There’s been a lot of controversy in King James Land this week. Apparently Xavier’s Jordan Crawford dunked on LeBron in a pickup game. Nike officials confiscated the two videos of the dunk. Depending on your perspective, LeBron is being a punk-ass little bitch or Nike was fully justified in its actions.

Please. Where was all the hoopla last month when I posterized James three times in one session? That’s right. We were playing pick-up down at the club and we matched up. Early in the first game I laid a wicked crossover on him and windmilled one before he could recover. Full story »

Twenty-seven people nominated to ambassadorships by President Obama, as tracked by the Center for Responsive Politics, have made $4,475,725 in campaign contributions, almost all to Democrats, since 1989.

These 27 nominees contributed $144,431 to President Obama and $57,900 to once-rival and now Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, reports the center. They have bundled (collected, as middleman, donations from others) at least $5 million for the president’s campaign and at least $1,782,500 for the president’s inauguration.

The president’s most recent nominee as ambassador to Germany, former Democratic National Committee finance chair and former Goldman Sachs executive Philip D. Murphy, and his wife “have contributed nearly $1.5 million to federal candidates, committees and parties since 1989, with 94 percent of that sum going to Democrats, according to a Center for Responsive Politics analysis. They also contributed an additional $100,000 to Obama’s inauguration committee.”

But this isn’t the real news. According to figures kept by the American Foreign Service Association, President Obama is making political patronage nominations to ambassadorships at twice the rate of the previous nine presidents.
Full story »

“Insects don’t get fat,” he instructed. “They get too much exercise. What would you do if you woke up every morning and wondered what was going to eat you that day? You’d run, wouldn’t you? Same with bugs. They run the fat off.” Full story »

Poet Ben Doller has all the answers.

The questions are a different matter.

Doller’s poetry collection, FAQ:, from Ahsahta Press, features fifty-one “answers” to unknown questions. Each poem, titled “FAQ:,” begins with the line “Thank you for your question,” but the question hangs in the air unknown—and sometimes, based on Doller’s answers, unknowable.

“I can’t trust myself all night with this question,” Doller writes.

Doller’s answers aren’t tidy, either. Full story »

by Pollyanna Sunshine

When I first heard about Sarah Palin’s resignation on NPR last Friday, I too was sucked into the whirlwind of speculation—Is this a preemptive retreat from some looming scandal? Is it the first step in a 2012 presidential bid? Why so rambling and incoherent? What is she saying, and if she has any higher political aspirations, why doesn’t she have somebody competent writing her speeches?

After thinking about this for a few days, seeing what the MSM and blogosphere have had to say and finally reading the full text of her speech—posted verbatim in all its rambling, ungrammatical glory on the gubernatorial website–I am only surprised that so many journalists and commentators persist in reading this move as part of some Machiavellian political scheme. At the same time, I fear the schadenfreude crowd may be disappointed in their hopes of a really, really juicy scandal that would take her down for good. Full story »

It’s beginning to look like centrist “Blue Dog” Democrats might be forced to fall in line with the public option on healthcare reform. Progressive senators, such as Bernie Sanders, informed Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid that a critical 10 to 15 votes would be withheld from a bill that not only features no public option but calls for taxing health benefits. Reid, in turn, was forced to pass along the news to Blue Dog Max Baucus. In the House, progressive Caucus Co-Chair Rep. Lynn Woolsey seconded that.

At Open Left, Chris Bowers writes: “This is like some beautiful dream come true.” Furthermore, he explains, Reid and Majority Whip Dick Durbin are “now pressing all Senate Democrats to stick together on ‘procedural votes’ [to rule out] Republican filibusters. … Doing so would mean Democrats only need 50 votes to pass legislation.” Full story »

UPDATE: As of right now Asobi Seksu leads Rose Hill Drive, but only by a few votes. Polls close tomorrow (Thursday) at midnight. Winner moves on to the finals.
______________________

In last week’s rock-off we saw the biggest reader response of any match to date, with Paul Steel pulling away to post a convincing 75%-25% victory over Chris Corner and IAMX. Congrats to IAMX, who have one of the best CDs of the year to date. I feel certain certain they’ll turn up in our year-end best-of list. Meanwhile, Paul Steel moves on to the finals.

This week’s semifinal, which determines Steel’s final round opponent, features two very talented, but very different bands. Full story »

20 years ago, my brother Glenn hosted a birthday party for his son. One of the guests thought it would be funny to bring along his pet tarantula. But the tarantula got loose and, despite a determined five hour search, was never found. My brother responded with what I consider a perfectly normal reaction: he moved into a hotel and sold the house. I would have done the same thing. If you don’t understand, let me tell you about mantids and the Big Galoot. Full story »

A bomb goes off high above the earth, and one second after, the world ends—not in a bang but a whimper.

William Forstchen’s brilliantly disturbing book, One Second After, takes place in a post-apocalyptic America. The country has been brought to its knees by three nuclear missiles launched by unknown foes. The power of the attack comes not from the blasts themselves but from the electromagnetic pulse (EMP) it emits.

An EMP, Forstchen points out, could completely knock out America’s electrical infrastructure. Miles and miles of high-tension wires would absorb the power of the EMP, magnifying it beyond the ability of virtually any circuit-breaker to stop. Electrical systems would overload. Anything with delicate electrical circuitry—like cars, computers, and even calculators—would be fried.

And in Forstchen’s world, America without power would be hell on earth. Full story »

Yesterday over at Future Majority, Kevin Bondelli responded to Jack Hough’s New York Post column “Don’t Get That College Degree!” Bondelli’s take led with one of the more terrifying titles I’ve seen lately: “Has College Become a Bad Investment?” Yow. When you dig the hole so deep that you can even use that kind of question as a rhetorical device, you kthisnow you’re in some deep, deep kim-chee. Seriously. That one ranks right up there with “Is breathing really a good idea?” and “What are the lasting benefits of a howitzer shot to the balls?”

Snark aside, Bondelli does a nice job of addressing Hough, who “argues that the increase in lifetime wages for graduates no longer makes up for the financial burden of university education and the ensuing student loan burden.” He also takes on one of the GOP’s most successful and devastating canards, explaining that Full story »

You probably won’t be surprised to learn that Full story »

Y’all can blame our friend fikshun for passing along this tasteless bit of hackery.

An S&R exclusive interview

William Forstchen has a bad dream—a really bad dream—that goes something like this:

A cataclysmic attack throws the United States back to the dark ages, with no electricity, no communication or transportation networks, and no medicines. The most vulnerable members of society—the very young and the very old—begin to die off first, but soon hundreds of thousands of people, millions of people, begin dying. Rogue bands of lawless predators, living by rule of force rather than by rule of law, prey on weakened communities. The government, crippled, can’t come to anyone’s rescue.

And all it takes is a single bomb detonated high in the atmosphere, two hundred miles above the continent.

“Welcome to my nightmare,” Forstchen says with the kind of grim chuckle usually reserved for gallows humor.

But this is no joke. “It sounds like it’s science fiction, Mayan-prophecy, end-of-the-world stuff,” Forstchen admits, “but it’s dead-on real.” Full story »

We took a little drive this morning through some of the more scenic portions of Gunnison County, Colorado. For reference purposes, Gunnison County is significantly larger than the state of Delaware, and since it’s extremely mountainous (the city of Gunnison, which sits in the valley, is at an altitude of 7,700+ feet), there are a lot of scenic spots in the area.

We headed over through Pitkin and drove up the Cumberland Pass Road, the “highest standard car road for summer use in the nation” – and along the way we took some photos. I thought maybe I’d share a few of them with you. (I’m not a real photographer, but perhaps the natural beauty of the place can overcome my technical shortcomings.)

This was shot along the road between Highway 50 and Pitkin. Nothing special, perhaps, unless you’re just blown away by how clear the sky can be in Colorado. Full story »

I am a citizen of the United States of America. In this country, I can criticize my government as intelligently, as profanely, or as stupidly as I wish. I can call the president of the nation an unintelligent, uninspiring, and incompetent leader — which I have done. I can call my representative in Congress a buffoonish party hack — which I have done — and urge his removal from office by the voters. I can attack the policies enacted by government at all levels as often as I wish.

I can assemble with others to complain about the government. I can petition the government for redress of grievances. I can practice a religion free of government interference. Most importantly, I have the right to speak my mind. I can say whatever I want about the government short of advocating violence against it. I am free to speak or write critically about the actions or inactions of my government.

I can be a critic of my government because for hundreds of years, hundreds of thousands of Americans before me fought and died for my right to do that.
Full story »

Our inaugural Tournament of Rock will conclude here in a couple weeks with the crowning of either Paul Steel, Asobi Seksu or Rose Hill Drive. ToR I featured a wide range of bands, including many that our readers didn’t know before the contest.

Tournament of Rock II: The Legends, on the other hand, will ask our readers to crown the greatest band of all time. Dr. Booth and I have been hard at work pulling together the participants, seeding them, and kicking around all kinds of format options. But we want to make sure that we don’t exclude anybody deserving. Full story »

The last time I purchased fireworks was July 4, 1991. My daughter Katie was 3, and we were all in mourning after the death of our beloved shih tzu, Solo, who just fell over dead earlier that week. Now, I know I’m in the minority here, but I don’t think it’s right to bury dead pets. Only humans bury their dead, and I don’t need to remind you of how weird they are. It’s not Nature’s way. You should take the departed companions out to the country and let them decompose naturally. Of course, when I suggested this, you can imagine the groans of shock and dismay. So we gave him an unnatural burial in the back yard. Nature was on my side however, because something, some woodland varmint, kept digging his body back up. Full story »

by Rich Herschlag

He was only fifty. He had dozens of upcoming appearances planned. His sudden death this past week sent shock waves around the world. There were warning signs, but in the end few people saw it coming. The exact cause of his death is the topic of endless speculation and will not be known for some time. Until that time, the rumor mill will be in full swing on cable news shows and blog sites as this tragic story increasingly takes on a strange new life of its own. Full story »

It’s an image most Westerners recognize immediately: A lone man standing in the middle of a five-lane street, blocking a line of tanks. Single-handedly, “Tank Man” prevented the tanks from advancing on Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China.

Tank Man was one of more than a million Chinese students from universities across the country’s capital who converged on the square in April of 1989, demanding democratic reform. The resulting stand-off between students and the government lasted a month and a half and, eventually, led to a military crackdown. As many as 3,600 students died and more than twice that number sustained injuries.

The picture of “Tank Man”—taken by photographer Jeff Widener of the Associated Press—was one of the most famous stories captured during the confrontation. Now, issued to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, comes another compelling story: Lake with No Name by Diane Wei Liang. Full story »

Sanford case shines a spotlight on the central paradox of marriage.

South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford not only played fast and loose with the institution of marriage, but with email. However, help keeping affairs secret has arrived for not only politicians, but all of us. AshleyMadison.com just released apps for mobile phones and the Blackberry. Jeremy Caplan reports for Time that because they’re “loaded up from phones’ browsers, they leave no electronic trail.”

For those unfamiliar with it, AshleyMadison is a matchmaking service for married individuals. That’s right: It facilitates affairs. To summarize the statement of a woman Caplan quotes who consults in the online dating field, AshleyMadison is infidelity “rebranded” and made “monetizable.” Though Ashley Madison has signed up over one million users since going online in 2001, she seems concerned that it harms the online dating business for singles. Full story »