“V” for Vilification: Liberal Paradise, Obama Nightmare by Rick Moran Want to piss off the left? Everybody watch every single episode of the new ABC mini-series “V.” Drive the ratings through the roof. Make the show the hottest cultural happening since Seinfeld. Copy the hairstyles. Ape the fashion. Start bidding up the action dolls on Ebay. And most especially, actually...

Eric Roux, a ‘legal representative’ of the Church of Scientology in France, seems relieved after the Criminal Court of Paris returned a verdict of fraud against the church – without imposing dissolution. Days ago, a long-awaited verdict was handed down in the French criminal trial of the Church of Scientology. In the opinion of German columnist Dietrich Alexander of the newspaper Die Welt,...

You may have seen the viral video of the worst parking job ever. 1,684,803 views since the Thursday Oct. 22 incident. While we gawk and guffaw, the owner of the crushed 2004 Hyundai Elantra (the one in the foreground) had just finished paying off his car loan! The 62 year-old woman driving the BMW was arrested for leaving the scene. The crushed Hyundai owner was left looking to replace his car. So what did...

I just finished reading a fantastic and timely book. Fantastic because of how the writer, Doug Stanton, brilliantly and in gritty, sometimes grisly detail describes the unprecedented actions of a band of American Special Forces heroes who rode into Afghanistan after 9/11 during the opening days of what is now the Afghanistan War. Timely, not necessarily because of what these magnificent men did on horseback...

Just how DID he get those free tickets?

Lots of documentaries aspire to be authentic fly-on-the-wall enterprises, offering viewers a chance to see what they didn’t see on the news, didn’t learn from official statements, and get a feel of what “really” went on behind-the-scenes and what the key political players are “really like.” HBO’s By The People: The Election of Barack Obama which airs at 9 p.m. tonight...

Actually, most of this 7-screen profile is not this openly vicious. Vanessa Grigoriadis generally prefers to kill with a thousand paper cuts rather than take a butcher knife to her target of choice. If you’re looking to learn something substantive about Pelosi’s political thinking and/or the professional and personal factors that formed her values and who she is as a person, you will be disappointed....

Oooops.

Before the upcoming rough and tumble week of political debates, firestorms, memes, falsehoods, truths, insanity, coffee-fueled sermons, drug-induced tirades, and assorted odds and ends, I present the legendary Pat Metheny Group with their classic song “As It Is” (Live) from their 2002 release “Speaking Of Now”. Every time I hear this song, I realize how true the phrase “As It Is”,...

Sound and audio is a bit choppy, but there’s no other version for me but the 1955 film with Gloria Grahame and Gene Nelson. I’ve seen it probably a dozen times. ADDED: After I posted this, I saw that the title song is on the video, too! I hadn’t listened through the whole thing before posting it. Two great songs for the price of one.

Laugh in Tune! Listen to the Capitol Steps’ Halloween Show ‘Politics Takes A Holiday!’ on your local NPR station or online! Find an NPR Station or LISTEN ONLINE

It all has to do with abortion… somehow:

Poking the Cobra Raging Moderate, by Will Durst Now is the time for all good men to put their hands together, pull them apart and rapidly put them back together again, and repeat, to give props to the president for not curling up into a fetal position with a “Kick Me” sign taped to his butt. You know. Like a Democrat. He’s taking it straight to his perceived enemy, calling both Fox News and Rush Limbaugh...

Conservative talk show mega-maven Rush Limbaugh ranted and thundered about what was supposedly a old thesis done by President Barack Obama. But in the end, it turned out to be a hoax. Details HERE. Meanwhile, some of Limbaugh’s new statements will likely make NFL owners breathe a sigh of relief that he was booted from buying into an NFL team. Read these. His fans and defenders will say it’s taken...

Making the rounds in copyleft circles, a Harry Potter themed dinner at a house in West London has been banned by Warner Brothers, because they say it infringes its copyright: Guests would have been led down ‘Diagon Alley’ by the side of the house and been met by a portrait of the “Fat Lady” who would have demanded a password before they could be let in. But the plans were scuppered when...

Yesterday, I was flipping through the Brooks Brothers fall catalogue. The catalog tells a story, in which all the models are part of one multi-generational (super-rich, super-WASPy) family. Except for the two black models. These two — one man and woman — seem to be married to each another (see page 112, for example). Perhaps they fell in love because of their shared passion for dressing up like...

With our spookiest holiday just around the corner, as is traditional we’ll be having a celebration of the best (and worst!) horror movies on Movie Addict Headquarters today at 4 pm eastern time. Actress Rosemary Gore (pictured here) and Mad Movie Man A.J. Hakari will be joining Betty Jo Tucker and I to review some of the winners and losers of the horror genre. I can always use some suggestions, so feel...

Sam Reich’s “Pixar Intro Parody,” written by Sam and Dan, animated by effects superhero Mike Ritchie, scored by music supervillain Carl Sondrol. Pixar Tweets, “careful as it’s not suitable for minors, and probably shouldn’t be viewed at work.” It’s that happy ending that does it in.

I’ve just finished listening to an absolutely fascinating audiobook, and one  that seems uniquely appropriate for listening to in the car. It’s called Horatio’s Drive and is based on a PBS program about the first man to drive a car across the country in the year 1903. The story was produced by Ken Burns and the audio version features Tom Hanks as Horatio Nelson Jackson and many other great...

On The Media devoted its entire show this week to The Future of the Music Industry. The occasion is the 10 year anniversary of the record industry confrontation of the peer-to-peer file-sharing service, Napster. The hour is guided by public radio and TV reporter Rick Karr. I encourage you to listen to the full program, but today I choose to quote from the piece that looks at sampling. In it OTM producer Jamie...

It was a busy weekend and I’d like to give people at the Moderate Voice a heads up on some of what we’ve been covering. From Pakistan’s The Nation Newspaper, the editorial headlined Hillary Clinton Should Mind Her Own Media! attacks the secretary of state for criticizing Pakistan’s media coverage of the huge U.S. aid bill to that nation. Then for Pakistan’s Pak Tribune in an...

Or is it The Big Apple versus The Big Scrapple?

Are the nation’s fiscal, economic, military, political and social challenges setting us up for a Military Coup? Will the U.S. Military Industrial Complex, acting through our Joint Chiefs of Staff or some other high-level corps of U.S. Military officers, and supported by a variety of angry business leaders and extreme conservatives be so resentful of any changes to our national priorities that they would encourage...

While George Lucas may or may not be preparing to unleash another Star Wars trilogy on us, this time in stereoscopic 3D, some of his most re-creative fans had their work included in a fun Star Wars Uncut trailer out this week. Launched in July, the project aims to complete a full user-generated version of the original, dubbed Star Wars: A New Hope. This “biggest fan recreation in the universe”...

As we noted two weeks ago, there has been considerable speculation that CNN’s Lou Dobbs is seeking to jump ship to Fox Business News — speculation that increased after he met with Fox News chief Roger Ailes. The latest development: Not if Fox’s Geraldo Rivera has anything to do about it. Geraldo even reportedly called Ailes who he says assured him it ain’t gonna happen (which does not...