CROOKS AND LIARS: Two bloggers from Gay U.S.A. attended a rally for Rick Santorum in Tacoma on Monday evening to see what the GOP presidential contender had to say about the same-sex marriage bill signed into law by Washington state’s governor earlier in the day. Three protesters were arrested at the event, including the two bloggers, and another protester who was arrested later in the evening for glitter-bombing Santorum. Other reports tie the protesters to the Occupy Tacoma group. Here is a snippet of their account of the evening: . About four police officers approached the group. Nathan left the […]
NEW YORK TIMES ASKS: WTF Is Up With The People Running The Inquirer/Daily News?
NEW YORK TIMES: The new owners installed Mr. Osberg, who had been the president and publisher of Newsweek magazine, but the financial picture has continued to decline. According to sales documents obtained by The New York Times — marked as “highly confidential” — the company had a 13.9 percent drop in advertising revenues last year and earnings were less than $5 million. On Wednesday, the company announced a round of buyouts and potential layoffs that will eliminate 37 positions. MORE MEDIAWIRE: Philadelphia Media Network executives announced at a meeting with Guild leaders today that they will reduce the newsrooms of […]
When You Die, Mormons Will Baptize You & Give You Your Own Planet, Whether You Like It Or Not
CNN: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has apologized for “a serious breach of protocol” in which the parents of the late Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal were posthumously baptized as Mormons. The church also acknowledged that three relatives of Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel were entered into the genealogy database, though not referred for baptism. Asher Wiesenthal and Rosa Rapp were baptised in proxy ceremonies in temples in Utah and Arizona, according to the database records discovered by researcher Helen Radkey in Salt Lake City. The Wiesenthal baptisms violated a 1995 pact in which the church agreed to stop […]
CONTEST: Win Tix To Portlandia Live!
Yes, that’s right we have a pair of tix to give away for the second show of Portlandia The Tour at the Troc on Sunday. Why? Because we love you! How to win them? Easy, just send the correct answer to this question — What is the name of the Chicago-based indie-rock band Fred Armisen played drums for back in the 90s? — to FEED@PHAWKER.COM with the phrase PHAWKER IS SO MUCH FUNNIER THAN PORTLANDIA in the subject line. Include your mobile number for confirmation. Good luck and Godspeed! Look for our our interview with the Mayor of Portland later […]
SH*T MY UNCLE SAYS: The Devil You Know
BY WILLIAM C. HENRY The best part about creating this fantasy face-off was coming to the realization that determining its outcome wasn’t going to be the slam dunk this old-school liberal had anticipated. As you would no doubt agree, discovering where a politician actually stands on a given issue (as opposed to where they say they stand) can be a pretty eye-opening experience, sometimes revealing previously arrived at conclusions to have been ill-informed rushes to judgement unsupported by facts on the ground. Although I regard this as by far the “best available” match-up for the discerning American voter, the chance of a real-life Presidential […]
The Great Steel Pier Horse Diving Revival 86’d
DAILY NEWS: The owners of Atlantic City’s Steel Pier, facing pressure from animal-rights groups, have scrapped a plan to bring back the diving-horse act that made the boardwalk venue famous for decades. “Instead of trying to rekindle the past, we’re going to preserve history and nostalgia in a new way,” said Anthony Catanoso, Steel Pier’s president. Diving horses began plunging off Steel Pier platforms into pools in the 1920s. Animal-rights groups put an end to the show in the 1970s and again in 1993, when Catanoso briefly brought the horses back. MORE ASSOCIATED PRESS: He had envisioned the Diving Horse […]
EXPECT US: Anon Hacktavists DDS Pennsyltucky Tear Gas Maker For Exporting Repression Abroad
NBC PHILADELPHIA: The website of a U.S. company whose tear gas has been used against demonstrators in Egypt is the latest to be broken into by the Anonymous movement, hackers claimed Tuesday. In a statement posted to the Internet, hackers accused Combined Systems of being war profiteers who sell “mad chemical weapons to militaries and cop shops around the world.” Anonymous has claimed a series of Web attacks worldwide and has increasingly focused on security companies, law enforcement and governmental organizations. The group has often worked in tandem with the Occupy protest movement in the United States and has expressed […]
TONY BENNETT: Cold, Cold Heart
The charming Valentine’s Day ‘doodle’ on Google’s splash page. RELATED: Valentine’s Day 2012 is celebrated with a video-animation Google Doodle that also showcases the tender crooning of Tony Bennett at age 25, sweetly hitting the high notes of “Cold, Cold Heart.” The song was written by country boy Hank Williams, who said on “The Kate Smith Evening Hour” in a 1952 appearance that “Cold, Cold Heart” had “been awful kind to me and the boys,” providing them with “quite a few beans and biscuits.” It was a moneymaker. And it also was kind to Bennett. His version, with an orchestral […]
SIDEWALKING: Mac Sans Cheese
Love Park, Monday 2:12 PM by MEREDITH KLEIBER
WORTH REPEATING: Attack Of The Drones
REVEREND JOHN WHITEHEAD: Congress has just passed a bill, the FAA Reauthorization Act, mandating that the Federal Aviation Administration create a comprehensive program for the integration of drone technology into the national air space by 2015. The FAA predicts that there will be 30,000 drones crisscrossing the skies of America by 2020, all part of an industry that could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars per year. This mandate is yet another example of the political power of the military-industrial complex, Congress’ disdain for the privacy of American citizens, and the rampant growth of government. With this single piece […]
BOOKS: Interview With The Vampire Chronicler
[Artwork by ANITA KUNZ] BY JONATHAN VALANIA In advance of Anne Rice‘s reading at the Free Library tomorrow night to promote the publication of Wolf Gift, her 33rd novel, we got the doyenne of high goth on the horn for an in-depth Q&A. Discussed: Why her mother named her Howard; How to kill a werewolf. Why she regrets ever using the word ‘vampire’; the interior lives of zombies. Why she returned to the Catholic Church after years of ardent atheism. Why she then turned her back on the Catholic Church and Christianity itself, but still believes in God. The future […]
THE DREAM POLICE: Q&A With Ray Lewis, Retired Philadelphia Police Captain & OWS Protester
EDITOR’S NOTE: This interview originally ran back in December. We are re-running it today on the occasion of Captain Ray Lewis speaking today at a noontime OccupyPhilly rally at Independence Mall. BY JONATHAN VALANIA Ray Lewis, a retired Philadelphia Police captain with 24 years of service under his belt, created some of the most iconic imagery of the Occupy Wall Street protests by showing up at Zuccotti Park in his uniform with a sign that read: NYPD, WATCH ‘INSIDE JOB,’ JOIN US. Footage of his high profile arrest outside the New York Stock Exchange went viral, and he quickly became […]
