There’s a scene in the (very good) movie Shattered Glass in which a pair of New Republic staffers are heard chatting briefly at a party as another character walks through. (Whether the viewer’s takeaway is supposed to be that D.C. 20-somethings are monomaniacally focused on wonkery or glibly snobby or both I’m not sure.) The […]

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The blogosphere’s been buzzing about yesterday’s WorldNetDaily story alleging that terrorist groups received $2 million—earmarked for jihad munitions—in exchange for the release last August of two Fox News journalists who had been kidnapped.. Now, who knows if this is true, but something about it smells a little weird. The sources for the story are all […]

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Thank the gods for the “Times Select” firewall for once; it will prevent your eyeballs from being seared by the full text of this David Brooks column—proof that the 800-words-twice-a-week format can’t possibly be healthy for anyone. (Unless, dear reader, you’re Arthur Sulzberger. In which case: Only fooling, feel free to drop a line.) Pitching […]

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So, uh, apparently someone at Wonkette was browsing through the old Halloween party photos stored at my Facebook profile. (Yes, I have a Facebook profile. Yes, I am probably far too old to have a Facebook profile. It’s new-media research. Or something.) Anyway, sorry Matt. For the record, he’s a pirate.

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Sometimes insomnia bears sweet, sweet fruit, and one of those times came a few nights back, when some late night channel surfing led me to TV’s Illest Minority Moments on VH1. It’s an hour-long special featuring a variety of comedians, actors, intellectuals, and musicians examining the racial subtext (or, in some cases, just text) of […]

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Kevin Drum and Josh Marshall both reflect this week on their sense that they’ve become more angry and intemperate over the years as the shadow of George Bush darkens over the nation. I know the feeling. The intriguing thing is how the President’s dwindling claque of defenders have reacted to the growing agitation and rage […]

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By now Teh Internets are abuzz with tales of Mel Gibson’s drunken, abusive anti-Semitic rant during a COPS-worthy interaction with a sheriff’s deputy. Greg Tinti at Outside the Beltway is first out of the gate (that I’ve seen) suggesting that any gloating aimed at Gibson’s fundie fanbase is unjustified: Don’t get me wrong, if this […]

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Oh dude, Chris Muir just doesn’t know when to save himself some embarassment and toss it in. Half a dozen bloggers, Andrew Sullivan among them, point out that his bizarro reference to “Kantian Nihilism” (and, equally weird, the United States being “based on” the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer, born 1788) just betrays incredible ignorance. Muir […]

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Since I doubt the relevant issue will get a MagRack: Christine Rosen, writing in The New Republic, follows in the bold tradition of Michelle Malkin’s “cutting” exposé by rehashing the “libertarian nuttiness of tech-optimists” line Paulina Borsook was peddling six years ago, though mercifully, she doesn’t require a book to do it. It starts in […]

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Mencken famously described puritanism as “the haunting fear that someone, somewhere may be happy,” and the Internet, which seeks to connect everyone everywhere, seems to have provided the ideal instrument for feeding those fears. The FCC levied a record $3.3 million fine on CBS affiliates for airing a suggestive “teen orgy” scene in the show […]

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