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December 3, 2009
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Robert Christgau on America’s Secret Fundamentalists

Just how dangerous are evangelical zealots? A new book by Jeff Sharlet takes a close and disturbing look at the group known as The Family and its disturbing and apparently widespread influence on mainstream political culture.

Posted on Sep 5, 2008 53 COMMENTS


Clooney
Wikimedia/Efloch

Clooney Raises $900K for Obama in Switzerland

He might have steered clear of last week’s Democratic National Convention, claiming that politicians were the proper stars of that show, but George Clooney didn’t miss his chance to charm some $900K out of American supporters of Barack Obama at a fundraiser in Switzerland on Tuesday.

Posted on Sep 4, 2008 8 COMMENTS


Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club
AP photo / Bill Haber

Yes We Can Can

New Orleans has figured into this election season as a reminder of the Bush administration’s bungled, uncaring response to Katrina. Yet amid so much talk of hope and change, on this anniversary of disaster, many in New Orleans hope for a change of policy—the kind of federal assistance that can make a dent in crises of housing, public safety, education, health care and levee protection. It makes sense for musicians to kick-start that conversation.

Posted on Aug 29, 2008 10 COMMENTS


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Jonathan Shapiro on the Hamdan Case

In Jonathan Mahler’s new book, George W. Bush emerges as the most lawless president in American history, the first to usurp the law as a matter of policy.

Posted on Aug 29, 2008 6 COMMENTS


Barkley
uab.edu

Barkley Shooting for Governor’s Post in Alabama

He wasn’t always known for his coolheaded leadership skills during his 16-year NBA career, but now, after almost 10 years off the court, Charles Barkley is apparently gearing up to compete in the political arena, telling the New York Daily News that he aims to run for governor of Alabama in a few years.

Posted on Aug 28, 2008 14 COMMENTS



dipdive.com

‘Yes We Can’—Live in Denver

Will.i.am’s viral hit will be performed live before Barack Obama’s historic acceptance speech in Denver on Thursday. Other musical acts expected to perform include Stevie Wonder, John Legend, Sheryl Crow and Jennifer Hudson, who will sing the national anthem. Bruce Springsteen has been rumored and un-rumored to appear, so we’ll have to wait and see. Updated.

Posted on Aug 27, 2008 3 COMMENTS


Madonna
AP Photo/Joel Ryan

Madonna vs. McCain

Madonna is no John McCain fan, and the feeling’s definitely mutual. The newly minted quinquagenarian icon is once again playing the provocateur on her latest tour, taking aim at McCain by making some undesirable comparisons between the GOP’s presumptive nominee and certain nefarious world leaders from past and present.

Posted on Aug 25, 2008 6 COMMENTS



Flickr / M@rcopako

The Literary Mr. Phelps

If you want to read a personal account of Michael Phelps’ training philosophy, you’ll have to wait until December, when the Olympic swimming champion’s “Built to Succeed” hits store shelves. As much as we value the written word around here, is it really necessary for every celebrity to pen a memoir? There are trees at stake, after all.

Posted on Aug 22, 2008 5 COMMENTS


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James Blight on the Cuban Missile Crisis

In “One Minute to Midnight,” Michael Dobbs’ definitive book on the 1962 crisis that brought the world to the brink of nuclear annihilation, the question of lessons learned and unlearned remains as acute as ever.

Posted on Aug 21, 2008 13 COMMENTS


Toby Keith
music.aol.com

Toby Keith Comes Out as a Democrat

Is this the same Toby Keith who unleashed the cheese-slathered anthem, “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue” (complete with fluffy golden retriever puppies and rippling flags in the video version), on the general public in 2002? Mr. “We’ll-Put-A-Boot-Up-Your-Ass”?

Posted on Aug 19, 2008 24 COMMENTS



Borgnine Blushes, but He’s On to Something

The 91-year-old actor sent the cast of “Fox and Friends” into a juvenile tizzy this week when he revealed the key to his longevity: “I masturbate a lot.” Don’t snicker. The health benefits of autoeroticism have been well documented, yet modesty prevents many adults from discussing such matters.

Posted on Aug 15, 2008 23 COMMENTS


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Warren I. Cohen on China’s Charm Offensive

The Beijing Olympics are proof that the rule of China’s Communist Party has been validated. Yet human rights abuses continue. What’s really going on? What kind of country is China becoming? Two new books help provide answers.

Posted on Aug 15, 2008 17 COMMENTS


Jackson Browne
commons.wikimedia.org

Jackson Browne Sues Team McCain, Republican Party

Singer-songwriter Jackson Browne is not thrilled that his song “Running on Empty” was co-opted by the Ohio Republican Party and used as an anthem for a commercial that Browne believed made it seem as though he supported John McCain’s presidential campaign. Au contraire, Ohio GOP.

Posted on Aug 14, 2008 14 COMMENTS


oprah
freshdames.com

Oprah’s Support = 1 Million Votes

The power of Oprah Winfrey’s endorsement is clearly quantifiable when it comes to her “favorite things” (e.g. book sales), but how about her favorite people (e.g. Barack Obama)? Well, a scholarly duo from the University of Maryland came up with 1 million votes as the impressive, if somewhat strangely derived, number that represents the boost Oprah has given Obama since she gave him her official stamp of approval.

Posted on Aug 11, 2008 26 COMMENTS


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Zachary Karabell on the Middle East

What is it about the region that provokes intense sectarian passions, prompting seemingly endless vendettas? “Kingmakers,” by Karl Meyer and Shareen Blair Brysac, tells the story of British and American entanglement and how the modern Middle East was invented. It also offers an exemplary history of hubris.

Posted on Aug 8, 2008 48 COMMENTS


Solzhenitsyn
bbc.co.uk

A Moral Force Moves Into History

He was born into a Cossack family, which was just one of many indications that life wasn’t exactly going to be conflict-free for Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who died Aug. 3. The Russian writer survived eight years in Stalin’s notorious gulags and became one of his country’s most controversial critical thinkers, a process that continued during the two decades he was forced to live in exile.

Posted on Aug 4, 2008 13 COMMENTS


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Kasia Anderson on Barbara Walters

“Audition” details the life story, both in front of the camera and behind the scenes, of a pioneering journalist-entertainer who reported the news while making it in ways both admirable and troubling.

Posted on Aug 1, 2008 11 COMMENTS


Streisand
Keystone / Eddy Risch

Streisand: Clinton Backers Should Support Obama

Once strongly in favor of Hillary Clinton, actress and chanteuse Barbra Streisand says her switch to supporting Barack Obama was instantaneous when Clinton pulled out of the presidential race, and that other Clinton supporters should back the Illinois senator instead of throwing their vote to Republican John McCain in protest.

Posted on Jul 28, 2008 55 COMMENTS


Dark Knight
wbcn.com

WSJ: Bush Is Just Like Batman

Right, so it was clear that things were going to change a bit at The Wall Street Journal when it became a part of the Murdochian Empire, but this is a little much: In this somewhat startling essay, Andrew Klavan sees a “W” where others see Batman’s bat symbol in “The Dark Knight” and believes the film is a “paean of praise” to President Bush.

Posted on Jul 25, 2008 33 COMMENTS


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Nikki Keddie on Iran

In “Bitter Friends, Bosom Enemies,” Barbara Slavin, a leading Middle East reporter for USA Today, offers a refreshingly nuanced and revelatory taxonomy of power within theocratic Iran that sheds light on its leaders and their ambitions.

Posted on Jul 25, 2008 18 COMMENTS


Savage
portland.indymedia.org

Outcry on Savage’s Savage Comment About Autism

Shock jock Michael Savage clearly has an overblown sense of the extent of his “expertise” on a wide range of topics, but he overstepped his bounds by attempting armchair psychology about a sensitive subject last week—autism—and drew fire from angry parents and supporters.

Posted on Jul 23, 2008 41 COMMENTS


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William Pfaff on General Motors

Are workers to blame for the fix that General Motors (along with many other corporations) is in? A new book by Roger Lowenstein argues that they are. He couldn’t be more wrong.

Posted on Jul 18, 2008 57 COMMENTS


The Princess and the Frog
AP photo / Judi Bottoni

Back to the Drawing Board for Disney’s First Black Princess

Disney’s popular animated films have been criticized for creating 2-D characters from various non-Western (or non-white Western) cultures, so the Mouse House made an attempt to clear its name by creating a “black princess” character who ... works as a chambermaid for a bratty white Southern debutante in 1920s New Orleans. And that’s not the half of it.

Posted on Jul 17, 2008 18 COMMENTS


Ventura
nationalexpositor.com

Ventura Staying Out of Minnesota Senate Race

It would have made for quite a political smackdown, but former Minnesota governor and one-time WWF wrestler Jesse Ventura has nixed rumors that he will take on Al Franken and Norm Coleman as a senatorial candidate. Of course, if God intervenes, “The Body” might change his mind.

Posted on Jul 14, 2008 19 COMMENTS


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Ellen Garrison on ‘All the Sad Young Literary Men’

Are Keith Gessen and his posse really the voice of the Zeitgeist, the intellectual heirs to Norman Mailer and George Plimpton? Or just the highbrow version of Judd Apatow?

Posted on Jul 10, 2008 7 COMMENTS


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