Jonathan Swift

"If I Were the Devil"

Holly Munson | Posted 05.02.2012

Read More: Video, Paul Harvey, Free Market America, If I Were the Devil, E.L. Doctorow, Satire, c.s. Lewis, A Modest Proposal, The Screwtape Letters, Bipartisanship, Jonathan Swift, Politics News
Holly Munson

Satire is an important form of political commentary. The problem is that when someone equates a particular policy position with The Destruction of America As We Know It, they disregard the fact that reasonable people can disagree.

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St. Vincent's Latest Pays Homage To 'Gulliver's Travels'

Posted 02.07.2012

Read More: Annie Clark, St. Vincent Cheerleader Video, Video, Gulliver's Travels, St. Vincent Cheerleader, Cheerleader Video, Cheerleader, St. Vincent, St. Vincent Annie Clark, Cheerleader Song, Jonathan Swift, Music, St Vincent on Gossip Girl, Hiro Murai Cheerleader, Culture News

If Jonathan Swift is looking down at us from a Gulliver-like POV, he'd be pleased to know his classic tale is still getting nods in pop culture today....

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Take Our Children, Please!

Steve Fraser | Posted 01.29.2012

Read More: Bond Market, The One Percent, Income Inequality, Wealth Disparity, We Are the 99 Percent, Sacrifice, Occupy Wall Street, Income Disparity, Jonathan Swift, #Occupywallstreet, New York Stock Exchange, Politics News
Steve Fraser

In 1729, Jonathan Swift's idea was simple: the starving Irish should sell their own children to the rich as food. I want to suggest that we put in motion a similar undertaking. The basic idea is that we offer ourselves up as a sacrifice to the bond markets.

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Jane Austen Takes No Prisoners

Lev Raphael | Posted 11.19.2011

Read More: Zombies, Jane Austen, Vampires, Satire, Jane Austen Novels, Jane Austen Fans, Mash-Ups, Pride and Prejudice, H.L. Mencken, Robert Rodi, Jonathan Swift, Voltaire, Mark Twain, Books News
Lev Raphael

Austen excelled at wielding the skewer. Lady Catherine de Bourgh is an obvious example in Pride and Prejudice. But the book holds worse.

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A "Modest Proposal" to Fix U.S. Debt: America, Let's Walk Away

Jeff Reeves | Posted 09.19.2011

Read More: Debt Satire, Political Satire, Jonathan Swift, Debt Crisis, National Debt, Jonathan Swift Satire, US Debt, Debt Default, Debt Ceiling Talks, Cantor Debt Talks, Politics News
Jeff Reeves

It is sad day when hardworking, undercompensated CEOs and money managers must see a bloated government gouge us with outrageous taxes -- and then throw away all our hard-earned money.

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What Would Jonathan Swift Think of Jack Black's Gulliver?

Danny Groner | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Jack Black, Holidays, Film Criticism, Rob Letterman, National Post, Chris Knight, Movies, The Globe and Mail, Little Fockers, Movie Reviews, Gulliver's Travels, St. Petersburg Times, Rick Groen, Satire, Christmas, Guitar Hero, Transformers, New York Times, Jonathan Swift, Critics, A.O. Scott, Steve Persall, Humor and Satire, Entertainment News
Danny Groner

When director Rob Letterman took certain liberties in updating the tale to click with a younger, modern audience, did he stray too far from the original Swift story?

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An Immodest Proposal

Chris Weigant | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Immodest Proposal, Dont Touch My Junk, Modest Proposal, Nude, Naked, Airport, Humor, Chris Weigant, Satire, Jonathan Swift, Security, Flying, Tsa, Swift, Politics News
Chris Weigant

I'd like to offer a proposal that everyone should have to fly naked. Immediately ban all clothing of any kind from all flights, in order to reach a one-hundred percent rate of security against clothing bombs.

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Unfilmable Books

The Huffington Post | Gabe Habash | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Umberto Eco, Nabokov, Pale Fire, Jonathan Swift, Unfilmable, William Shakespeare, The Unnameable, A Tale of a Tub, Vladimir Nabokov, Lost Girls, Merry Wives of Windsor, Gravitys Rainbow, Art Spiegelman, Salinger, Journey to the End of the Night, Slidepollajax, Unfilmable Novels, Finnegans Wake, Book Adaptations, Samuel Beckett, JD Salinger, The Waves, Beckett, Unfilmable Books, The Mezzanine, Pynchon, Nicholson Baker, Foucault's Pendulum, The Catcher in the Rye, Virginia Woolf, Thomas Pynchon, Unadaptable Books, Absalom Absalom, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Maus, William Faulkner, Alan Moore, James Joyce, Shakespeare, Books News

Books and movies have gone hand-in-hand since Hollywood's very beginnings. Some of its greatest triumphs--"The Godfather," "Gone With The Wind," "The ...

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The Celtic Tiger, Declawed and Defanged

Michael Winship | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Politics, Celtic Tiger, Anglo Irish Bank Collapse, Santiago Calatrava, Financial Crisis, Fox News, Ireland. Dublin, Jonathan Swift, Business, Brian Cowen, World News
Michael Winship

Last year, when I spoke with David Kavanagh, the running joke was that the difference between Ireland and Iceland was one letter and six weeks. In 2009, the economy sank 7.1 percent. And as in the US, citizen anger has been vehement and vocal.

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Today In History: John Winthrop

Sophie Pollitt-Cohen | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Model of Christian Charity, City on a Hill, Puritans, America, Sermons, John Winthrop, Thanksgiving, Witchcraft, Pilgrims, Thanksgiving Traditions, The-History-of-Showering, Puritanism, History, Gulliver's Travels, American History, Jonathan Swift, Massachusetts, Israel, New England, Comedy News
Sophie Pollitt-Cohen

Winthrop, the first governor of Massachusetts, used the metaphor City on a Hill." He advised the colonists to be a model community, as the whole world was watching them. Even when they showered. Especially when they showered.

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A Domestic Proposal: No More Babies

Elizabeth Gregory | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: New Longevity, U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow, Satire, Work-Life Balance, Jonathan Swift, Jon Kyl, No More Babies, Birth Rate, Politics News
Elizabeth Gregory

Senator Jon Kyl made headlines recently by proposing that maternity care shouldn't be covered by health insurance because he didn't need it. When S...

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Super Poems: Other Comic Books Inspired by Verse

Sophie Pollitt-Cohen | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Alexander Pope, The Hollow Men, W.H. Auden, The Imperfect Enjoyment, The Tiger, Betty and Veronica, Spiderman, Road-Not-Taken, William Blake, John Milton, The Fantastic Four, Lord Rochester, Iron Man, Cats, Robert Frost, Archie Comics, Human Torch, Captain American, T.S. Eliot, Calvin and Hobbes, The Waste Land, On His Blindness, Jonathan Swift, World War II, Dr. Arbuthnot, Batman, The Green Lantern, Achilles, Comics, Comedy News
Sophie Pollitt-Cohen

In a plot line inspired by Robert Frost's poem "Road Not Taken," fictional character Archie Andrews has already proposed to Veronica and will propose to Betty next month. I wonder what it would be like if other comics were inspired by poems...

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The Best Medicine

Caroline Hirsch | Posted 11.17.2011

Read More: Bill Clinton, The Colbert Report, Seinfeld, Tony Blair, A Modest Proposal, Laughter, Merrill Lynch, Daily Show, Economic Collapse, Bush Doctrine, Jon Stewart, Lehman Brothers, Comedy Central, Aristophanes, Ancient Greeks, Jeff Ross, Jonathan Swift, Tina Fey, Dancing With the Stars, Sarah Palin Reaction, Colbert Report, Healthy Living News
Caroline Hirsch

As the economy collapses and political scandals keep flaring up like bad rashes, where should America turn for answers? What's going to keep us from falling apart? The answer: laughter.

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