Stephen Colbert

On Thursday, Stephen Colbert was talking about the Anglican church. "The Anglicans are a church that started from rejecting central authority now has groups of people in it that want a stricter central authority to bring their foot down. Isn't that just delicious irony?"

No Stephen, it isn't. Of course people act like this. When you don't like what the authority does, you strike out on your own. When people start acting differently than you want them to, you run straight for authority to tell everyone how to behave. Now, it seems that this was a sincere joke, and not part of his character, which lampoons the Christian right, which seemingly wants big government in the bedroom and nowhere else. This isn't irony at all, it is hypocrisy. Those that split off from the Catholic church did so not because they wanted less central authority, they did it because they didn't like the policies that authority put in place. When they want specific policy to go into effect, they are happy with universal authority.

Wikipedia Ironic?

This Wordie page on the Great Firewall of China uses the a completely meaningless form of "irony". Wikipedia defines the firewall, and was for a time blocked by the firewall. This is not even coincidental. Wikipedia tells the truth about things, including the Great Firewall of China, and the Firewall is about blocking truth.