Online Journal of Politics and Foreign Affairs
Kathleen Parker begins her latest column, “The Pornification of Politics,” thusly: If our enemies don’t hate us, it’s an oversight. The confluence of the worst of modern American trends — national narcissism, the sexualization of all things animate and otherwise, and the devaluing of currencies from literature to public discourse — has reached a perfect [...]
John McCain has gotten rid of his top campaign staff in a dispute over the way they were handling his dwindling finances, Dan Balz reports. Campaign manager Terry Nelson and chief strategist John Weaver issued terse statements announcing their departures from the McCain camp, which reportedly came after the candidate erupted after concluding that his [...]
We may be witnessing the death of rap, Tim Shipman reports for the Sunday Telegraph. He notes that sales are “down 33 per cent, double the decline of the CD album market overall.” After years of pop culture ubiquity, “The bad boys of rap are now trailing the cowboys of country and the headbangers of [...]
Phil Carter‘s commenters are having great fun with his critique of Lifetime’s “Army Wives” for “easy caricatures and the easy plot formulas” which “fails to convey the depth and complexity underlying a number of important military issues.” They rightly note that very few movies and television shows about anything are accurate and complex because their [...]
Retired fighter Jock Robert “Buzz” Patterson has made a name for himself by churning out books about how Democrats hate America and want us to be weak. His first two efforts, Dereliction of Duty: How Bill Clinton Compromised America’s National Security and Reckless Disregard: How Liberal Democrats Undercut Our Military, Endanger Our Soldiers, and Jeopardize [...]
Somebody calling herself “Obama Girl” is generating quite a buzz with her “Crush on Obama” video. This immediately brought to mind the so-called racist ads run against Harold Ford in the closing days of the 2006 campaign. So far, though, most of the reaction I’ve seen has expressed either bemusement or admiration. Obama Girl is [...]
Robert McHenry argues that Fred Thompson has so many people clamoring for him to join an already-crowded field precisely because he seems not all that excited by the prospect of running for president. Steve Bainbridge agrees and observes that, “The idea of a guy with a life, who once said that ‘After two years in [...]
Predictable though it was, the tidal wave of vitriol that has followed Jerry Falwell’s death earlier this week has been truly disgusting. De mortuis, nihil nisi bonum? Forget about it. The death of a public figure now serves only to underscore the earlier death of civility in our public discourse. Which makes the brief mention [...]
Most of you have likely seen the EPIC 2014 video, created by Robin Sloan and Matt Thompson in November 2004, by now. For the rest of you: As the Wikipedia entry explains, the eight minute movie “explores the effects that the convergence of popular News aggregators like Google News and Newsbot with other Web 2.0 [...]
Lobbying groups and some Members of Congress, notably Sen. Jay Rockefeller, are pushing to force the Motion Picture Association of America to assign an automatic “R” rating to movies depicting characters smoking cigarettes. MPAA president Dan Glickman is resisting but says the ratings board “will now consider smoking as a factor among many other factors, [...]
Terry Oglesby wonders, “Have any of the rest of you noticed a sudden upturn or downturn since mid-April in visitors referred by Google?” Indeed, I have, on both OTB Prime and Gone Hollywood (although, oddly, OTB Sports is seeing its highest traffic ever). Terry’s suspicion, that “Google had redone their search protocols to highlight or [...]
Over the past couple of weeks, I have had pop-up ads minimize my browser window and tell me that my computer was infected and urging me to run a virus scanning program I didn’t have. There are several variations, but I captured this one over the weekend: This has happened to me maybe five or [...]
By now, you’ve likely read or heard that Paris Hilton got sentenced to 45 days in jail for violating her parole by driving with a suspended license. Jeralyn Merritt argues that the sentence is much stiffer than usual in such cases, likely because of Hilton’s celebrity status. She cites the judge’s decision to deny her [...]
Jack Valenti, who singlehandedly revolutionized the movie business, died yesterday. Jack Valenti, who became a confidant of President Lyndon B. Johnson and then a Hollywood institution, leading the Motion Picture Association of America and conceiving of a voluntary film-rating system that gave new meaning to letters like G, R and X, died [Thursday] in his [...]
An Indian Court has issued an arrest warrant for Richard Gere on a charge of obscenity. An Indian court has issued an arrest warrant for Hollywood actor Richard Gere after he kissed Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty in public. Gere, 57, kissed Shetty, 31, several times on the cheek at an Aids awareness event in Delhi [...]
TIME is having readers chose “The Most Influential People of the Year – The TIME 100″ from a list of 200 candidates. Here’s the early voting: Bhumibol Adulyadej, the King of Thailand, is leading the pack at the moment, followed by Korean pop singer Rain, comedian Stephen Colbert, Shigeru Miyamoto (the guy who designed the [...]
Rosie O’Donnell is leaving “The View,” TMZ reports. There is a strong buzz in Hollywood that Rosie O’Donnell will announce Wednesday (April 25th) that she is leaving “The View.” If it happens, it’s likely Rosie will stick it out through the end of the season. TMZ has spoken with multiple industry people who say the [...]
Venus Ramey, Miss America 1944, may need a walker but that doesn’t stop her from running down would-be thieves. Miss America 1944 has a talent that likely has never appeared on a beauty pageant stage: She fired a handgun to shoot out a vehicle’s tires and stop an intruder. Venus Ramey, 82, confronted a man [...]
Constance Rice,* a civil rights attorney in Los Angeles, has the smartest take I’ve yet seen on the Don Imus “nappy headed hos” controversy. More to the point, Imus should only be fired when the black artists who make millions of dollars rapping about black bitches and hos lose their recording contracts. Black leaders should [...]
Out magazine has produced its list of the “50 Most Powerful Gay Men and Women in America.” The Daily Intelligencer notes the controversy it will spark, as well as how quickly things are changing: When New York did a “Gay Life Now” issue in 2001, only seven of the forty prominent New York gays asked [...]
It’s looking like the Beatles catalog will finally be available for legal download. Record company EMI Group PLC said Sunday it planned to unveil “an exciting new digital offering” with computer company Apple Inc., raising expectations that The Beatles’ music catalog is about to be made available through Apple’s iTunes online music store. EMI said [...]
A New York gallery has canceled its naked chocolate Jesus exhibit after receiving protests. A Manhattan art gallery canceled on Friday its Easter-season exhibit of a life-size chocolate sculpture depicting a naked Jesus, after an outcry by Roman Catholics. The sculpture “My Sweet Lord” by Cosimo Cavallaro was to have been exhibited for two hours [...]
Hillary Clinton will make her first “appearance” on Comedy Central’s “South Park” on Wednesday. The episode, which is still in production, will have the town at the heart of “South Park” preparing for the arrival of Clinton for a big campaign rally. At the same time, the character Cartman suspects a new Muslim student is [...]
The final book by J.R.R. Tolkien will be published next month, 37 years after its author’s death. The first new Tolkien novel for 30 years is to be published next month. In a move eagerly anticipated by millions of fans across the world, The Children of Húrin will be released worldwide on 17 April, 89 [...]
Comedian Richard Jeni has died in an apparent suicide. Richard Jeni, a standup comedian who played to sold-out crowds, was a regular on the “Tonight Show” and appeared in movies, died of a gunshot wound in an apparent suicide, police said Sunday. Police found the 45-year-old comedian alive but gravely injured in a West Hollywood [...]
I added the Snap Preview Anywhere feature, which provides thumbnails of linked websites upon mousing over the link, to the site about a month ago because I’d seen it elsewhere and liked it. A couple of readers complained about it this afternoon, so I’ve added a badge after the ads in the left sidebar that [...]
The “Sarah Silverman Program” has the title character having sex with God. Comic Sarah Silverman not happy that God is cuddling with her after sex on Comedy Central’s ‘Sarah Silverman Program’ Comedy Central consummated its season of “the Sarah Silverman Program” last night by featuring the title character having sex with God, and then trying [...]
Marvel Comics has Captain America assassinated by a sniper in the latest issue, hitting the newsstands today. The publishers are being coy about whether someone else will wield the mighty shield, but insist that “This is the end of Steve Rogers, the meat and potatoes guy from 1941.” We shall see. Rogers has been killed [...]
Tyler Cowen has an interesting op-ed in today’s New York Times on how different cultures around the world adapt to or resist American pop culture exports. The relative social mobility of societies in Western Europe make them especially acceptant of American movies, television shows, and music whereas people in caste-bound societies such as those in [...]
Michelle Manhart, the Air Force noncom who caused quite a splash by posing nude for Playboy, has been demoted and discharged from active service. Details and video, along with some levity, at Gone Hollywood. The case is interesting from a military and political standpoint, leaving aside from the prurient interest that seems to be driving [...]
Scottish diet book guru Gillian McKeith has agreed to stop calling herself “Dr.” after being sued for misrepresentation. Ben Goldacre explains: Call her the Awful Poo Lady, call her Dr Gillian McKeith PhD: she is an empire, a multi-millionaire, a phenomenon, a prime-time TV celebrity, a bestselling author. She has her own range of foods [...]
The Dixie Chicks have been known more for their politics than their music the last four years, so it should have come as no surprise that they won five Grammy awards last night. After death threats, boycotts and a cold shoulder from the country music establishment, the Dixie Chicks gained sweet vindication Sunday night at [...]
Anna Nicole Smith died today in Hollywood Florida after being found unconcious in her hotel room at the Hard Rock Cafe. UPDATE: More from TMZ.com, According to hotel officials, Smith was “unresponsive” and emergency responders performed CPR at the scene and a breathing apparatus was inserted in her throat. Anna was immediately transported to Memorial [...]
Chris Bowers has done quite a bit of research and concluded that political blogging has not only reached an apex but may well be in decline in significant ways. While most of his data relate to liberal blogs, it seems quite reasonable to draw generalized conclusions. Has major data points and observations: Since September 2005, [...]
OTB turned four last Wednesday. I usually remember such things but between the California trip and work on an outside writing project, it slipped my mind. My first post* at Outside the Beltway was at 9:37 a.m. on Friday, January 31, 2003. This is my 14,368th post. My co-authors and guest bloggers have added another [...]
Sting and the Police are giving every indication that they will reunite for a 30th anniversary tour, reports Roger Friedman, except actually announcing that they’re reuniting. Apparently, the band members no longer hate one another and Sting’s ego is assuaged after a successful solo career. It’s looking more certain than ever that Sting is about [...]