presenting… "AMERICAN BOB"

Call this an experiment. Like it? Please tweet, retweet, facebook-like etc 🙂

Below, the first episode of my attempt at a political-comedy/commentary show; “American Bob.” This is an INDEPENDENT project, produced entirely by me and is NOT affiliated with any other business, organization or entity that hosts/produces any of my other shows. First episode is about Anthony Weiner, some of the material will be familiar to frequent followers of this blog, my twitter, etc.


It’s a little rough around the edges at this point, but topical is topical. I’m intentionally trying to hold back on the geek-specific references in this case, to differentiate it from the rest of the output and broaden the potential audience. Yes, I am aware of the inherent “me-too-ism” in starting a political-bitchfest series during an Election Year.

Not going to be everyone’s cup of tea, I understand, but any feedback and/or views are appreciated. There will be ZERO crossover, in terms of topics and (hopefully) jokes between this, OverThinker (new episode tomorrow night!) and the Escapist series, so fans of those who don’t care for politics should feel under NO obligation to watch it.

63 thoughts on “presenting… "AMERICAN BOB"

  1. Robert says:
    Unknown's avatar

    ABOUT FUCKING TIME

    Hopefully you can keep your political bullshit from your gaming and movie shows.

    Oh, and you're still a dumbass. Just because YOU have to lie to keep a girl “interested” in you, does not mean every man in a relationship has to lie.

    Like

  2. Sofie Liv Pedersen says:
    Unknown's avatar

    Well, you said you wanted honest response so here is my honest thoughts.

    Straight out of the back, I didn't laugh at much as ones, I didn't even smile, in fact, I got tired of it after the first half.
    This is weird to me, as this is kind of like “the big picture.” over again, only your allowed much more freedom as it is your own independent project, and you can say what ever the hell you want.. which you do.. clearly.
    And I really like the big pictures videos, they always maintain my interest all the way through, I frequently wish some of those videos were twice as long.. So why not this one? it confuses me, it even confuses me that I didn't smile, because I usually do by your videos.

    You swear an awful lot in this video, and I don't think that is helping you.

    Perhaps it's the subject as that is not something I particularly agree with.
    It's true, a lot of men are assholes like this, and even more women likewise so. I've met plenty of guys with this exact conviction about love and partnerships, and even uses that as excuse why I should go home with them for a quickie. It makes me sad for them.. really sad.
    I know it can be different, it can be done. So the subject, it just hit wrong with me.

    Actually personally what I think should be done was that married couples should not be afraid to be like Gomez and Morticia Addams! if you ask me they are like the ultimate most ideal married couple in the world! That is differently my idea of an ideal marriage, and it can be done.. sort of.. no not entirely would be to tiring, but you know, we shouldn't be afraid to act like that, world would be better for it.

    The video.. I don't know, I need another one in the series to chew on and compare to. I think the subject and your view on it was to distracting for me to pay attention to anything else.

    Like

  3. Varya says:
    Unknown's avatar

    I liked it. Yes, I prefer your geeky stuff, but that's because I'm a geek, so yeah…
    But it was interesting to hear american politics being discussed by someone that usually thinks in many of the same ways I do.
    I'm from Sweden and our politics are quite different, and what we get from american politics isn't all that informative. A lot of the time it's “hey look at those crazy Americans”.(Don't get me wrong, I still think you are crazy Americans)
    In Sweden, “family values” isn't such a big political issue. Yes, we do have a few parties that “support family values”, but the opinion that family values is just another way of saying “we decide what a family is, not you”, has quite a steady group of supporters here.

    Like

  4. Sofie Liv Pedersen says:
    Unknown's avatar

    Oh right, should probably mention! Am Danish, so these political thoughts may just not matter to me, perhaps it's just because there is no way for me to relate.

    Except in that whole love and partnership thing, where your perception makes me a bit sad.

    Sigh, plenty of people are asses, plenty of girls and plenty of men are asses, even if your a good person you could very likely end up falling in love with a wrong person, but then it's just about trying again and do better.
    If the world didn't work this way we just wouldn't have so many bland love pop songs now would we?

    Like

  5. Shattered Glass says:
    Unknown's avatar

    Bob,
    Maybe you just did this because the Congress Person in question was a man, or maybe just because for forever and a decade no women were aloud to be politicians–in America, but you seemed to portray being a politician–in America–as a men only sort of thing. I don't know your speech just had that connotation. Otherwise great stuff; so long as your rules go both ways.

    Like

  6. Cartogriffi says:
    Unknown's avatar

    I received a poll call in the middle of this asking about the “stability of marriage in the US.” That was both creepy and hilarious.

    I enjoyed the video as a political opinion piece but I'll admit it lacked the MovieBob humor that makes me love your other work so much. If you want to make this a regular feature I'm interested to see where it goes. If it becomes an infrequent piece reserved for those issues that really get to you (and don't seem appropriate for The Big Picture) there's plenty of value in that as well.

    I loved the Big Picture-esq use of your own image.

    Like

  7. Samuel says:
    Unknown's avatar

    I agree with the general point on Americans being too interested in their politicians' home lives. You sort of lost my interest when you started ranting about marriage and lying and whatnot, though.

    You're entitled to your opinion, of course. I don't doubt some marriages are as you describe. On the other hand, though, you can say the same about any relationship if the parties involved are of a particular mindset. It's not just marriage. One-night stands usually have to be set up a bit if that's your thing. Friendships have to be maintained. Family relationships drift apart if they're paid no attention. What is the big revelation supposed to be here? That human beings, as social animals, have to occasionally (gasp!) work at being sociable? I don't agree with an assumption that a close relationship with a member of the opposite gender is always going to be the most difficult and deceitful in anyone's life, if that was your meaning.

    Anyway, that section seemed a bit too typical of the usual internet “obligatory anti-establishment” stuff, at least in my opinion.

    The other part was better. I think, again, you make fine points about politics, and it was entertaining enough. Your videos are always fairly witty.

    Finally, though, I believe I've heard the sentiment expressed before that Leave it to Beaver was not a documentary. In fact, every freshly dumped 14-year-old on the internet has made it a point to let me know at some time, I daresay.

    Like

  8. WilhelmVonHaig says:
    Unknown's avatar

    I liked this and agreed with pretty much everything you said. I think its ridiculous the amount of value people put in marriage when it comes to politics. Just look at how many people complained about Ed Miliband (the leader of Britain's labour party) because he had children and was living with a woman who he wasn't married to (allthough there weren't that many people who complained, and most of those who did were conservatives who hated him anyway)

    Like

  9. Reverend Allan Ironside says:
    Unknown's avatar

    The title needs to be changed to “Moviebob's MSNBC Resume”

    I stopped watching at the comment “Keep These Assholes out of the White House” Seriously, Bob? It wouldn't matter if Sarah Palin dove into the sun to save a newborn kitten, you–like all the other people who do likewise–only see the (R) at the end of her name and toss them off the fucking cliff withtout one thought to anything anyone says.

    I hope one day a member of the Tea Party saves your life.

    As for Weiner, maybe the reason he's losing his job isn't because he sent silly pics to silly girls, maybe its because we all caught him doing what he does best: LYING HIS FUCKING ASS OFF.

    Not only lying, but more than willing to put the blame on Andrew Breitbart. Now, feel however you want about HIM, but the truth is that Weiner LIED and then was perfectly content to blame AB all day and all night.

    This country is in a pretty shitter right now, and it ain't the fault of anyone whose name rhymes with Tush. Not three years after the fact

    Like

  10. The Partisan says:
    Unknown's avatar

    I don't give two flying shits about politics. Never have, never will.

    But I enjoy Bob's trains of thoughts (don't always agree, but I enjoy his rhetoric).

    Cool beans, dude. You've got my thumbs up for what it's worth.

    Like

  11. Dave from canada says:
    Unknown's avatar

    @ Rev.

    What would that have to do with anything? Hitler loved dogs. That doesn't make him not an asshole. News flash. People are complex. Even the insanely stupid or evil. Pretty much ANYONE has some redeeming qualities.

    A Tea Bagger saving bob's life wouldn't make their views any less racist and stupid.

    Sarah palin could feed stray cats for a year out of her own pocket and that wouldn't make the fact that she's a self involved, anti intellectual, sadistic, mentally backwards, misogynistic control freak with a moron factory between her legs who is so insanely stupid that even many republicans don't want anything to do with her any better.

    Like

  12. Adam says:
    Unknown's avatar

    Video feedback: Hmmm…I think I need one more before I can decide if I want to continue watching this or not as it mostly felt like a very angry partisan rant. I don't think there's anything wrong with that really but it seems more conduicive to letting off personal steam (hey Bob, you ever consider taking up boxing or something? I think it would do you some good) rather than stirring up any discussion (aside from Right wing knee jerk reactions).

    On the marriage issue: I think we care so much about people being married because we still inherently believe marriage is good. Don't get me wrong, I think marriage is good when it's right. The vast majority of the time it isn't sadly. At least 50% of marriages end in divorce and I wager at least 50% of marriages that are ongoing are miserable ones. This is how we get lies like “The first year of marriage is the hardest.” No, it isn't if you do it right.

    I'm fortunate enough to know several couples who are doing marriage right and the first year together is just as good as the fifth, tenth, and beyond. They don't always agree but they don't fight. And they are close and safe enough with each other that they can be honest about those little things like “have I put on weight?” or “I don't like some of your relatives”. They're their own people who agree to put each other ahead of everyone else in their lives. It's very simple, and sadly very rare. So we romanticize it, and we believe that just because a couple is still together they must be doing something right, even though if you actually looked closer you could see they both really do hate the situation.

    And Bill and Hilary Clinton do have an understanding. That understanding was Hilary wanted to be president someday.

    Like

  13. Peter says:
    Unknown's avatar

    @Rev: It doesn't matter what party she belongs to, Sarah Palin is in fact an unbelievingly stupid woman and I hate her for that reason.

    And yes, it is Bush's fault. This is a fact.

    @Aaron: Don't let anyone convince you otherwise. That comment is pure fucking win.

    Like

  14. TheAlmightyNarf says:
    Unknown's avatar

    I've already replied to this when it was a blog post a bit back, so I won't get into that again.

    On that note, I love that you're doing a show about politics. One of the things that has always bugged me was that you're political views have never been nearly as well articulated and thought out as your views on gaming and nerd culture in general, and I've always assumed this was because you never took the time to flesh them out the way you do for you're gaming videos. So, I hope doing “American Bob” gives me as much insight into politics and “Overthinker” does into gaming. I look forward to further episodes.

    Like

  15. Avistew says:
    Unknown's avatar

    Okay, let's see…

    1) I knew these arguments of yours already, but I likes how you explained them in the video better.
    I enjoy the fact that you're posting videos about politics, and I agree with you that the state of things is BS in the US, but I disagree with some other things you said.

    2) I think honesty is about people, not relationships. I'm the kind of person who will say “this doesn't taste good” or “you've gained weight” and expects the same. And I'm married.
    Mind you, I'm also divorcing my first husband, and after breaking up I realised he was keeping a hell of a lot of secrets from me. But I'm pretty sure that's because he's insecure and never truly understood how I work. My second husband gets me much better on that.
    But yeah, I think honesty is about trust, and if I can't trust someone enough to tell them the truth about things, what business do I have being in a romantic relationship with them? I'm less likely to lie to them than to my friends or family (not that I do that often, but it happens).
    On the other hand, I'd imagine that when you have casual sex, there is no real reason to say anything that's true (not even give your real name). Doesn't mean you can't be honest, of course, just that if you're not, nobody cares.
    Ultimately though, I think it's silly to talk about honesty when relating to politics. Of course they're not honest. They're politicians. Whether they're honest or not in their private life doesn't matter at all, when it comes to politics it's about saying what will get you the most votes even if you don't believe all of it.

    3) I don't see why stable relationships have to be monogamous, or why a nonmonogamous person shouldn't get married. First, some people work on a primary/secondary hierarchy, sp marrying their primary makes sense. Secondly marriage provides advantages, which I understand sucks, but it still is an incentive to get married. I'm not talking about saving some money on your taxes here, I'm talking about being allowed to live in the same country, or in some places being allowed to adopt together, for a couple examples.
    And in the US, it seems it's important when you're a politician that you are married. That's ridiculous but hell, that's probably why a bunch of them do get married, because it's an unofficial requirement for the job.

    (To be continued…)

    Like

  16. Avistew says:
    Unknown's avatar

    (Continuation)

    4) I do think it's an US issue, and I'm not sure why. Maybe you're more Puritan, or more about getting into people's personal business. In France, 2007's presidential election ended up between a separated man (who was on his what, third wife by then?) and a woman who wasn't married to the father of her kids. That kind of thing was never pointed out here, I only heard it from the US media (hadn't really thought about it myself).
    Then after being elected, the president divorced and married a model, and sure people talked about that a bit, but believe me, people were pretty much patting him on the back for it.

    If you go back further, Mitterand (former president) had two lives, two wives, and the press knew about it, but didn't mention it because they felt it was nobody's business. It was only revealed with his consent, when he was close to dying and when the daughter of his second spouse was already 20. By the way, he already had the double life thing before he was elected. And he's the guy who stayed President the longest (14 years). Oh, and it was revealed while he was still President (although the year before the election, and he didn't run again since he was dying).

    And that guy who's on trial on rape charges? He's notorious for having sex with a lot of women who aren't his wife, and people just don't care when it's consensual.

    Really, in France you'd think it's almost considered a good thing when politicians have more partners. a) shows they can multitask, and b) they don't risk being frustrated and starting some war.

    So yeah, I don't really get the big deal. Hell, even when I was in exclusive relationships, sending pics and erotic messages was expressly fine and not considered cheating, so to me it's a big non-story.

    Like

  17. Kyle says:
    Unknown's avatar

    I liked it okay. It seemed to take longer to say what you were saying than was necessary. Still, I liked it.

    I wouldn't want this to take time and attention away from the geeky stuff you do, but if its what is on your mind, then get it out of your head and in a video. That's cool.

    Like

  18. Daniel says:
    Unknown's avatar

    @Reverend Allan Ironside
    I don't vote for politicians on whether or not they can do really brave and awesome things, Reverend, I vote for them if I find I agree with their policies and I don't think they're out of touch. Palin fails both of these.

    Hell, if heroism was the qualifier for Political office, wouldn't Superman have gotten to be the President by now?

    Also, while the country isn't exclusively acting stupid because of Bush, I distinctively remember the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars, our standing with foreign nations, (which is important if you want to call yourself the leader) and the economy entering the recession during Bush's run. Also, since Obama's been in office, we've finally started implementing a national healthcare overhaul and eventual public option (yes, we fucking need that, no, it won't cause rationing, no there won't be death panels.) we've been actually engaged in pulling back troops, and we got Osama without having to start wars with OTHER nations, and basically told Pakistan to go fuck itself. (which we should have done a LONG time ago.)

    So yeah, Obama rocks.

    Like

  19. Silens says:
    Unknown's avatar

    Okay…

    First off, I do understand why politicians tend to want to be married before approaching office – namely, because it allows them to present a nice comfortable front to the average voters who see the ads and think 'Hey, that guy and his family is somewhat similar to ours, and thus probably hold similar values'.

    I think another thing is that people probably see Weiner's antics as a sign that he's not trustworthy and thus not suitable for office. Me, I tend to look at a man's record when asking for resignation, not his sexual activity, but the general public doesn't tend to see things that way.

    I do agree the whole 'family values' arguments tend to fall under bullshit as a way of perpetuating backward stereotypes that don't really fit the modern family mold (and ostracise those live comfortably outside of it) – but then again, I'm twenty-one and have a working and happy relationship with my family as a whole, and I can see how many in the general public don't share that opinion.

    As for the video… eh, it's a little too short to leave much of an impact, your points are a little too sparsely developed, and while I don't mind the swearing, I can see how some would find it distracting. If you have time to do this, go for it – could be interesting.

    Like

  20. antecedentless says:
    Unknown's avatar

    Like your excelent “Complex Issues” overthinker video, you let your (wrong, very wrong) personal political views be known, but kept them separate from the thesis at hand, which is good.

    As for the thesis itself, well, I will just quote the Apostle Paul as my counter argument. Much of the structure of our government was based on existing church governance, so while the standard of “one wife”/”self controlled”/”good family” is not explicitly in the constition, it is a standard that has been aptly applied for the most part.

    “The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church? He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil.” From Chapter 3 of Paul's first recorded letter to Timothy; ESV translation.

    (I am going to guess that one of your family members was/is a dues paying union member, fighting more over slush fun-excuse me, “benefits” than actual pay)

    Like

  21. Mads says:
    Unknown's avatar

    @ Moviebob

    Bravo. You articulated your point of view excellently compared to the blog post. I knew you could do better, you knew you could do better, and we were both confident it needed to be said.

    Here's a problem though: American Bob is not factual enough. I get it, running time was already a bit long for this kind of thing, you'd already rounded up some good points concerning broader american politics, but…it's not enough.

    You want to do a political version of the game overthinker or the big picture, you've got an excellent format for it here.
    I know and care about american politics – I read the daily beast: politics to highlight stories, I watch the daily show to observe the absurdities, I watch colbert to be able to observe the flaws in the pundit arguments of the week, and I watch real time with bill maher to hear the fundamental conflicts of a given week articulated by smart people. Essentially, I'm well versed in this kind of thing, I have been invested for years (every daily show episode since 06). I'm probably your core audience for this kind of thing.
    So, yeah, your show fits right into my regular lineup of talk shows. I understand and can relate to all of your points; mostly, it works, and it has a good sharp edge to it. It's as entertaining as politics generally get, and could probably all fit straight into a new rules (bill maher) segment as the final rule. That's meant to be high praise.

    Which makes it really important that I make the next point well:

    http://arstechnica.com/media/news/2008/09/does-ideology-trump-facts-studies-say-it-often-does.ars

    You don't want to be a believer, or come off as one. You want to come off as a thinker. You want this especially, since even if you counter with _pure_ fact, you won't be able to communicate with a lot of people who are ordinarily thinkers, in your parlance. So some of your dichotomies are too simple, and some of your points a little too oppinion oriented. You want your show to work in this genre, you need to be more factual than your overthinker shows, and at least to the degree your big pictures shows are.
    Otherwise, you'll risk sounding partisan, even when you're not, and you'll turn people away who are ordinarily ready to listen. I used to have another article on consumption of similar and disparate viewpoints compared to your own, and the science on this is clear; with as divided an audience as a politics show will have, you need to double down on the factual, to ensure that everybody comes away feeling like they learned something, not just those people who agree with you.

    Anyway, here's the second reason you want more fact:

    http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/13/shocker-the-internet-is-not-egalitarian-popular-forum-posters/

    You already have a good following, but that's not enough. It'll get your new show off the ground, but you need to tone down oppinions. 80% of the show has to be analysis and presentation of fact.
    In this first attempt, your allusions to married with children, and your assertions on the lies in marriages and relationships were just not factual enough.
    If you had statistics, if you had anything more than peoples allusions to lean on, to give you just slight support, you could have built most of your case around understanding the concept, then putting weinergate into context.

    So what if you can't build a more factual case? Then don't invest yourself into the subject. The statistics are clear on this; too much oppinion and you're not gonna fit the mold for a popular internet person. Since you need to live off of your internet popularity…well, you get the picture.

    All that said, I hope you decide to work more with the concept. I fundamentally like your sharp analysis. For whatever reason, I was always more into that than the humor you do. Take that as you will.

    Like

  22. Mads says:
    Unknown's avatar

    @Reverend Allan Ironside


    This country is in a pretty shitter right now, and it ain't the fault of anyone whose name rhymes with Tush. Not three years after the fact

    Of course, apart from the useless wars that are bankrupting your country, but which you can't get out of because when you broke it, you bought it.

    Seriously guy, politics have a reach a bit further into the future than 3 years. A country is big; it doesn't turn on a dime.

    @Chris Evans

    Some of us do. Yes, sarah palin has been treated horribly by part of the american media; to narratives have stuck to her, one as the mama grizzly, the bossy woman with all the right values. The other, as dumb, self-satisfied and egotistical bimbo, putting her ambition before everybody else, the people of alaska, even her own family.

    The truth is neither of these narratives. When Katie Curric asked her what newspapers she read, she didn't answer. She could've quoted at least the alaskan newspaper where she ghostwrote an open letter correcting a number of factual mistakes about her, whilst pretending to be someone else. So she definitely read newspapers; just not any newspaper she felt comfortable talking about.

    Tbh, I have no idea who she really is, because her political platform has taken on a surreal slant and narrative…but I do know she doesn't deserve the shitstorm aimed at her.

    I do know I believe she repressents modern day populism, which I believe is a democratically dangerous movement…so it would be easy for me to write her off too, since it would fit my agenda. I don't.

    So please, don't stereotype every leftist outthere and lump us all together.

    Like

  23. 6c898700-5c58-11e0-92aa-000bcdcb5194 says:
    Unknown's avatar

    Wow, Bob is okay with a 46 year old married guy sending private messages to a 17 year old high school girl.

    Who'd a thunk it?

    He probably wouldn't be okay with it if the guy had an (R) behind his name, but since it's a (D)…it's all good!

    Hopefully this new show will act like a Leftie Douche sponge and suck up all your DU, Kos, Firedog Lake, Huffpo talking points so they won't contaminate your movie reviews any more.

    Wouldn't that be great?

    Like

  24. Mike says:
    Unknown's avatar

    It was quite funny. Even though some of your views differ from my own, I have to agree on the overarching point. And the right to express your opinion with bold and sometimes ostentatious monologues, well pretty much is one of the alternate definitions of “American” to many people.

    Though you should have pimped your site at the end, just in case someone embeds it but doesn't take a moment to make a link to your body of works.

    I would like to see more of this. It is good to keep things fresh and explore different areas.

    Like

  25. Brent says:
    Unknown's avatar

    I'm sorry, but I just can't get behind this for two reasons.

    One, the whole “I don't care about ideologies or parties as long as the guy involved fucks the patriarchy (flash image of Republican symbol)” idea. You don't care about party or ideology as long as they fuck the Republicans, eh?

    Two, marriage and relationships are built on trust. I can see you're a bitter cynic, but this just goes a little far, doesn't it?

    I basically spent the latter half of the video rolling my eyes at the idea of an angry, opinionated man who finds time enough to make four (increasingly complex and varied) on-going video series telling me that his experience with relationships are -all- experiences with relationships.

    I've never been in a relationship based on a lie, and I know absolutely no one who isn't honest with their spouse about little things like that.

    There's a difference between “You aren't getting fat, dear” and “I like you the way you are, no matter what”, and the former is an example of what the people I know who are jaded with relationships in general use to justify not being in one, when they could just espouse the virtues of personal choice. The latter is what someone who cares about their spouse's feelings but doesn't want to lie to them would (and does, in my experience alone) say.

    So yeah, Big Picture was already hit-and-miss in terms of carign with or agreeing with your self-important opinions – this is a miss so wide it's landed in another state.

    Like

  26. Chris Cesarano says:
    Unknown's avatar

    I MIGHT give this one a look. I appreciate your differentiating perspective, Bob, but you still lean a little to far left for me. There are some arguments I am sure you and I can agree on (homosexuality has no reason to be illegal, why are we still fighting about it?). But in terms of strictly political, chances are I'll just disagree with you a lot.

    But this is also because we have differing personal values and beliefs based on those. When I read the Bible, I look at it as a philosophy. It's amazing how different your perspective of religion can be when you put Jesus alongside Socrates and Confuscious (only spelled correctly)! Yet not everyone follows that philosophy, nor do they see a purpose to, and thus I will naturally disagree with them.

    Based on the comments given here, I'm going to have to go alongside some of what @Adam was saying. Some of the happiest people I know are in a marriage that works. What makes it work? That they put their spouses and children before themselves. This isn't going to work in a marriage where one person is more concerned with themselves rather than their family, or both are. According to comments, you brought up Married With Children. I don't know in what context, but it seems like a proof of failure considering every character in that show was more concerned with themselves. Everyone was selfish.

    The big thing about Christ's teachings is that he always said to put others before yourself, and the world would be better. Can you imagine how much better it would be driving to or from work if every jerk wasn't concerned with themselves over anyone else? Or when it comes time to merge lanes people actually let you in rather than tried to close the gap and beat you?

    I'll have to watch the video first, but maybe the perspective had here is that life would be better if they just catered to what felt good. Well, I've seen people do that, and more often than not it wrecks themselves and their relationships. People that cater to the whims of others before their own, however, tend to be happier and have healthy relationships.

    Maybe the problem with marriage is that, well, people are just too damn selfish?

    But this is all based on what I've read in the comments section. I could be counter-arguing something that doesn't exist in the video, and if that is the case I apologize.

    In terms of a politician being a sexual deviant, I look at it this way. Let's say this marriage is like a contract. Remember your Overthinker Episode “The Emperor Has No Clothes”? Remember how Nintendo was diddling with Panasonic behind Sony's back? Can anyone say what Nintendo did was ethical?

    Then what makes this any different? A man enters a contract of exclusivity with a woman. He tries to diddle with other women behind her back. He is caught, but tries to lie about it until he confesses he broke the contract. Now, if she was fine with it then we'd have a different argument. But what he did was deceitful and unethical.

    I do not personally believe in polyamorous relationships, but there's a difference between being open to that idea and thinking less of a man because he is a deceitful liar. He did something unethical, and that's that.

    (As for his saying he is going to “seek help for his problem”, I think he just needs to get a divorce and find a woman that either satisfies his needs or is okay with his habits. But that'll take some time for the rest of America to be okay with. Now that I think about it, that may be the entire purpose of your rant, so…hopefully anything I said at all is still relevant. I'll get back to you after I watch the video from home rather than work).

    Like

  27. M says:
    Unknown's avatar

    You know, I agree w. 90% of what you said. But seriously, Bob, the worst thing the guy did ISN'T lying. The worst thing the guy did was send UNSOLICITED pictures of his junk to multiple women. Dude showing his bulge to a woman without her consent, whether it's in a back alley or over the internet, is sexual harassment. I don't understand why no one is talking about pressing charges. THAT'S some bullshit. If he were a subway flasher, he'd be in jail, but because he's a pol and did the same thing via Twitter, he's just a crappy husband?

    Miss

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  28. A Tribe Called Helloween says:
    Unknown's avatar

    “I don't care if a congressman spends his weekend fucking the ala-carte at the bunny ranch, as long as on Monday he comes back and fucks [the Republicans] just as hard.”

    That's the greatest goddamn quote in political discourse history.

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  29. The Karligarchy says:
    Unknown's avatar

    Please stay away from politics. Everyone and their mom rants and raves about this. Your appeal is partly due to the fact that you bring thoughtful analysis to things that don´t normally get that kind of attention. I like that. Politics is a different game. You can say things in movie reviews and critiques of games and comics that might irritates some fan boy, get some hateful comments maybe an increase in traffic yadda yadda. Politics is not that easy, and I´m trying to discuss from a business point of view, or at least what I imagine blogging business interests to be. Political blogs and ranting can result in much higher fluctuations and impacts on your audience base. It is very easy for one slip of the tongue to discredit you entirely in the political blogosphere. Trolling in politics is more of an all in gamble than it is in pop culture and if you think fan boy rage is bad offended political ideology is a whole nother circle of hell. Your disclaimers at the beginning of American Bob about not being affiliated with the Escapist or Screw Attack will not stop them from dropping your ass in a second if you say the wrong thing, and it causes any sort of backlash for them (and it will) when they find out you do other blogs. I would really stray from this if I were you. You like to troll sometimes, doing that in the political arena is bad and will probably have a more serious on your living as a blogger than you think. Your views are slightly left than center, not solid and consistent enough in on focus group to attract an unwaveringly loyal audience that will stick by you when you say the wrong thing. Also be prepared to do alot of apology videos. Remember that thing with Anthony Weiner where everyone dropped his ass the second he did one thing that made him look bad. Thats how politico world works. This backlash is felt by bloggers and folks on the internet all the time. Ever seen any of those videos or even facebook status quotes that go viral cause someone said something racist or offensive or something. This is not a blog world you want to be in.

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  30. xXx The Beast xXx says:
    Unknown's avatar

    I like it, though it seems a better name would be “Bob's 'Fuck' Show”. I'm not against cursing, but mix it up a bit, man. Throw in a “son of a bitch” and a “God Damn” every once in a while. The phrases are out there, use 'em.

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