Tea Party Group: ‘Time For Michele Bachmann To Go’

It appears Michele Bachmann may not be as well steeped in Tea Party support as we thought. Ned Ryun, president of the Tea Party group American Majority, posted this blunt critique on the group’s blog yesterday: It’s time for Michele Bachmann to go. For the last two years, I’ve been cautioning about the dangers of [...]

‘Primetime’ TV, Like You’ve Never Seen It Before

Almost every time TV takes a look at itself, and tries to explore or explain what it does as a medium, the result is a major disappointment — at least to me. I want TV to take itself seriously, but it almost never does. Every show about TV is either one of those dumb “Top [...]

Shakespeare, Thompson: Stick To The Print Versions

Two new films show how tough it is to do justice to good writers onscreen. Johnny Depp certainly means to do right by his pal Hunter S. Thompson in The Rum Diary. He played Thompson in Terry Gilliam’s rollicking but not especially watchable Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and narrated a documentary about him. [...]

Scott Spencer: Plot Twists, Where Everything Changes

This interview was originally broadcast on Sept. 15, 2010. Man in the Woods is now available in paperback. Many of Scott Spencer’s novels feature a turning point — a dreadful, often unplanned act committed by one of the characters — after which nothing will ever be the same. In his classic 1979 novel Endless Love, [...]

Pop Culture Happy Hour: Halloween TV, From Homer To Linus And Back

On this week’s episode of Pop Culture Happy Hour, we give in to holiday fever and consider the matter of Halloween television. What are our favorite Halloween specials? Let’s just say some of the answers — The Simpsons, for example — are more predictable than others. From there, it’s on to the best thing we [...]

Chinese Activists Turn To Twitter In Rights Cases

In China, microblogs are transforming the way activists draw attention to human rights cases. Despite strict Internet controls, netizens are using Chinese Twitter as a powerful tool. Two recent cases show just how effective microblogs can be in shaping the debate over human rights abuses and driving citizen activism. One case involves a chilling video [...]

Democrats Lose Enthusiasm For Health Law

Sure, it’s just one poll of many, but October marks a crummy month for sentiment about the federal Affordable Care Act. For the first time since President Obama signed it into law in March 2010, more than half of those polled — 51 percent — told researchers from the Kaiser Family Foundation they had an [...]

Report: Prominent Obama Fundraisers Have Ties To Lobbyists

“Despite a pledge not to take money from lobbyists, President Obama has relied on prominent supporters who are active in the lobbying industry to raise millions of dollars for his re-election bid,” The New York Times reports this morning. The Times says “at least 15 of Mr. Obama’s ‘bundlers’ — supporters who contribute their own [...]

‘Three And Out’: A College Football Coach, Undone In Mythical Fashion

I never really enjoyed watching football until I had a school to root for. Yes, I know America’s college football system has some problems. OK, it has a lot of problems. OK, it’s a barely-concealed smokescreen for raking in billions of dollars off the backs of unpaid student labor. But nevertheless, the sport’s capacity for [...]

Mobile Payment Apps Put Wallets In Phones, Not Pockets

The use of smartphones as e-wallets has caught on elsewhere; now it’s spreading in America. The new Google Wallet app lets shoppers who own Android smartphones pay at the counter with a mere wave at the cash register and without a pocketful of change in return. The app uses near-field communication technology to beam customers’ [...]