Young blogger Jeremiah Lewis can’t get up much excitement for the unmasking of Deep Throat, identifying himself with the apathy of the iPod generation and casting doubts on Mark Felt’s hero status. But the media lovefest since the old man admitted his (hopefully) one common trait with the porn industry has gotten Lewis thinking about what we’ll really take from history – and what we’ll overlook: I suspect that history is being shaped, and has been since before the...

…but does it love them back? A Democratic advocacy group did some research that is likely to be ignored by the groups now controlling the party.

Believe it or not, everything after this amusing run-on sentence in blog film critic Jeremiah Lewis’ review of Revenge of the Sith is fairly restrained and informative. But not as funny: I remember when Space Balls was the best Star Wars parody around. RotS (which, by the by, does) is sure to win the title with its monumentally bad dialogue, the rather silly, pre-cloaked and face masked Lord Vader who has taken the Oedipal thing way too far, a Yoda who spouts Yodified versions of sentences...

A female veejay on a hugely popular music channel in Kabul was found shot to death, two months after her show was cancelled on the eve of its national launch. Mullahs had been highly critical of the station, Tolo TV, “for broadcasting music, naked dance and foreign films, which are against Islam and other national values of Afghanistan,” but were most opposed to Shaima Rezayee’s show Hop. And you thought censorship on American television was resurgent: The information ministry...

If you think the Bush administration’s word games on “personal accounts” for Social Security is deceptive, check yourself for consistency with biotech’s switcheroo on exactly what happens in cloning: They used to acknowledge the basic biological truth that cloning creates embryos. But now, to win a political debate, they claim cloning doesn’t create embryos or any form of life at all. The latest to change his tune is Woo Suk Hwang. When he manufactured the first human...

This film short is easily one of the best online marketing productions I’ve seen, and I agree with Josh Chafetz that “I don’t even particularly like the cause.” Few people would have the temerity to question this parody’s claims about its competition, but I will note an artistic flaw: its blatant ripoff of a character from Spaceballs, one of the greatest parody films ever. (If you’re having trouble streaming the video, you can download them here.)

If a new poll is to be believed in Washington State, my former home, 1) Voters think the official governor isn’t the legitimate one 2) They don’t want a revote 3) They’d choose the challenger next time 4) They’d choose the challenger for Senate 5) No one likes either party. Sounds about par for the course in the Evergreen State, as I explain.

The Weekly Standard’s Jonathan Last gives a fond farewell to retiring Indiana Pacers veteran Reggie Miller, “certainly the best clutch shooter in the modern game (post-1980) not named Bird or Jordan.” Miller is a rarity these days in the faltering NBA: a truly great player who stayed with the same team over nearly two decades and never got a ring. Last also says: He is the only great player of recent vintage who has been able to stay with the same team and completely (and successfully)...

Coldplay frontman and Gwyneth boytoy Chris Martin has mixed feelings about his wealth, but not because of how he earned it. His label, megalith EMI, said its profits would fall below expectations because Coldplay took three years to finish its latest album, leading Martin to respond, “I don’t really care about EMI. I’m not really concerned about that.” Well, good for him! If only he could keep his mouth shut: “I think shareholders are the great evil of this modern...

The skeptics and targets of Gawker Media – notably Radar, whose launch has been mockingly hyped by Nick Denton’s flagship blog – are circling over this news: Last month Sploid, the “anarcho-capitalistâ€? news site that Nick Denton vowed would take on the Drudge Report, debuted with a resounding thud. Now Denton’s longtime lieutenant, Choire Sicha, who oversaw the site, is fleeing to the New York Observer. Sources say Sicha has just accepted an offer to edit the...

Afghanistan’s opium crisis might become an opportunity (paraphrasing the Chinese proverb), if only the country had enough resouces to monitor and regulate the plant’s production for legitimate drugs. But it seems our government is none too thrilled with the idea, which is sad but not surprising, given the history of bipartisan shrillness against any drugs with illicit usage.

It’s somewhat comforting to know that Iraq’s homegrown reporters provoke just as much irritation from the locals as they do, well, everywhere else with government of, by and for the people. It’s a sign of progress when ordinary people aren’t afraid to criticize the media (usually because it’s not state-controlled anymore). But it’s not limited to claims of bias and oversimplification in Iraq – if this incident with a taxi driver is indicative, reporters...

I attended the Free Muslims Against Terrorism rally in Washington, DC yesterday. See my photos and narrative on the event’s success here. Other pictures – some from speakers I missed, as I arrived late – are here.

The first Pew survey on political typology since 9/11 shows some interesting trends in the two major political parties and unaffiliated voters. The most interesting results, in my view: the shift of the unaffiliated toward one party’s side…

One of the most amusing political defenses you’ll ever hear is the libertarian’s plea to “legalize it,” whatever “it” may be, temporarily tossing aside their distaste for regulation to wildly overpromise how much better things will be if only (insert here) were under the state’s bureaucratic purview. (Then again, there’s at least one issue where I happily and fervently make this argument.) The latest example of legalization falling short of promises...

The call to prayer in Muslim-ruled areas used to be “a joy” but has since turned into a “thunderous cacophony” as mosques adopted loudspeakers and put their muezzins (announcers) on the mic at the same time, leading to such intrusive noise it has some faithful calling it “daily torture to the ears.” Some mosques even amplify the entire service, and “what should be an announcement lasting at most two minutes goes on for 45 minutes, keeping the entire neighbourhood...

OxBlog’s David Adesnik notes some particularly lacking reporting on an issue in my backyard (literally, at the school across the street): the new sex education curriculum in Montgomery County, Maryland. You might have heard local conservative parents were up in arms, but if you wanted to know what’s actually in the curriculum, the Post’s story isn’t the best place. It does include one excerpt that sheds light on what could have more than just conservative parents upset,...

The Sunday New York Times has a feature on Nick Denton and his Gawker Media blog “empire,” a compliment he doesn’t particularly like. For the man said to have taken blogging mainstream, Denton is pretty skeptical: “The hype comes from unemployed or partially employed marketing professionals and people who never made it as journalists wanting to believe,” he said. “They want to believe there’s going to be this new revolution and their lives are going to...

Tonight was a milestone in prime-time cartoons on the major networks: “The Simpsons” passed its 350th episode and “Family Guy” returned three years after cancellation because of audience demand. Sadly, Fox misjudged how much penance it should pay “Family Guy” creator Seth MacFarlane and went ahead with his latest project, which I review here.

Here’s another lesson in not assuming what people in other countries would want, based on our Western notions. As Iraq gets cell networks up and running, the towers need to go somewhere – and Iraqis are glad to be picked by the companies to put them on their houses: 1-The phone company would pay the house owner (the host) 500 $ per month for allowing the company to install the tower in on his house’s roof or in the garden. 2-The deal would also include installing a diesel power...

The LA Times comes in for criticism regularly in the blogosphere, but a couple recent mistakes on their part deserve closer scrutiny. LA-based Patterico shows Times editors removed (from the Reuters wire story) possibly the most noteworthy development in the shooting of the car in Iraq that killed an Italian agent and the newly free Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena – the car’s speed as measured by satellite: The Reuters story reported that investigators using satellite footage of...

The group Free Muslims Against Terrorism is leading a rally in DC on Saturday, May 14: Join us in sending a message to radical Muslims and supporters of terrorism that we reject them and that we will do all we can to defeat them. We also want to send a message of hope to the people of the Muslim world and the Middle East who seek freedom, democracy and who reject radical Islam that we are with them and that we will do all we can to support them. The rally is open to people of all and no faiths,...

Law student Steve Barnett has a manageable and eye-opening history of the filibuster, as well as current law surrounding its use on certain subjects. Forget that it was racist legislators who utilized the filibuster most effectively, to block civil rights legislation; and forget that the earliest filibuster landed the national capital in “a humid swamp now known as Washington, D.C.,” where I have the misfortune of living now. Read the whole thing, but especially see this section on...

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals just can’t get a break. They’ve been shut down by California’s high court on their false advertising suit against the state Milk Advisory Board, which has the bad taste to show “happy cows grazing in lush green pastures” in its commercials. I’d put this in the same category as fast-food restaurants’ depictions of their food in commercials – only fleetingly connected to the actual reality, but everyone knows...

You’ve gotta love the judgment of newspaper photo editors. This story about the murky rules surrounding filibusters in the Constitution features that Dick Cheney “Shut the f— up or I’ll cap your ass” photo. It makes him look ruthless, imposing and intolerant, but most likely he was calling on a reporter near the back of the room for a question. The choice gives evidence that, regardless of whether you think media bias exists, journalists have preconceptions like the...