Media-Whore D'Oeuvres

"Eric Drysdale wrote for The Daily Show for six years before helping to develop and then writing for The Colbert Report, where he currently works. You may recognize him as Colbert's stage manager 'Bobby,' although that character hasn't been seen since April of 2008, when Colbert ate him. Naturally. In addition to his work for The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, he's also created a 3-D ViewMaster show, 'The Man with F.E.E.E.T,' which recently premiered in NYC and is now available for order online. He talked to me about breaking into the comedy writing game, his experience at The Daily Show, what it was like to develop The Colbert Report, and bringing comedy to the exciting field of ViewMasters." (Spinsider)

"Barack Obama is not the first president to use sweeping reform of the income tax as a way of distracting attention from more urgent, if not more important, issues. But early signs are that he is going about it all wrong. Goodness knows we need a seriously revised tax code. We need one about once a generation. There was a big reform in 1954, then another in 1986 and now here we go again. Maybe. What happens is that people rail justifiably against the complexity of the tax system. Congress and the president respond by closing a few loopholes and using the revenue to lower tax rates. The goal is not just simplicity. It is also a tax system that distorts the economy as little as possible. Trouble is, one person’s 'distortion' is another person’s 'encouragement' or 'promotion' of something worthwhile. So as soon as a tax reform is enacted, lobbyists and interest groups go to work, loopholes start creeping back in and tax rates go up. Eventually, disgruntlement builds, there’s another round of tax reform and the cycle starts all over again. Republicans like to give Ronald Reagan credit for the last big tax reform. And he deserves it but only in a perverse way." (Michael kinsley)

"Kanye West has been called many things, but you could never accuse him of being a man of mystery. Ever since the phrase 'I'mma let you finish ...' went viral, the rapper has been ubiquitous in many ludicrous ways: talking up collaborations with Justin Bieber, claiming to have overcome suicidal thoughts because he's a 'soldier of culture', offering a a Coventry man Twitter fame. Even when West wasn't the one doing the talking, presidents old and new were offering their opinions on him. The natural inclination would be to assume the rapper has spread himself too thin; the career evolution of most celebrities who spend this much time filling column inches tends to involve a sex tape, misuse of collagen or leaked photos involving a bong. Instead, West made one of the best albums of 2010. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is both impressively grand and intensely personal, thriving on the rapper's restless creative mania." (TheGuardian)