[Via GQ, click HERE to enlarge] RELATED: Cruz, 42, arrived in Washington in January as the ultimate conservative purist, a hero to both salt-of-the-earth Tea Partiers and clubby GOP think-tankers, and since then he has come to the reluctant but unavoidable conclusion that he is simply more intelligent, more principled, more right—in both senses of the word—than pretty much everyone else in our nation’s capital. That alone isn’t so outrageous for the Senate. “Every one of these guys thinks he’s the smartest guy in the room,” one senior Democratic aide told me. “But Cruz is utterly incapable of cloaking it […]

  SPIN: As they did with the Nevermind re-release two years back, Universal’s reissue department has dug deep and served up everything worth a sniff, with predictably mixed results. It’s all collected into the overstuffed “Super Deluxe” edition, which at press time cost around $125 on Amazon: a remastered version of the original album; a new “2013 mix” by producer Steve Albini; assorted B-sides, outtakes, demos and alternate mixes; the staggeringly great Live & Loud set from December 1993 (appearing on both CD and DVD); and a lavish booklet containing reproductions of Cobain’s handwritten lyrics, photos from the sessions, a […]

  STOP WATCHING US: Right now the NSA is spying on everyone’s personal communications, and they’re operating without any meaningful oversight. Since the Snowden leaks started, more than 569,000 people from all walks of life have signed the StopWatching.us petition telling the U.S. Congress that we want them to rein in the NSA. On October 26th, the 12th anniversary of the signing of the US Patriot Act, we’re taking the next step and holding the largest rally yet against NSA surveillance. We’ll be handing the half-million petitions to Congress to remind them that they work for us — and we […]

  FRESH AIR Elton John has a flair for the extravagant, to say the least. Sunday night at the Emmys, he in a sequined jacket. John is currently performing in Vegas, at Caesar’s Palace, doing a show he calls The Million Dollar Piano. But his new album, The Diving Board, is the opposite of flashy. The songs are reflective, and the music is stripped down to piano, bass and drums. It’s a surprising return to a time when Elton John wasn’t Captain Fantastic, when he wasn’t one of the biggest rock stars in the world. The songs on the new […]

  STU BYKOFSKY: We need a new stream of revenue, one that will expand rather than shrink. As much as I don’t like the idea, the time has come for Pennsylvania to legalize marijuana. Since it will become legal eventually, we can harvest a major benefit from this crop. Weed is a growth industry. It’ll make what we can get from fracking look like McNuggets. The enabling method is to legalize “medical” marijuana, then expand it, as Washington and Colorado have done. As the potheads have been saying for decades (when not giggling and stuffing their faces with Cheetos) pot’s […]

  GOOGLE: In this exclusive documentary featuring never-before-seen footage of the late, great Joe Strummer, all four members of “the only band that matters” walk us through the making of each of their classic albums. Newly re-mastered versions of those albums are available below, along with a new hits collection based on the set list from one of Joe’s favorite gigs. Plus, four contemporary bands inspired by the Clash’s legacy offer their own takes on the band’s songs. If you already love the Clash, watch and listen and we guarantee you’ll hear something new. If you don’t, you’ll hear why […]