Did the Frothy campaign pay FAMiLY (sick) leader one mill clamolions for his personal endorsement? Is the family values yadda-yadda, anti-gay yadda-yadda leader Ermintrude Vander Plotz (not his real name) a pay-for-play-shakedown whore? And did Frothy open wide like preacher at a truck stop glory hole on Saturday night?

Tell us about the home schooled kids, Ricky. Tell us about all the morals and such as. Tell us about INTEGRiTY.

Iowa Conservative Leader Mired in Controversy After Rick Santorum Endorsement [ABC]

With the rise of Tea Bagging and the madness of the Right, Dickens’s story, it seems to me, has taken on a new relevance.

His great theme, and the story he keeps coming back to in so many novels, is that of children being forced to pay the price of the older generation’s sins, its greed, its rapacity, its lack of human fellowship. In A Christmas Carol he set out to write a potboiler which grew beyond his wildest expectations into the story we know, that has become so encrusted with kitsch it’s hard to see past the bad wigs and terrible accents into the intensely imagined parable of greed and redemption he imagined. I adapted it as a chamber piece for five actors – no children – and brought into focus its sober underpinnings.

But as it’s for Christmas, there must be a happy ending, no matter how unlikely.

So this is how it ends.

Read more »

Our guest columnist must have had an awesome backyard fallout shelter.

When the New Money is imposed, every American family must have a Survival Kit of highly liquid, small-denomination silver and gold coins for hand-to-hand use in an emergency.

The Ron Paul Survival Kit — now an industry standard — comes in an official World War II U.S. Army Ammo-Holder. Warning: do not keep this in a bank, but only where you can get to it during a bank holiday.

Contents: 1,000 silver dimes; 400 silver quarters; 200 silver half dollars; 20 silver dollars; 20 Silver Eagles; five $5 Gold Eagles; and one $10 Gold Eagle.

The Ron Paul Surivial Kit: $1,675.

[via Weigel]

Our guest columnist is really, really sorry for not holding an intervention for Minnesota Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch, who campaigned to put a “defense of marriage” measure on the state ballot.

An Open Apology to Amy Koch on Behalf of All Gay and Lesbian Minnesotans

Dear Ms. Koch,

On behalf of all gays and lesbians living in Minnesota, I would like to wholeheartedly apologize for our community’s successful efforts to threaten your traditional marriage. We are ashamed of ourselves for causing you to have what the media refers to as an “illicit affair” with your staffer, and we also extend our deepest apologies to him and to his wife. These recent events have made it quite clear that our gay and lesbian tactics have gone too far, affecting even the most respectful of our society.

Read more »

We really hate to bother with this, but since We Have a Master’s Degree — in Philosophy! — it’s our job to take out the trash:

Meanwhile, the candidate has faced increased scrutiny over racially incendiary newsletters published under his name. When pressed by CNN Chief Political Analyst Gloria Borger, on Wednesday in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, Paul was defensive – and eventually ended the interview.

The candidate reiterated comments he’d said in the past, “I didn’t write them, didn’t read them at the time, and I disavow them.”

That was Wednesday, before yesterday’s revelation that he did read at least one of them, and once stood by its content. And we’re going to stop the clock at Wednesday, because there’s something about that “disavowal” that’s nagging at us.

In short: It’s a cop-out.

Read more »

[Twitter]