up the top 12 turkeys from the year in politics:

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      • 4 Comments >>
    • Equal pay: So simple even monkeys get it

      // November 19, 2012 by sgwhites

      By Stephanie Whiteside / current.com / @stephgwhiteside

      spacer Equal pay for equal work is a a pretty straightforward idea. But it's one that tripped up the Republican Party during the presidential campaign (keep in mind it was Mitt Romney's response to a question about equal pay that gave us "binders full of women").

      But it is simple – so simple even Capuchin monkeys understand it. A video from the summer that's been circulating around the Internet proves that even monkeys understand equal pay is important.

      click here to continue reading
      • 1 Comment >>
    • Call to Caption: Obama and Boehner

      // November 19, 2012 by rluz

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      UPDATE, Nov. 23: President Barack Obama sat with Speaker of the House John Boehner during a meeting with a bipartisan group of congressional leaders in Washington, DC. We received an overwhelming amount of submissions for the pair! The community shared some hilarious captions, but there could only be one winner:

      • "It's ok John, it's called compromise. This is how real people govern." - by De
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