Portraying a well-known screen personality is always perilous and few actors pull it off without being seen as actors trying to portray someone they’re not. But a few years ago one actor DID IT: Michael Chiklis, who became famous playing The Shield’s brutal, corrupt main character Vic Mackey, played Jerome “Curley” Howard in a TV bio movie about the longtime screen comedy trio. And Chiklis...

The Fuhrer is in a furor (WARNING SOME ADULT LANGUAGE): Go HERE.

I just received an e-mail from a friend that is just too good and too cute not to be posted on a lazy Sunday afternoon. It is about a low-fare, 737-carrier based South African airline that tries not to take itself too seriously—something most of us should emulate. According to the e-mail and a related article: The airline started in 2001 and recently took delivery of a new 737-800 with an unusual paint...

For CStanley, in comments — Carole King, 1982: “I know this world needs changing. I know the shape we’re in. But with all the confusion, I’ve reached the conclusion, there’s only one place to begin….”

Here at TMV we spend literally hours trying to find the correct music to improve the cultural education of our many readers from so many backgrounds and so many ages. And now here is a bit of Americanna: a bit of sophisticated cocktail music. We urge readers of all ages to view it all the way through (of course it MUST be as sophisticated as we say, right?). A gem (in its own way) by Spike Jones and the City...

Ross Douthat has an amazingly dumb piece in his New York Times column space today about why all the usual arguments against same-sex marriage are wrong but it shouldn’t be allowed anyway. TBogg has the shorter version.  Andrew Sullivan and Glenn Greenwald have the best substantive responses (Andrew’s is more personal and reflective; Glenn’s is the legal analysis of Douthat’s argument)....

I’m not a Keith Olbermann fan, although I do monitor his show and many others on Fox, CNN and MSNBC, but as a former full-time journalist I must say: the segment below is a classic. Nevada GOP Senate candidate Sharron Angle recently said that she wants reporters to be her friends, who’ll ask her the questions she wants to answer and let her give out her website address so she could get campaign...

A young person’s video of a late-career Frank Sinatra hit that has lyrics fitting for 2010:

I recently read Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition, by Daniel Okrent. It was highly enjoyable and a great learning experience as well. There aren’t many books where you actually gain an entirely new way of viewing a period of history you thought you understood fairly well.

I’ve always loved this song, although it’s not one of Carole King’s better known ones:

Taylor Jones, Politicalcartoons.com This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited. All rights reserved.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first in a series of special Guest Voice posts by TMV readers. The Age of Hollywood Anti-Semitism or When Hollywood Demigods Attack! by Raymond Manley One thing about American culture is that there are some things we know and understand but don’t really talk about. That habit has drawbacks. A primary one: a culture of conspiracy. Not conspiracy as in me and three other...

Is Hollywood now about to shun Mel Gibson, with big name stars keeping a distance from him which could be a lethal weapon to any future projects he uses his mega-wealth to finance himself? It sounds as if the first shoe in what is likely to be a virtual shoe factory has dropped on Gibson with news that Leonardo DiCaprio has backed out of a Gibson project. But it’s not the news that should raise some...

I am an old guy and for the life of me cannot understand the vox populi attraction for Lindsay Lohan. I’m not that old and I appreciate the talents of pretty women. Lindsay Lohan is one troubled person. She’s got a police rap sheet longer than all the politicians combined in Washington. Mostly its for drug and alcohol abuse. She also has talent. I saw her in one movie, Georgia Rule with Jane Fonda. Nice...

I am the queen of the world, and I alone influence all media daily. Mr Gandelman is but one of my trusted subjects. I am the one who gives marching orders to him to distribute to all media everywhere in the world to do MY bidding. Surely this is women’s work to butt into everyone’s lives at the highest levels. Mr. Gandelman just said he was the one controlling all media in order to protect me....

Earlier I wrote this post about director Oliver Stone’s controversial comments about the Holocaust and how he said the Jews dominated the news media. Now he has issued this apology via his New York p.r. rep: A Statement from Oliver Stone: “In trying to make a broader historical point about the range of atrocities the Germans committed against many people, I made a clumsy association about the Holocaust,...

Daryl Cagle, MSNBC.com This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited. All rights reserved.

Apologies to readers of The Moderate Voice, my Twitter page, and my new Cagle.com weekly column page: I am deeply sorry I can’t generate more content for you but I do it in between my busy job controlling the media. I need to explain to you how tough it is doing these posts, Twitter feeds, and launching a new weekly column amid all the orders I have to give to NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox (yes, them, too), such...

If the ancients had oracles and soothsayers, why not the president of the United States? That is the question posed by columnist Shawki Hafez of the newspaperAl Watan of Oman, who recommends the impeccable Paul the Oracle Octopus, fresh off a perfect run of World Cup football predictions, as a senior adviser to President Obama. For Al Watan, Shawki Hafez writes in part: A multi-appendaged soft marine creature...

Jiho, France This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to appear on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited. All rights reserved.

I looked at a summary of my TMV posts over the past 2 years and I think I’ve been rehashing some ideas and talking points too often. I also noticed that when I (or other TMV writers) discussed matters of sex, we got the most cross-posts on other blogs and the most reactions from readers. Thus, let’s go back to everyone’s favorite subject: Sex. I certainly hope deep down (and pray as only a Catholic agnostic...

John Cole, The Scranton Times-Tribune This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited. All rights reserved.

Now the word “extortion” is coming into play in the furor surrounding tapes surrounding Mel Gibson. CBS News reports: Celebrity website TMZ says sources linked to Mel Gibson tell it they have “hard evidence” that the actor’s ex-girlfriend, Oksana Grigorieva, tried to extort Gibson by demanding more than $10 million to keep tapes she had of him secret. Gossip website RadarOnline...

Tainter makes this observation; substantial increased costs occurred late, shortly before collapse and were incurred by a population already weakened by a pattern of declining marginal returns. It was not a challenge that caused the collapse but a system that had been unproductively complex was unable to respond. Tainter says that the only solution for over complexity is simplification but complex systems are...

A few days ago, I wrote a piece of satire describing what I believed would be the conservative reaction to the First Lady’s latest initiative to assist parents in improving their kids’ health by doing something about one of our nation’s biggest challenges to their health: child obesity. Michelle Obama published a letter to announce her most recent effort. This is some of what I said about the letter and...