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Mark R. Whittington is a writer residing in Houston, Texas. He is the author of Children of Apollo and coauthor of Nocturne. He has written numerous articles, some for the Washington Post, USA Today, the LA Times, and the Houston Chronicle.
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Restaurant review shows on the Food Network come in two types. There's the typical one where a host such as Gaida de Laurtentis will visit a five star restaurant and coo over tiny portions of elf food. Then there is Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives.
The House took a vote on Cap and Trade legislation on Friday and passed it by 219 to 212. Cap and Trade and how the House passed it, illustrates, as few other things have, what is wrong with the political system in the United States.
Oliver Stone, the director of such classics as JFK and Platoon, was on the Bill Maher HBO show this past Friday. Bill Maher, the sneering host, asked of Oliver Stone, who has done films about JFK, Nixon, and the younger Bush, why not a film about Reagan?
Virtuality, the TV movie that may or may not be the pilot for a series, premiered on Fox on Friday. It is the creation of Ron Moore, who pioneered the depiction of extreme stress in space on his reimagined Battlestar Galactica series.
Royal Pains Episode Four Tb or Not TB finds Dr. Hank in a melancholy mood. His ex wedding day is coming up, which is made worse by the fact that his brother Evan is so desperate to want to cheer him up.
Burn Notice Season Three Episode Four Fearless Leader starts out with the premise that doing unofficial mercenary work is rather difficult when an obsessed detective is following one's every move. What is a burned spy to do?
Michael Jackson is dead. Considering the self styled King of Pop's numerous health complaints, it is a wonder that it took this long to happen. Michael Jackson's career may have been a triumph, but his life was pure tragedy.
Democrat supporters of Cap and Trade legislation are touting a Congressional Budget Office estimate that it would cost an average family only $175 a year by 2020. But as the Wall Street Journal points out, that number is only the beginning.
Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen is an action packed sequel to the 2007 film once again staring Shia LaBouf as a young man caught in a battle between two armies of giant robots. But Transformers 2 seems to have a new villain-President Barack Obama.
One of the more exciting placing in the Solar System seems to be a hitherto obscure moon of Saturn called Enceladus. Enceladus was found to emit a huge geyser of water and ice from its south pole by the Cassini space probe a few years ago.
Political sex scandals have been a staple of American politics since America's founding. But the story of South Carolina Mark Sanford and his clandestine trip to Argentina to meet an Internet girlfriend has to be one of the most bizarre in history.
The North Korean government has threatened to "wipe out" the United States. This occurs as a North Korean ship is suspected of conveying forbidden weapons materials to Myanmar and is also reported to be ready to launch a missile toward Hawaii.
Since Buzz Aldrin came back from the Moon, close to forty years ago, he has dabbled in the arts. Buzz Aldrin has been an actor in several TV shows and movies, playing himself. He is the co-author of two novels. Now Buzz Aldrin is a rapper.
The principle argument against Cap and Trade, legislation said to be designed to cut the production of green house gasses, is that it would have the effect of a huge tax increase on Americans. But that appears to be just the beginning.
Back in February, Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, a professor of political science at New York University and a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, made some interesting predictions about Iran that, in the light of recent events, bear examining.
Reza Cyrus Pahlavi is the son of the late Shah of Iran, driven from power in the Islamic Revolution of 1979. Reza Cyrus Pahlavi is also a passionate advocate for freedom in Iran, as he demonstrated at a National Press Club speech recently.
President Barack Obama had a press conference in which he offered stronger language, albeit in a measured tone, on Iran than he has had previously. But then, in some of the answers to questions, President Obama temporized a little.
The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has arrived in orbit around the Moon. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter was launched from the Kennedy Space Center on June 18th as the latest unmanned space probe to examine the lunar surface.
The tragedy of Neda Agha Soltan, a young woman gunned down in the streets of Tehran by a pro regime thug, continues to inspire awe and sorrow. The New York Times, of all things, mentioned something that goes beyond even all that.
President of the French Republic Nicolas Sarkozy has said something that no French President has ever said before and no American President would dare say. He has denounced the wearing of the burqa as incompatible with human rights.
The central fact of Iran, and the key to understanding the turmoil now rocking that country, is that roughly sixty percent of the population consists of young people, according to a recent article in Haaretz.
There are roughly two possible outcomes to the present uprising in Iran. Either the protestors will succeed and the current regime will be overthrown or the regime will manage to crush the rebellion. Either outcome has profound implications.
The Iranian woman who was shot by a Basij thug during a protest rally in Terhan a couple of days ago has been identified as Neda Agha Soltan, identified as a twenty seven year old philosophy student.
ABC has apparently decided to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Moon landing with a miniseries about the Moon hurtling down from its orbit to smack itself into Earth, killing us all. The results are somewhat less than impressive.
True Blood Season 2 Episode 2 Keep This Party Going started with Sookie and Bill in bed, enjoying the afterglow, Jason enjoying the company of fellow vampire hating religious fruitcakes, and Lafayette not enjoying anything at all.
A copy of a video, apparently of a young Iranian woman named Neda, dying of a gunshot wound inflicted by Iranian security forces is circulating on the Internet. It has become a rallying cry both inside and outside of Iran.
JibJab, those purveyors of satirical animated videos, have done it again with a (sort of) tribute video in honor (sort of) Barack Obama. He's Barack Obama catches the zeitgeist of Obama as savior of us all neatly.
More evidence that relations with North Korea are heating up was illustrated by the deployment of the destroyer USS John McCain to intercept and possibly board a North Korean flagged ship suspected of carrying forbidden arms and/or weapons materials.
In Burn Notice Season 3 Episode 3 End Run, Micheal Westen had to deal with a minor irritant and a major pain. The minor irritant was Detective Paxson, who still is sure Michael is up to no good, The major pain is Brennen, who is up to major no good.
Royal Pains Episode Three started out almost immediately into what seems to be the formula for the show. There will be an upstairs (i.e. rich patient)) and the downstairs (i.e. poor patient) and Evan, Dr. Hank Lawson's brother, doing something silly.
North Korea may be planning to fire a long range ballistic missile in the direction of Hawaii, according to a report in a Japanese newspaper, AP is reporting. Though the Taepodong-2 cannot actually hit Hawaii, the report is ominous to say the least.
Senator Barbara Boxer (D) California is a woman who is very jealous of her dignity and of proper forms of address, as Brigadier General Michael Walsh found out to his cost during a recent Senate hearing.
Almost inevitably, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has reacted to President Barack Obama's brutal murder of a house fly in the middle of an interview with CNBC's John Harwood in the White House.
The remake of John Milius's Cold War classic, Red Dawn, is proceeding apace with the addition of two new cast members as teenaged guerilla fighters who do battle against invaders of the United States, now Chinese as well as Russians.
President Barack Obama seems incapable of handling a recession, a nuclear armed North Korea, an Iran in turmoil or (as he complained in the interview with John Harwood) Fox News. But he can kill a fly with his bare hands and that impresses some folks.
President Barack Obama fired the Inspector General for Americorps, Gerald Walpin, who was investigating Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson's community service organization, St. HOPE Academy. Questions are being raised about this firing.
Monica Conyers would be just another obscure city council woman were it not the fact that she is the wife of John Conyers, the powerful Chairman of House Judiciary Committee. So the fact that Monica Conyers is linked to a bribery scandal is national news.
President Barack Obama announced that he was "troubled" by the continuing violence surrounding the Iran protests of an election that many Iranians consider to be fraudulent. Obama seemed somewhat subdued about the massive protests, though.
David Letterman has apologized again to Sarah Palin for the joke he made about her daughter being "knocked up" by a baseball player during a game. This time Letterman sounded sincere, but a group calling for his firing said the apology was not enough.
Calvin Klein has a billboard up at the corner of Lafayette and Houston in the Soho area of New York City that is raising some eyebrows. It depicts four teenagers, wearing Calvin Klein jeans and little else, in a group make out session.
President Barack Obama made a speech before a meeting of the American Medical Association (AMA) in which he tried to sell his version of health care reform. The AMA has already come out in opposition to the public insurance option.
Bill Maher, the smug, snarky host of the HBO political talk show Real Time, is angry with President Barack Obama. One supposes that it was inevitable. Without George W. Bush to kick around anymore, Bill Maher had to be angry with someone.
The Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran with whom actual political power is vested, has ordered an investigation into whether the recent Presidential election which Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was said to have won, was rigged.
True Blood Season 2, Episode 1 was aired on HBO and about time too. True Blood's sly mixture of violence, sex, quirky characters, and sly political commentary was sorely missed since Season 2 of the series had finished up months ago.
In a foreign policy speech Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accepted the principle of a Palestinian state existing alongside Israel. However in his speech Netanyahu listed certain conditions that the Palestinians may have difficulty with.
Iranian supporters of Mir Hossein Mousavi greeted reports that Mousavi's opponent, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, had won the Iranian elections by rioting in the streets in protest of what many view as a rigged election.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is the apparent landslide winner in the Iranian Presidential elections, according to the Iranian Interior Ministry. Ahmadinejad's main rival, Mir Hossein Mousavi, has dismissed the announced results, claiming voter fraud.
David Letterman may have, in a perverse way, done Sarah Palin a big favor by insulting her daughters Bristol and Willow. This was evident when NOW actually came to the defense of the Palin ladies and condemned David Letterman.
Royal Pains episode 2 has aired and the show is starting to settle into its format. Unfortunately Royal Pains is developing two problems that might mean a premature end to the show. These are the doctor who cares and the health care reform message.
President Barack Obama was in Green Bay, Wisconsin attempting to sell his scheme to overhaul the health care system. President Obama is making this effort as opposition to the scheme has started to grow and Congressional Democrats dither over details.
Is Betelgeuse, a red giant star about six hundred light years from our solar system, about to explode? Some scientists believe that Betelgeuse is exhibiting the signs of a star about to go supernova.
David Letterman offered something resembling an apology about his joke about Sarah Palin's daughter being "knocked up" by the baseball player Alex Rodriguez. The Palins are having none of it, which is understandable all things considered.
James Von Brunn, the crazed racist conspiracy nut who murdered a security guard at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, is causing quite a stir in the media. But the nature of his various hates are a little more eclectic than one might think.
A disturbed gunman named James Von Brunn carried a rifle or shotgun into the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington and exchanged fire with security guards, before being seriously wounded. One security guard was gravely wounded.
John Ziegler, who became famous with his documentary How Obama Got Elected, was on MSNBC discussing with Contessa Brewer about an interview with Sarah Palin Ziegler had on his new radio show. The result was entertaining to say the least.
Palau, a chain of islands in the Pacific known best for its tourism, has agreed to accept the seventeen Chinese Uighur Muslims now ensconced at Guantanamo Bay. The price is two hundred million dollars in development assistance.
David Letterman seems to have an unhealthy fixation with Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. Second on the "Top Ten Highlights of Sarah Palin's Trip to New York" was a laugh-out-loud gem.
House and Senate Republicans held a fund raiser that featured former House Speaker Newt Gingrich as keynote speaker, actor and Hollywood Republican Jon Voight as master of ceremonies, and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as an honored guest.
Domed cities have been a staple of science fiction for almost since there has been science fiction. A recent episode of the Discovery Channel's Mega Engineering show imagines what it would take to build a dome over the modern city of Houston.
The American led coalition really has won a historic victory in Iraq. Stephen Colbert has invaded Iraq to entertain the troops and tape same episodes of his popular Comedy Channel Show.
Laura Ling and Euna Lee, journalists working for the Al Gore founded Current TV, have been sentenced by a North Korean court to 12 years in a labor camp. Ling and Lee were convicted of "committing hostilities against the Korean nation and illegal entry."
The 2009 election results in Lebanon suggest that the pro Western government coalition has turned back an attempt by Hezbollah and its allies to seize control of the Lebanese Parliament. It had been feared that Hezbollah would win the election.
President Barack Obama's speech at the 65th anniversary of the D Day invasion of Normandy said all the right things. It was delivered in a monotone of a man reading from a prepared text who wanted to get out of there as soon as possible.
The 65th anniversary of the D Day invasion of Normandy will be one of the last in which living participants are around to help celebrate. The world leaders who gather in Normandy for the celebration were not even alive during the battle.
Judge Sonia Sotomayor continues to cause controversy and accusations of racism and bias. But this time the shoe is on the other foot, thanks to a Sotomayor cartoon published in the Daily Oklahoman this Tuesday.
Royal Pains, starring Mark Feuerstein as a suddenly unemployed trauma surgeon named Hank Lawson who finds himself curing the ailments of the rich and famous in the Hamptons, tries a little too hard to shoehorn an unlikely premise.
Burn Notice, starring Jeffrey Donovan, Bruce Campbell, Gabrielle Anwar, and Sharon Gless, started its season three with Michael Westen, the burned super spy, being reborn by emerging from the waters of Miami harbor.
Actor David Carradine has been found dead of an apparent suicide in a luxury hotel room in Bangkok, Thailand. David Carradine, who was in Bangkok filming a movie, was found hanging. Authorities have not said whether there was a suicide note.
Twenty years ago, in 1989, the same year that the Berlin Wall fell, Chinese students gathered in Tiananmen Square to demand democracy and human rights. Twenty years ago, the Chinese regime responded with tanks and bayonets.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is running for a new term as President of Iran, had an American style Presidential debate with his main opponent, Mir Hussein Moussavi, who is described as a "moderate" and a "reformer."
President Barack Obama addressed the Dar-es-Islam in a speech at Cairo University. The Obama Cairo speech was one part tough love for Muslims, one part cringing apology, and one part Utopian vision wrapped up in historical ignorance.
Burn Notice starts its third season this month, interestingly enough after a showing of Casino Royale, the James Bond film starring Daniel Craig. This brings up and interesting question. Who is the better spy? Burn Notice's Michael Westen or James Bond?
David Eddings, the acclaimed fantasy novelist and author of such series as The Belgariad and the Malloreon, has died at the age of 77. David Eddings was predeceased by his wife and writing partner Leigh two years ago.
A bronze statue of President Ronald Reagan was unveiled at the Capitol Rotunda. Among the onlookers were Reagan's widow, Nancy Reagan, and James Baker, who served in the Reagan administration in a number of capacities.
Toward the end of a documentary on NBC, NBC News anchor Brian Williams, in saying goodbye to President Barack Obama, appears to bow before the President. It seemed to be an unconscious gesture, but one sure to generate controversy.
Controversial Judge Sonia Sotomayor paid visits to key Senators, following a tradition for Supreme Court nominees. The impression she made split upon partisan lines, with Democrats expressing satisfaction and Republicans being more cautious.
Violent video games have often roused the ire of various groups for glamorizing killing, torture, and other various depravities. But Rendition Guantanamo has raised the bar, by not only glamorizing these, but terrorism as well.
Some details of the latest computer game set in the Stars Wars universe, Star Wars: The Old Republic, have been revealed. This includes a teaser trailer that includes very impressive combat with light sabers, blasters, and the Force.
James Cameron's Avatar, a 3D science fiction film, is not due to be released until December. But recently screen shots of the computer game version of the film were released. The visuals revealed were nothing less than eye popping.
General Motors is now in Chapter 11 bankruptcy. When GM emerges from bankruptcy, which the Obama administration is promising will be in 60 to 90 days, the US government will own 60 percent of the company.
Deadliest Warrior: IRA vs, Taliban was the final episode of Deadliest Warrior for season one. The Deadliest Warrior episode pitted two of the most notorious terrorist organizations in modern times against one another.
The first trailer for New Moon, the sequel of the teenage angst/vampire movie Twilight premiered at the MTV Movie Awards and is now available for viewing on the Internet. The New Moon trailer sets up the story of the movie.
Doctor George Tiller was shot to death Sunday morning at the Reformation Lutheran Church in Wichita, Kansas. George Tiller, who worked at the Women's Health Services Clinic, is one of the few doctors who performs late term abortions.
President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama jetting over to New York for a dinner and a Broadway show for their periodic "date night." Understandably the Republican National Committee is finding this unseemly.
This past Friday, a super laser was dedicated at the National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory just an hour away from San Francisco. The laser may facilitate the next step toward practical fusion energy.
Disney/Pixar has released the teaser trailer for Toy Story 3, coming June 18th, 2010. As with the first two Toy Story features, Tom Hanks voiced Woody, the toy cowboy, and Tim Allen voices Buzz Lightyear, the toy space man.
John Cornyn, Republican Senator from Texas, repudiated both Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich who have called Supreme Court Nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor "racist" for remarks she made in a 2001 speech.
Proof that war in the 21st Century will be nothing like what it was in the 20th; the US military is starting to test an infantry weapon known as the XM-25 Individual Air Burst Weapon. Unofficially it is called "the Judge Dredd Gun."
The Goode Family, a new animated comedy from Mike Judge, who previously created Beavis and Butthead and King of the Hill, premiered recently on ABC TV. The Goode Family turns out to be everything the Hills of Arlen, Texas are not.
John Lithgow, better known for his comedy roles on such TV shows as 3rd Rock from the Sun and films like Harry and the Hendersons, will appear on the 4th season of Dexter. John Lithgow plays a serial killer who has evaded the law for three decades.
Newt Gingrich, twittering from Europe, was the latest public figure to decry what many considered Supreme Court Nominee Sonia Sotomayor's racist comments in a 2001 speech. Gingrich was direct about Sotomayor's racist comments.
With the California Supreme Court upholding Proposition 8's ban on same sex marriage, supporters of same sex marriage are pursuing one option through the federal courts. Leading this effort, much to everyone's surprise, is Ted Olson.
The story of Horse Soldiers, a book by Doug Stanton, is one so incredible that it would not be believable as fiction if it were not absolutely true. Horse Soldiers is like John Wayne meets the Arabian Nights as told by Tom Clancy.
The latest Deadliest Warrior, William Wallace vs. Shaka Zulu, took the concept in another direction by pitting not only two warriors separated by time and culture against one another, but two actual fighters known for their love of battle.
The California Supreme Court has upheld Proposition 8, which banned same sex marriage in California. However the California Supreme Court let stand the approximately 18,000 same sex marriages consummated in California before the law took effect.
President Barack Obama has picked Judge Sonia Sotomayor for nomination to become a Justice of the Supreme Court. In Judge Sonia Sotomayor, Obama gets a "twofer" for his first Supreme Court appointment-a woman and a Hispanic.
If Kim Jong-Il were just an eccentric celebrity-say a film actor or a rock singer-his antics and his paranoia would be just the subject of mild interest in the tabloids. Unfortunately Kim Jong-Il is the leader of a country with nuclear weapons.
The most unusual matchup on Deadliest Warrior, thus far, had to be Shaolin Monk vs. Maori Warrior. Not only are the fighting styles of the two warriors different, but so were their entire approach to life and existence.
Angels and Demons is the sequel to the hit film of a couple of years ago, the Da Vinci Code, also from a book by Dan Brown. Like the previous film Angels and Demons stars Tom Hanks as the Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon.
According to Florida Today retired Marine General and former astronaut Charles Bolden has been nominated for the post of NASA administrator by President Barack Obama. Bolden will replace Mike Griffin, who resigned in January.
President Barack Obama addressed the 2009 graduating class of the Navy Academy and made a number of interesting points that illuminate his approach to national security. One point was dead on, albeit obvious. Two were debatable.
The latest enemy of the people on the Left is Charles Krauthammer, the erudite conservative columnist for the Washington Post and commenter on Fox News. Joe Klein started the ball rolling with a quote in a recent piece in Politico by Ben Smith.
Moments after President Obama concluded a lengthy speech defending his administration's terrorism policy-and attacking that of the Bush administration-former Vice President Cheney responded with the mien of a kindly but stern adult giving the facts.
The FBI and the New York Police Department have broken up a terrorist plot to blow up the Riverdale Temple and the Riverdale Jewish Center in a neighborhood in the Bronx as well as shoot airplanes with Stinger missiles.
Following the lead of the House of Representatives, the United States Senate has voted to block funding for the closure of the terrorist prison at Guantanamo Bay. The move is a stinging, bi-partisan rebuke for President Barack Obama.
California voters rejected a series of propositions that would have raised taxes and allocated spending in an attempt to close that state's estimated $21.3 billion dollar budget deficit. The result is seen as a rebuke to California's political class.
President Barack Obama presented the new national CAFÉ standards for automobiles. By 2016, automobiles manufactured in the United States will have to operate at 35.5 miles per gallon. The new standards will cost motorists in money and lives.
Later this month, President Barack Obama will travel to Los Vegas for a fund raiser for Senator Harry Reid, the Senate Majority leader. This has Nevada's Republican governor Jim Gibbons miffed, as Obama has refused to meet with him.
A half a year before the movie itself is scheduled to premiere, the first trailer for Sherlock Holmes, staring Robert Downey Jr. Jude Law, Rachel MacAdams, and Mark Strong has appeared on the Internet.
The 24 Season 7 Finale has ended. Jack Bauer, the long suffering counter terrorism agent, has survived another very bad day-barely. And, sadly, 24 has promulgated an essential Hollywood myth about who is the root of all evil in the world.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu of Israel met in the Oval office with President Barack Obama to hear the President's demands for what Israel must do and, more importantly, must not do in the Middle East.
Apparently the most talked about entry at the Cannes Film Festival is a film called Antichrist, directed by Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier. Antichrist starts out with the slow motion, black and white, stylized death of a child.
Maureen Dowd, the snarky opinion columnist for the New York Times, has been caught in a plagiarism scandal. Apparently Maureen Dowd lifted a paragraph, almost word for word, from a left wing blog called, ironically enough, Talking Points.
Joe Biden, the gaffe prone Vice President, has revealed the secret location of the Vice Presidential bunker. The Vice Presidential bunker has been revealed to be located under the Naval Observatory where Vice Presidents reside.
One person who must have been delighted at the controversy surrounding his visit to the campus of Notre Dame must have been none other than President Barack Obama himself. Attention was focused by the media on him and he took full advantage.
Castle, staring Nathan Fillion as a smart alec murder mystery novelist with an eye for detail and human nature and Stana Katic as the straight arrow, by the book detective Kate Beckett with whom Castle is paired, has been renewed for a second season.
President Barack Obama has named Utah's Republican Governor Jon Huntsman as ambassador to China. Jon Huntsman, who speaks fluent Mandarin, is a good fit for the post. But there was also a political consideration.
Pundit Tucker Carlson has celebrated his fortieth birthday and has joined his third cable network, Fox News, as a paid commentator. Tucker Carlson appeared on Fox and Friends Saturday morning to give his views on the news of the day.
President Obama's decision to reverse himself and not release the so-called "torture pictures" was correct and courageous. Unfortunately, thanks to certain foreign media outlets, the decision was likely futile.
The Bones season 4 finale, The End in the Beginning, used the device of putting the familiar characters of the show and putting them in new roles, though with the usual situation of an unsolved murder.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's latest tortured explanation about what did she know about waterboarding and when did she know it is that the CIA lied to her about waterboarding being used on Abu Zubaydah during the briefings in 2002.
President Barack Obama delivered the commencement address at Arizona State University. It was a speech that, has it been delivered by a better President and a better man, would have verged upon the inspiring.
Lost: The Incident, the fifth season finale of the weirdest show on television, is promised to be the end (for now) of the time travel story arc. Lost: The Incident features a lot of jumping around in time, though, and not just between 1977 and 2007.
In a remarkable coup, the Kimball Museum in Fort Worth, Texas has acquired the earliest known work by Michelangelo Buonarroti, The Torment of St. Anthony. It will be the only work of its kind in the permanent collection of an American museum.
It seems that the Obama Administration has found a new thing to worry about. The Obama Food and Drug Administration is going after Cheerios. Cheerios is a common breakfast cereal that has been a staple of many families for generations.
This week's Deadliest Warrior: Green Beret vs. Spetsnaz pitted two elite commando forces from the modern era in a battle to the death. Almost unique of the Deadliest Warrior episodes, Green Beret vs. Spetsnaz might have actually happened.
President Barack Obama is scheduled to speak at the commencement at Notre Dame University and receive an honorary degree. This has angered pro life students, faculty, alumni, and others who have organized campaigns against it.
Lords of Corruption, the latest thriller by Kyle Mills, is the story of a young man named Josh Hagarty, whose life of bad luck and hard scrabble living seems about to change when he is offered a job running a project in Africa for an obscure charity.
Norm Augustine, retired CEO of Lockheed Martin, has been asked by President Barack Obama to chair a commission to study the Constellation program to send human explorers beyond Low Earth Orbit. Norm Augustine has done this sort of thing before.
Carrie Prejean can keep her crown as Miss California. That was the pronouncement from on high by Donald Trump, the owner of the Miss USA and Miss Universe Beauty pageants. Thus ended (or at least should end) one of the most absurd kerfuffles in history.
The fifth season finale of House M.D., Both Sides Now, ended with a development that was long expected by House fans. Still, the last ten minutes or so of the House episode came as a kind of shock that is unexpected when it finally arrives.
The space shuttle Atlantis lifted off at 02:01 PM EDT on Monday for the fifth and final Hubble repair mission. The crew of the space shuttle Atlantis will extend the life of the Hubble space telescope until at least 2014.
Apollo 10 was the final flight of Apollo space craft before the actual Moon landing was scheduled to be attempted by Apollo 11. Virtually every aspect of a lunar mission was tested, with the exception of an actual lunar landing.
David Feherty, a sports analyst for CBS, proved that he shouldn't give up his day job when he offered a little joke (a very little joke as it turned out) in a Dallas Magazine for which Dabid Feherty had to apologize.
The controversy over Wanda Sykes' tasteless performance at the White House Correspondents' Dinner is continuing apace. Critics are focusing on the vicious, unfunny things Wanda Sykes said about Rush Limbaugh.
The White House Correspondents' Dinner is one of those inside the beltway affairs in which Washington insiders, the media, and certain invited guests get to celebrate how wonderful they are. Also the President of the United States has to be funny.
J.J. Abram's version of Star Trek, the beloved franchise that started as a three season TV show over forty years ago, is spectacular in capturing the character, the humor, and the action that was all that was good about the series.
Drew Peterson, the ex police officer whose fourth wife, Stacy Peterson, has been missing for a year and a half, has been arrested on the charge of murdering his third wife, Kathleen Savio, who was found dead in a dry bathtub five years ago.
The latest Body Works Exhibit has opened in Berlin, Germany along with a great deal of controversy. This version of Body Works features a male corpse having sex with a female corpse. There have already been a number of public complaints.
The National Day of Prayer, first designated by President Truman and made permanent by President Reagan, was celebrated by an ecumenical service in the White House by President George W. Bush every first Thursday in May.
One thing one can say about Lost, it is certainly a different kind of show. What other show has depicted time travel, islands that "move", the dead coming back to life, multiple corporate conspiracies, among other things?
President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden had lunch together this week. That is not unusual. Presidents and Vice Presidents have been lunching on at least a weekly basis for some decades. The difference was the venue.
Casting Mafia hit men verses the Yakuza, Japan's version of a criminal syndicate, would seem an odd choice for Spike TV's Deadliest Warrior. But it proved to be an interesting, albeit blood splattered and noisy confrontation.
Radio talk show host Michael Savage has been included in a list of sixteen people with the dubious distinction of having been banned from Britain for what is termed "extremist views" and "fomenting hatred."
Actor, comedian, and chef Dom DeLuise died in his sleep Monday night at the age of 75. Dom DeLuise is best known for his roles in comedy films, especially many directed by Mel Brooks. Yet his first film role was in Fail Safe as an Air Force Sergeant.
USS Freedom, LCS-1 is the newest ship in the United States Navy and the most high tech for her size ever built. LCS stands for "Littoral Combat Ship." USS Freedom's primary mission is to deal with "asymmetrical threats."
If the buzz reflects reality, J.J. Abrams, who is already famous for such hit TV series as Alias and Lost, as well as the third Mission Impossible Movie, is about the pull of the impossible. J.J. Abrams is about to make a 40 year old TV series new again.
ABC's Jake Tapper is reporting that Thomas Lauria, a lawyer and Global Practice Head of the Financial Restructuring and Insolvency Group at White & Case, accused the Obama administration of strong arm tactics against opponents of the Chrysler bankruptcy.
Jack Kemp will be remembered for two things. The first is for being the driving legislative force for the 1980s tax cut that broke the back of stagflation. The second is for recognizing that conservative principles could address problems such as poverty.
X Men Origins: Wolverine is supposed to tell the story of Logan aka Wolverine and how he got to be the fun loving, amnesiac, feral guy with the retractable adamantine claws. What the film viewer gets is a lot of sound and fury signifying not much.
The Food and Drug Administration has ordered a recall of Hydroxycut products, sold in various forms as an herbal based weight loss supplement, because it has been shown to cause jaundice and liver failure in certain people.
President Barack Obama is about to get his first Supreme Court appointment. Oddly enough it is the result not of the retirement of Justice John Paul Stevens (89) or Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg (76) but of the relatively spry Justice David Souter (69).
Vice President Joe Biden hasn't been much in the news lately, which must be considered a blessing by most people in the Obama administration. But Joe Biden made up for lost time when he had the following advice for swine flu.
State of Play is a paint by numbers, formulaic political thriller that is elevated by fast paced direction and the acting by Russell Crowe as a scruffy, paunchy, ink stained wretch of a newspaper reporter and Helen Mirran as his acerbic editor.
The Republican Party is forming something called the National Council for a New America in an effort to rebrand the GOP and to come up with Republican ideas on a variety of issues such as health care, the economy, and education.
Elizabeth Edwards, wife of former Senator John Edwards, who was also twice a Presidential candidate and once a Vice Presidential candidate, has done what wives of famous, philandering husbands often do. She has written a book.
GradeGov.Com is the creation of a former Republican Secretary of the US Senate named Elizabeth Letchworth. It's a way for average Americans to let politicians know what they think of them, unfiltered by the media or Congressional staff.
The first hundred days of a Presidency is really something people think about because of Franklin Roosevelt. His first hundred days were said to be filled with accomplishment, which it was, through not to the long term benefit of the nation.
The latest episode of Spike TV's Deadliest Warrior pitted a medieval knight against a 17th Century pirate. One would have thought that it would be no contest, since gun powder weapons ended the reign of medieval knights.
Film director Oliver Stone has agreed to direct a sequel to his 1987 polemic against free market capitalism, Wall Street. Michael Douglas will reprise the role of the reptilian Gordon Gekko. Shia LaBeouf will play an ambitious young trader.
Arlen Specter, senior Senator from Pennsylvania, has announced that he will switch from the Republican to the Democratic Party and will run as a Democrat in the 2010 election. The attitude of most Republicans is: Don't let the door hit you on the way out.
Someone at the White House thought it would be a neat idea to fly one of the modified 747s that serve as Air Force One when the President is on board, escorted by F 16s, low over Manhattan, Monday morning for a "photo op."
One of the more surprising figures in the current controversy over President Barack Obama's domestic tax and spending plans is a writer of Russian ancestry who has been dead for twenty seven years. Her name is Ayn Rand.
The Barack Obama Presidency is still a work in progress and judgments on its policies and decisions will be argued about likely far into this century. Peter Bart, though, has already rendered one judgment in Variety, of all places.
GI Joe: Resolute is a series of ten webisodes now ready for viewing on the Adult Swim site. They are meant to be a bridge of sorts between the iconic 1980s cartoon series and the live action film to premier this summer.
No greater illustration of the yawning divide in the United States that exists over so-called climate change could be seen than the testimony before Congress between two very different environmentalists-Al Gore and Newt Gingrich.
In honor of the 500th anniversary of the ascension of King Henry VIII to the throne of England, an exhibition called Henry VIII: Man and Monarch is showing at the British Library in London. At the center of the exhibit is a love letter to Anne Boleyn.
Apple had a 99 cent application called Baby Shaker that one could download to ones iPhone that would simulate a baby crying. If one were to shake one's iPhone hard enough, the virtual "baby" would stop crying and have two red Xs over its eyes.
While President Barack Obama remains relatively popular, former Vice President Dick Cheney is considered unpopular by virtually every poll. So it would follow that most people would agree with Barack Obama on national security issues? Right?
Shepherd Smith, Fox News' popular news caster, is known for occasionally getting impassioned about issues in the news. This was no more evidence than on Wednesday on a segment on Fox's Strategy Room on the subject of the interrogation memos.
Though Shakespeare's actual birthday is unknown, April 23rd, St. George's Day, is the traditional date that it is celebrated. That seems oddly appropriate for the English's language's greatest wordsmith and poet.
Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano may be the first Obama cabinet secretary to have to resign in disgrace. So far it is only the House Republicans who are demanding that Secretary Napolitano go, but that is how it starts.
Fatbeard, South Park's most recent episode, was one of those South Park adventures ripped from the headlines. In this case, Cartman sees on TV that piracy is all the rage again in Somali and, being Cartman, would like to be in on it.
Vin Diesel has had some difficulties getting the sequels to The Chronicles of Riddick greenlit. The latest news is scripts are ready and production is slated for next year. In the meantime, video game spinoffs of the Riddick saga are available.
After deciding with solemn magnanimity to not prosecute CIA officers who did horrible things to Al Qaeda terrorists to extract information from them, President Barack Obama has now hinted that he might prosecute the lawyers who said they could do it.
The FBI's most wanted terrorist is now Daniel Andreas San Diego, a vegan, a computer specialist, an animal rights activist, and alleged planter of bombs at various research facilities. San Diego is the first domestic terrorist on the list.
Deadliest Warrior, now airing on the Spike Network, matches up warriors from desperate cultures and time periods to ascertain who would prevail in a one on one combat. The latest episode matched Ninja vs Spartan.
Barack Obama's space policy has taken more twists and turns than a satellite in an eccentric orbit. If former NASA administrator Mike Griffin is correct, Obama's space stance is about to take another change in direction.
Former Apollo astronaut Edgar Mitchell, in a speech at the National Press Club on Monday, April 20th, claimed that extra terrestrial life exists and that various governments, including the United States, are covering it up.
Dan Brown, the author of the massive, international best seller The Da Vinci Code, has announced that his next book, The Lost Symbol, will be published in September. Initial print run will be five million copies.
April 20th is the two year anniversary that a lot of people in Washington, Senate Majority Leader Harry Read in particular, would as soon forget. Two years ago Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid declared the war in Iraq to be lost.
Congresswoman Jane Harman has been recorded on an NSA wiretap bargaining with a suspected Israeli agent, promising to use her influence to have the Justice Department reduce espionage charges against two officials of AIPAC.
Is the tomb of Cleopatra and Marc Antony about to be discovered? If the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities and a young archeologist named Kathleen Martinez are correct, the greatest find since King Tut's Tomb is about to be unearthed.
President Barack Obama's political legacy is still a work in progress, but his affect on popular culture seems to be assured. From an appearance in Spiderman, to a Robert Howard takeoff of "Barack the Barbarian", the President is having an impact.
If one believes this story in the Australian newspaper, The Age, the State of Israel may have a new security threat. Unfortunately he lives in the White House and is prepared to play hardball with Israel to extract concessions on the West Bank.
President Barack Obama, while attending the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad, fulfilled one of his more ill considered campaign promises. Smiling, he shook hands with Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez. Allahpundit was not amused.
Janeane Garofalo, currently playing a frumpish FBI computer analyst on the TV show 24, recently opined about the Tea Party protests on MSNBC. Janeane Garafalo did for Barack Obama what the President dare not do; play the race card.
Barack Obama's Environmental Protection Agency has taken the first step in regulating so called "greenhouse gasses" by declaring they are a danger to the public health and require regulation. The consequences to the American economy could be dire.
President Barack Obama has released Bush administration memos detailing interrogation techniques used after 9/11 to extract secrets from captured terrorists. Even though these techniques are no longer used, Obama has come under criticism.
The final trailer for Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince is now up. For anyone who has read the book, the scenes, mostly depicted in appropriating dark lighting, are very familiar. It is in this part of the series that Harry's story turns dire indeed.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has a problem, largely of her own making. An "intelligence report" on "rightwing extremism" has caused many people to label her "Big Sister" for the broad brush way it characterized millions of Americans.
The remarkable thing about the Houston Tea Party, one of hundreds that took place on April 15th, Tax Day, was the people. It was the nature of the people who showed up at Jones Plaza in downtown Houston that made it quite unlike anything seen before.
On April 15th, Tax Day, it is estimated that hundreds of thousands of Americans will gather in hundreds of venues across the United States at "Tea Party" protests against over taxing and over spending. What should President Obama do about it?
Fox News has an article up about certain, high tech "active denial systems" that could be used to repel Somali pirates. The idea is to have a way to fight the Somali pirates without dealing with the squeamishness some have about arming ships' crews.
Marc Cooper, the director of Annenberg Digital News at the Annenberg School for Communication at USC, may not be sure that the people going to Tax Day Tea Parties are "rightwing extremists." Cooper is pretty sure they're insane.
Somali pirates appeared to be trying to make good their threat against American shipping off the Horn of Africa when a group of them attacked the American flagged, American owned Liberty Sun. The attack, though, was unsuccessful.
An intelligence report, compiled by the Department of Homeland Security, distributed to law enforcement agencies around the country, and leaked to the media seems to suggest that there is a growing terrorist threat by "right wing extremists."
HBO has announced that it will produce a movie based on the 2008 Campaign, featuring Barack Obama, Hilliary Clinton, John McCain, and Sarah Palin as characters. The film will certainly have a point of view, if precedence is any guide.
Governor Rick Perry of Texas has joined with state legislators to push for a resolution confirming the 10th Amendment rights of states such as Texas against the encroachment of federal government power.
William Hurt has joined the cast of Ridley Scott's Robin Hood, a film starring Russell Crowe as the medieval outlaw hero. William Hurt will play the Earl of Pembroke, William Marshal, one of the great warriors and statesmen of the 12th Century.
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