Michael Musto, of La Daily Musto, of The Village Voice, has written a post on fag hags, outdated as they might be nowadays. (Although were they ever not outdated?) I mean, what year is this? He writes:

. . . But that's becoming a somewhat antiquated view of fag hags, sort of the way all lesbians were thought to be moustachioed diesel dykes until The L Word came along. A lot of these gals are lumpy misfits who couldn't get a straight boyfriend if it killed them, so they instead fall in love with gays and try to get up in their lives by offering undying support and admiration . . . Some nouveau fag hags are actually glammy types who are simply over straight men and want to be around guys who seem to have more reason for their vanity. An even smaller contingent--but they're definitely out there--consists of the hags who actually do want to sleep with the gays because (a) they're super cute and (b) It's the ultimate challenge; if a girl can nail a queen, you know she's really got something. (Probably lots of meth.)

It's like, are there really fag hags out there? Still? Are there young ones out there? I would totally buy lonely and lost 48-year-old fag hags who have been fag-hagging it up since the 1980s and don't really know what's modern these days, but new fag hags? As in youthful? In a post-Hillary world, shouldn't fags hags be an endangered species?

EOnline is reporting that John McCain will be back on Letterman this Thursday, October 16, the day after the final presidential debate.

This comes just a few weeks after McCain canceled his previous appearance on Letterman because he had to "race back to Washington." Except he didn't so much race back to Washington as go hang out with Katie Couric.

Slate has a great article discussing how Obama's African ancestry might not, in fact, be hurting him among racists:

The implications of this are stunning: Far from costing Obama the election, as some have argued, race may not be much of a factor in people's decisions—even those with negative attitudes toward blacks. It then follows, however, that his election may not represent the victory over racism many of his supporters hoped it would.

On the face of it, it seems at best absurd, and at worst offensive, to argue against the relevance of race in the first general election in U.S. history featuring an African-American candidate for president. But recent polls, as well as anecdotal evidence, suggest that other issues may trump race.

And something for all of us good liberals to keep in mind is that not all the badness in the world comes from Republicans:

Ironically, though, racism becomes a greater factor among voters on the left than on the right. Republicans have plenty of reasons to vote against Obama that have nothing to do with race—they might disagree with his health-care plan or think withdrawal from Iraq is a terrible idea. Democrats, on the other hand, are more likely to agree with him on policy. When they oppose him, therefore, it's more likely to be due to race. So when people say that Obama might lose because of racists, they're not talking about racist Republicans. They mean Dems and independents. Some Democrats chafe at this idea, arguing that there are perfectly good reasons to dislike Obama. Fair enough. The point is that race becomes a larger factor in voters' decision-making when they agree with him on just about everything else.

Click here to read the full Slate article.

Copyright 2008 Tribune Media Services via Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Obama's "sunny, hopeful" populism saves the day

Does anyone really care about "Troopergate?" I mean, a politician abused her authority? This is news?

The economy is helping something -- military recruiting.

Tina Fey:"If she wins, I'm leaving Earth."

Clinton sort of stumps for Obama in Virginia. "He's going to win, I don't have to give a lick." Um, well . . . .

Gallup Daily Poll: Not much has changed.


And Osama for President? Ballot misspelling (?) turns Obama into Osama. This one looks like a political cartoon, too.

Seed Magazine's series "Revolutionary Minds" introduces, to a larger audience, the people who are building our future for us. And not only are they helping to create the world we live in and will live in, they are doing it in ways unheard of just a few years ago:

The more science advances, the less, it seems, that any one discipline holds all the answers—even to the problems that a discipline was originally conceived to answer. So it's not surprising that some of today's most innovative scientific thinkers are making breakthroughs by hybridizing multiple fields. In this installment of Seed's Revolutionary Minds series, we feature five young researchers whose work fuses seemingly disparate disciplines. By drawing upon the techniques, insights, or standard models of other scientific fields, these individuals are redefining their own. Among them are a computer scientist who rethought the concept of information after studying immune systems; an archaeologist who believes material culture is an important driver of human cognitive evolution; and an astronomer who has discovered how to take an MRI of the cosmos. These thinkers are doing more than merely crossing disciplinary boundaries—they are altogether shattering them.

Meet the 5 people featured. And see what's coming around the corner.

Via Gizmodo, a real life Transformer
The price of food increasing across the globe. "You will find yourself confronting the fact — so easy to overlook these past few years — that the health of a nation’s food system is a critical issue of national security. Food is about to demand your attention."

Pretty much everything you wanted to know about fingerprints.

Brad Pitt photographs Angelina (via Dlisted)

Allan H. Spear, a former Minnesota state senator who was one of the nation's first openly gay legislators, died Saturday.

George Michael cut from Brit awards

Young Florida man gets bionic arm after losing one to gator. Is it bad that the first thing I thought was, "I wonder if he can JO with that thing?"

Mad Men might be the next show on my hit list. It seems like I'm the only one who hasn't seen it yet. Breakdown of last night's episode (Warning: SPOILER)


Extreme Weather Alert: Meteorologists Predict Intensely Brisk Autumn
The Onion Weather Update
Speaking of Fall, here are some trench coats from GQ and men.style.com

(Possiby NSFW)

The guy from "Mutant X." Yeah.

I've been hunting for a new show now that Heroes is so unwatchable and Project Runway is almost over and Damages isn't back on until January and Lost is, wait, what's going on with Lost? Anyway, I think I might have found one -- "True Blood."

I'm sure you've seen the advertisements. It's the new one on HBO by the Six Feet Under guy (based on the Southern Vampire books by Charlaine Harris, which I have not read) about a blonde girl with superpowers who falls in love with a 200-year-old vampire and struggles with her place in the world . Uh, yeah. I've seen and deeply loved Buffy, and I don't need some cheap knockoff, placed in Sex and The City's previous time slot or not. But, my boyfriend and I had a big ol' fight Friday night, and I wasn't in the mood to do anything this weekend but stay in and fight with him some more in my head.

Ryan Kwanten

So, on Saturday night, I was flipping around the channels, and I saw that "True Blood" was available on the HBO On Demand channel. I remembered the clip I had posted with the hot boy dancing for money, and I was like, "Wasn't that Kwanten guy from 'True Blood?'" So I clicked on play and started watching Episode 1, hoping for some rear nudity, possibly some HBO frontal, from the hot boy. And for the next 5 episodes I learned that it's all about sex, drugs, booze, and now vampires in the working class parish of Bon Temps, LA. Sookie, a telepathic waitress at a restaraunt/bar who may or may not be human, is orbited by her wise but secretive grandmother, her hot and horny brother, her smart and bitchy best friend, her shy and unrequited boss, and, of course, the 200-year-old Vampire Bill and his reluctant orgiastic posse. And a serial killer.

And, yeah, that hot boy was all kinds of naked. His hot bare ass was all over the place plowing one girl after another. No full full-frontal, but I got to witness that boy get an erection through his pants. They totally showed him getting hard. But here's the thing -- that wasn't the best part.

Continued after the jump.


The best part is that the show itself is really good. It's sexy, kind of funny, and not-quite-campy. While it has a few surface features in common with Buffy, it's sexier and . . . earthier, dirtier, than "Buffy" ever was. Sure, all the nakedness and graphic sex has something to do with that, but on "True Blood" the sex isn't teased out and assigned to one character at a time. It permeates each of the characters, gay and straight, and animates each of them in different ways.

The pilot was especially surprising. Most pilots (and, well, most first seasons -- Buffy didn't find her legs until the second season) are usually a little rough. There is so much exposition that the storytelling becomes weighed down (Damages is definitely an exception -- that baby was up and running from the first scene). But, "True Blood" managed a pretty complicated and witty exposition while maintaining a story arc that leapt across the rest of the episodes.

In the world of "True Blood," vampires have "come out of the coffin" because of a Japanese-invented synthetic blood called "TruBlood." The race, gender, and sexual orientations analogs are readily apparent, and, with absolute self-awareness, the show corrals anti-vampirism into a liberal and conservative ideology that gives all of the characters something to bounce against as often as they do each other.

In a nod to the art of television storytelling itself, the title of the show is a remarkably witty reference to a synthetic creation that allows some of the darker truths of humanity to see the light of day. And, with the same complexity, the writers of the show successfully balance the fight between stereotyping and truthfulness in ways that John Cloud failed in The Advocate.

The best part of this show is that I never really know what's going to happen next. I know what I know about vampires and all of that, but that just isn't enough. I need to know more. I might even pick up the books.

I suppose we all knew this was coming again. You'd think they would have learned.

"Beverly Hills Chihuahua" was number one at the box office again. “I think people are looking for lighter fare. They want to sit back, be entertained and laugh,” said Disney prexy of distribution Chuck Viane. I suppose that's true. And, did you know that the little chihuahua is voiced by Drew Barrymore? I mean, that's kind of cute, right?

Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe's "Body of Lies" bombed. As did Dennis Quaid's "The Express."

1. Beverly Hills Chihuahua - $17.5 million
2. Quarantine - $14.2 million
3. Body of Lies - $13.1 million
4. Eagle Eye - $11.0 million
5. Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist - $6.5 million
6. The Express - $4.7 million
7. Nights in Rodanthe - $4.6 million
8. Appaloosa - $3.3 million
9. The Duchess - $3.3 million
10. City of Ember - $3.2 million

But Variety is also reporting that smaller movies are doing especially well with "Rachel Getting Married" and "Religulous" continuing to pull money in.

As with California, the Connecticut's Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage does not signal the end of the fight for equal rights. The AP is reporting:

Now that the Connecticut Supreme Court has ruled same-sex couples have the right to wed, opponents of gay marriage are pinning their hopes on an infrequent ballot question in a longshot bid to block the unions. Every 20 years, voters can force a convention during which delegates can rewrite the entire constitution. It's a long, painstaking process that could cost millions and, by coincidence, it's on the ballot this November.

Peter Wolfgang, executive director of the Family Institute of Connecticut say, "This is our one opportunity for the people to have a voice, for the people to be heard, for them to decide whether marriage will be protected as between a man and a woman."

Has anyone who has ever fought against civil rights ever been on the good side of history?

Meet the Press (10-12-08)
An in-depth discussion about the financial crisis with Obama supporter Gov. Jon Corzine, D-N.J., and McCain supporter and former Bush Budget Director Rob Portman, R-Ohio. Then, a roundtable on the economy with Erin Burnett, Paul Gigot, John Harwood and Ted Koppel.

This American Life:
Stories about people trying to find new solutions to age-old problems—solutions that sometimes cause problems of their own.

Tell Me More Stories:
Is McCain resorting to racial attacks?
Political endorsement from the pulpit.
The guys in the Barbershop sift through the presidential debate.

Fresh Air Stories:
Comedians Chew Up Midlife Foibles
Silverman Shocks Her Way To A Third Season
Operatives And Lies In Ridley Scott's New Thriller

Click below to jump to the new players or click here to open the players in a new window so you can listen while you continue to browse. More details on each of the shows after both clicks!



Meet The Press (10-12-08)

An in-depth discussion about the financial crisis with Obama supporter Gov. Jon Corzine, D-N.J., and McCain supporter and former Bush Budget Director Rob Portman, R-Ohio. Then, a roundtable on the economy with Erin Burnett, Paul Gigot, John Harwood and Ted Koppel.

This American Life
http://podcast.thisamericanlife.org/podcast/366.mp3

Stories about people trying to find new solutions to age-old problems—solutions that sometimes cause problems of their own.

Tell Me More

Is McCain resorting to racial attacks?
In the final lap of the U.S. presidential race some believe Sen. John McCain's (R-AZ) attacks against Sen. Barack Obama's (D-IL) character have gone too far and, for some, are even racist. McCain was sharply criticized after the debate for referring to Obama as "that one."

Political Endorsement from the pulpit:
A group of pastors around the country are angling to weigh in on the presidential election from an unlikely platform — their pulpits. Although elections have long been linked to faith issues, churches were banned from direct involvement in political campaigns because of tax-exempt status.

Tell Me More Wants To Hear From You

Usually the program leaves some space to hear from its audience each week. But the program was choc full today and we regret that we just didn't have time. But the conversation continues so let us hear from you. Call 202-842-3522. Or go to the Tell Me More page at www.npr.org and blog it out!

Having Their Say In The Barbershop
The guys in the Barbershop sift this week's presidential debate that took place at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn. And the candidates aren't the only ones to come under fire

fresh air

Comedians Chew Up Midlife Foibles
Comic and actor Louis C.K. sends up middle-aged American life — including his own difficulties raising his four-year-old daughter — in the new Showtime special, Chewed Up. C.K. previously played a part-time auto mechanic struggling to be a family man in the HBO sitcom Lucky Louie

Silverman Shocks Her Way To A Third Season
Sarah Silverman's Comedy Central show — quirky, snarky, often wildly inappropriate — strikes some audiences as clueless and tasteless. To fans, including Fresh Air host Terry Gross, it's really funny satire.

Operatives And Lies In Ridley Scott's New Thriller
David Edelstein reviews Body Of Lies, a new spy thriller directed by Ridley Scott and starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe. Set in Iraq and Syria, the film charts a young CIA operative's growing disillusionment with his superiors in Washington.

The Media Bar is Open! You can click below to see the full-size viewers. The tasty bite-size ones are ready for you right there in The Media Bar.


Daily Song

Politics
McCain Defends Obama (5:57)


Television
"True Blood" (00:30)


Music Video
Christina Aguilera It's A Man's Man's Man's World (3:04)


Movies
Tru Loved