Noticing our nation is stuck in an unwinnable war (or two), we wondered if America hasn’t stumbled off the meritocratic path. More specifically, since political pundits like David Brooks play such a central role in our national decision-making process, maybe something is amiss in the world of punditry. Are the incentives well-aligned? Surely those who warned us not to invade Iraq have been recognized and rewarded, and those who pushed for this disaster face tattered credibility and waning career prospects. Could it be any other way in America? So we selected the four pundits who were in our judgment the […]
SPY VS. SPY: Nixon CREEPs Say The Darndest Things!
January 14, 2007 — E. HOWARD Hunt – the shadowy former CIA man who organized the Watergate break-in and was once eyed in the assassination of President Kennedy – bizarrely says that Lyndon Johnson could be seen as a prime suspect in the rubout. […] On Watergate, Hunt says he saved G. Gordon Liddy from gagging on urine-tainted booze as they got ready to break into Democratic National Committee headquarters, telling him, “I know you like your scotch, but don’t order it . . . Last night when we were hiding in the closet, I had to take a leak […]
The Rev. Dr. MARTIN LUTHER KING Jr. 1929-1968
“I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people will get to the Promised Land. And I’m happy, tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I do not fear any man. Mine eyes have […]
TONIGHT: What’s This Man Hiding?
With Your Host Count Amorosi…
ROCKSNOB: Beware Of Aging Rock Critics With Candy
BY ED KING There’s no need to lecture me on the deceptively breezy charms of the music of this month’s wondergirl, sassy British upstart Lily Allen. As any gimmick-hungry yob who’s ever hoped to dig gold from rock ‘n roll will tell you, writing and selling a catchy little pop song is a bitch. I’d been hearing so much about this Lily Allen, seemingly out of the blue, for the last month that I feared I’d fallen a few more steps out of touch with Today’s Happening People. It wasn’t as bad as I’d feared: last week I learned from […]
Stephen A. Smith Please Phone Home…Pretty Please?
Friday night was the last episode of “Quite Frankly,” the weeknight ESPN2 show hosted by Inqwaster‘s Stephen A. Smith. The station canceled the show, and on his ESPN Radio show Friday, Smith said he accepts blame for the ratings being lackluster. According to the sports network, Smith will continue to play a large role for ESPN/ESPN2. “The other things he does for us are going to increase,” an ESPN spokesman said Friday night. He added that Smith will be seen on air “as much or more than ever.” However, Smith’s comments to Phawker.com on Friday, suggest he is leaving the […]
BOONDOCKS: MLK Goes Cosby On Congregation
WARNING: Offensive language used liberally in the pursuit of social satire.
GUNCRAZY: Suicide By Cop Outside The Gallery
(AP) PHILADELPHIA Philadelphia police say officers shot and killed a knife-wielding man who yelled “Kill me” and lunged at them early Sunday morning. The killing is the second this year by city police. Police say it happened about 2 a.m. as the officers were responding to a report of a broken window at a federal building across the street from The Gallery, the downtown mall. Police Captain Benjamin Naish says the officers tried several times to use a stun gun, but couldn’t disarm the man. Naish won’t say how many officers fired or how many shots were fired at the […]
GAYBO: HIPSTERS, TRAMPS AND SLEAZE, MORRISSEY DOES EUROVISION? NO FUMAR y NO ESTACIONAR & THREESOME OF THE WEEK
BY TOMMY ZANE Aging Granddaddy of all hipsters and ambivalent sex-God Morrissey is rumored to have jumped in the race to write and/or perform this year’s U.K. entry in the Eurovision Song Contest, to be held May 12 in Helsinki, Finland. The 52 year-old contest counts ABBA and Olivia Newton-John among its discoveries (the Aussie warbler lost out to the ABBA’s “Waterloo” in the 1974 go-round) but Eurovision is mostly known for its high camp and lousy pop songs with flashy Solid Gold-esque choreography. If Morrissey does indeed sign up to represent the U.K., I can only imagine a domino […]
ARTSY: Grand Dame Of 60s Op-Art Still Hip at 90
BY AMY S. ROSENBERG INQUIRER STAFF WRITER In the ’60s, she was making art that was part of the psychedelic fabric of its day, mind-blowing optical trickery, paintings that vibrated and moved, art that anticipated a digital medium few had imagined. But Edna Andrade was no hippie, no part of the like-wow drug culture that embraced the op art movement of the 1960s. She was middle-aged, living on her own on Carlisle Street in Center City, her architect husband having left her, isolated from the New York or European art scene, no starving waitress thing for her, no East Village […]
PBR: FOOKIN’ PUNTERS!
BY PATRICK BERKERY Down in the Big Easy, where the Eagles’ unexpected playoff push came to a screeching halt Saturday night, there’s a colloquialism called lagniappe. It means ?a little something extra.? And what Jeff Garcia, Brian Dawkins, Brian Westbrook, Marty Mornhinweg et al gave us after Donovan went down was a totally unforeseen little something extra. Well done, boys. Well done. That said, the way it ended stings. Badly. Lagniappe, schmaniappe, I say. The defense might?ve been sucking wind late in the fourth quarter, but Garcia was still cocked and loaded (insert rumors of Garcia being homosexual-related punch line […]
SMELLS LIKE JOURNALISM: Inky Editorial Board Descends From Ivory Tower To Hear Vox Populi
Talking to Philadelphians about their city is like talking to a woman about the guy she’s been married to for 30 years. She has his quirks and habits down cold. If you ask nicely, she’ll recite them all for you, in rueful, sarcastic detail. But don’t you go criticizing him, or she’ll knock your block off as soon as she looks at you. She’ll never pretend he looks like Pierce Brosnan or George Clooney, but then again, she never cared that much about that kind of thing. Anyway, for a guy his age, who’s been through what he’s been through, […]