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The Second American Revolution
by Gore Vidal
Very Fine, Collector's Copy $150 NOW $80
By Mark Rudd
$17.15
$33
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You’ve heard of Spartacus, but how many remember the notorious scourge of the Roman Empire, Mithradates, denounced as one of antiquity’s greatest terrorists and rebels?
Posted on Jan 15, 2010
12 COMMENTS 
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Wikimedia Commons / Efloch
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This is a time when celebrity can come in handy, and one star in particular, George Clooney, is lending his power to the cause of helping earthquake-ravaged Haiti. The actor-director is also rallying some of his famous friends to join him for a “mega-telethon” he’s planning, according to The Wrap.
Posted on Jan 14, 2010
2 COMMENTS
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AP / Alex Brandon
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It’s been nearly a year since Barack Obama took office, and, although opinions vary on this subject, the honeymoon may be over for some of the president’s supporters. However, the tuneful theater types who are staging an Obama-themed musical in Germany are apparently still feeling the love.
Posted on Jan 13, 2010
7 COMMENTS
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imdb.com
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What are the true patriots of the U.S. of A. to do when a bona fide Muslim-sympathizing, Constitution-shredding president signs a mysterious and probably anti-American “executive order” granting sinister “privileges, exemptions and immunities” to the France-based International Police Organization—aka Interpol? Enter Chuck Norris, onetime “Texas Ranger,” martial arts movie star and amateur conspiracy theorist, stage right.
Posted on Jan 12, 2010
59 COMMENTS
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Flickr / abardwell
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An excessively sedentary lifestyle could spell heart disease or even cause premature death, according to a new study, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, which gauged health (or issues therewith) according to the amount of time subjects spent sitting and watching television. However, TV isn’t the decisive factor in the mix—sitting for long stretches of time at work can also be hazardous to your health, the study found.
Posted on Jan 12, 2010
3 COMMENTS
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Flickr / OfficialAvatarMovie
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James Cameron’s “Avatar” has made beaucoup bucks, already taking in more than $1 billion worldwide since its last last month, but there’s at least one group that’s not happy with certain aspects of his futuristic odyssey. A campaign called Smoke Free Movies sponsored a major ad buy in Hollywood’s two prominent trade papers Tuesday to protest ... (continued)
Posted on Jan 11, 2010
14 COMMENTS
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AP / Lawrence Jackson
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Giving the Drudge Report and Free Republic a little competition in the conservative Web space, former CNN pundit (see: “Crossfire”) and bow-tie enthusiast Tucker Carlson has launched his own site, the Daily Caller. That’s “the DC” for short—snappy, Mr. Carlson!
Posted on Jan 11, 2010
3 COMMENTS
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Wikimedia Commons / Wiki edit jonny
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Simon Cowell is leaving Fox’s ratings monster to launch an American version of “X Factor,” which will allow older performers to compete with the kiddies. Cowell said “we’re hoping to find the American version of Susan Boyle,” the homely Scottish singer who exploded to international stardom with a stint on “Britain’s Got Talent,” another Cowell show.
Posted on Jan 11, 2010
4 COMMENTS
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Wikimedia Commons / Natasha Baucas
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James Cameron, that visionary mega-director of historic oceanic tragedy and, more recently, virtual blue puma-people, has dug into his giant pockets to option a book for a possible film project that’s quite different in subject and tone from his latest blockbuster, “Avatar.” Variety reported Friday that Cameron now has movie dibs on Charles Pellegrino’s nonfiction book “The Last Train From Hiroshima: The Survivors Look Back.”
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Joe Sacco’s graphic treatment of the 1956 massacres of Palestinians by invading Israeli soldiers melds tough-minded journalism with philosophical reflection into a gut-wrenching banquet of a comic book.
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Flickr / raybdbomb
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American school officials’ attitudes about the relationship between kids and their school lunches have swung from shades of strict social Darwinism to reflections of the free-market mentality over the last century, as Michael O’Donnell explains in his Washington Monthly book review. Thus, the ideal of character-building deprivation gave way to the age of the tater tot.
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Flickr / soylentgreen23
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Speculating and whispering about other people’s business is a time-honored (see: Ten Commandments), if tawdry, tradition, and gossip is also fueling quite a large international industry these days, in case you hadn’t noticed. But can its effects be deadly? A couple people quoted in this Wall Street Journal hearsay exposé seem to think it’s dangerous. But what’s to be done?
Posted on Jan 6, 2010
3 COMMENTS
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gametrailers.com
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Leave it to the good ol’ U.S. of A. to produce this sort of thing: An enterprising gaming company by the name of Hands-On Mobile has created an iPhone game that allows users to play the part of the money-gobbling Fed. In this digitized satire the Fed actually eats angry citizens. But fear not ... (continued)
Posted on Jan 5, 2010
2 COMMENTS
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Legal battles famously have a way of dragging on, but in the case of the ongoing tussle over Janet Jackson’s “wardrobe malfunction” during the 2004 Super Bowl, it’s getting a little ridiculous. Yes, that was six years ago. No, the involved parties are not done with their various attempts at fining and appealing said fines.
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Wikimedia Commons / David Sifry
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If anything should make someone the logical choice to introduce the “CBS Evening News With Katie Couric” via voiceover, it’s surely that the person previously played the role of God. No, not George Burns—it’s too late for that (and probably too soon for that joke). Well, then, how about Morgan Freeman?
Posted on Jan 4, 2010
1 COMMENT
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politico.com / click
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Michelle Obama has made the White House garden emblematic of her cause to help Americans cultivate better eating habits, and on Sunday, the “FLOTUS” showed viewers of “Iron Chef” how her garden grows, as she and her vegetable patch made cameo appearances on the popular cooking show.
Posted on Jan 4, 2010
1 COMMENT
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AP / Seth Perlman
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What’s a deposed Illinois governor to do, now that he has more time on his hands and is facing, you know, criminal charges? When it comes to Rod Blagojevich, in case there was any doubt whom we were discussing, he’ll spend time on “Celebrity Apprentice” with Donald Trump and others who became famous for their forays into showbiz.
Posted on Jan 4, 2010
1 COMMENT
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Is there anything left to say about Churchill’s extraordinary life and turbulent times? If so, can it be said in the brief compass of Paul Johnson’s 192-page primer?
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By Peter Z. Scheer — The last 10 years were abundant with films that pushed limits and attacked real issues in real time. Here are 20 of the best socially conscious, topical, progressive movies from a crazy decade.
Posted on Dec 31, 2009
60 COMMENTS
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tumblr.com
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Could “The Peter Principle” at least partially explain what’s happened to our country in recent months? We’re not naming names, but, as New Scientist magazine points out, the idea that managerial incompetence is not only common but potentially inevitable has repeatedly been referenced in academic research since its initial advancement in 1969.
Posted on Dec 28, 2009
15 COMMENTS
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A wondrous new collection of previously unpublished vintage Vonnegut confirms his enduring and subversive ear for the absurd and the tragicomic.
Posted on Dec 25, 2009
34 COMMENTS
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Wikimedia Commons / David Shankbone
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It’s been a couple years since Comedy Central faux-publican Stephen Colbert took masterfully aimed pot shots at former President George W. Bush at the 2006 White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner—i.e., the night Colbert almost threw himself under a Washington, D.C., bus. Quite a bit has changed ... (continued)
Posted on Dec 23, 2009
5 COMMENTS
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http://www.todayinliterature.com/biography/e.m.forster.asp
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Novelist E.M. Forster was a writer who might be said to have been simultaneously ahead of his time—or at least better suited to take on certain topics like homosexuality that couldn’t be treated frankly during his heyday—and resistant to some of the modernist impulses he saw arising among authors from the generation following his own.
Posted on Dec 22, 2009
4 COMMENTS
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A new book by Douglas Cazaux Sackman gives us new ways of thinking about the last man “uncontaminated” by modernity and explores our continuing nostalgia for the “wilderness.”
Posted on Dec 18, 2009
24 COMMENTS
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Wikimedia Commons/Vladanr
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Young hip-hop artists in Lebanon are using their music to deal with their lives in the wake of years of violence, reaching across religious and sectarian divisions and promoting nonviolence, and they’ve joined forces with pro-peace organizations while they’re at it.
Posted on Dec 17, 2009
3 COMMENTS
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