Quote: John Waters, On Books

John Samuel Waters, Jr. (born April 22, 1946)
American Filmmaker, Actor, Stand-up Comedian, Writer, Journalist, Visual Artist,
Art Collector, Openly Gay Man, Avid Supporter of Gay Rights and Gay Pride

We need to make books cool again. If you go home with somebody and they don’t have books, don’t fuck them.

Aphorism: On Classic Literature

By Madison S. Hughes (01.14.2012)

What makes classic literature the greatest of literary masterpiece is its ability to transcend time, and place of composition. What makes one able to appreciate it is one’s ability to transcend one’s contemporary time, and place of comprehension.

Tebowie: Jimmy Fallon’s Ultimate David Bowie/Tim Tebow Mash-Up (VIDEO)

It’s no secret that Jimmy Fallon knows his way around an unexpected musical performance. Between his Jim Morrison singing “Reading Rainbow” bit and his Neil Young covering “Pants on the Ground,” it’s safe to say that he’s got the older-male-solo-artist-plus-hip-pop-culture-topic formula down to an art.

Thursday night’s “Late Night” brought another magical installment in what we hope continues to be a series of performances, this time with Fallon dressed as David Bowie and singing “Space Oddity,” but with some reworked, Tim Tebow-themed lyrics.

The Denver Broncos starting quarterback has madequite a name for himself this season, but most web kids probably know him because of Tebowing.

No matter your sports know-how, though, there’s always room for Fallon with a silver lightning bolt painted on his face as far as we’re concerned.

Watch video here . . . 

Bill Moyers: Why I am Returning to the Air (VIDEO)

The lack of civility and common sense that has paralyzed our democracy, the vast economic and social inequality that sends both left and right raging into the streets, the corrosive influence of money in politics – we’re in a tailspin with little hope for a course correction from our elected leadership or corporate-dominated media. The need for voices of reason, simple and eloquent, has rarely been stronger.

Watch video here . . .

Prayer During City Time Denied!

Mt. Pleasant’s city manager has asked the town’s chaplain to refrain from holding prayer services at City Hall while employees are on the clock, a move she attributes to the separation of church and state.

Michelle Williams, who is serving in her second week as city manager, said the request is not aimed at ceasing acts of worship at City Hall. She said any time before 8 a.m. or after 5 p.m. would be appropriate times for prayer.

Read more . . .  

The Secret About The Men Behind The War On Women (VIDEO)

A group of men with no real background in law or medicine, but blessed with a strong personal interest in women’s bodies, have quietly influenced all of the major anti-abortion legislation over the past several years.
– Huffington Post

Watch video here . . .  

Who’s left? The top 20 US progressives

We’ve profile 20 leading American progressives (see list [below]), from a range of backgrounds, who have been at the forefront of efforts to defend not just liberal, but left-wing, social-democratic ideals. Some of them are well-known names; most of them have little to do directly with the Democratic Party; all of them are defiantly and unashamedly partisan.

As Markos Moulitsas, founder of the Daily Kos blog, once said: “I am a progressive. I make no apologies.”

The list

Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert

Van Jones

Paul Krugman

David Graeber

Elizabeth Warren

Rachel Maddow

Matt Damon

Congressman Keith Ellison

Sonia Sotomayor

Noam Chomsky

Katrina vanden Heuvel

Markos Moulitsas

Cornel West and Tavis Smiley

Cecile Richards

Danny Glover

Angela Davis

Glenn Greenwald

Tim Robbins

Michael Moore

Bernie Sanders

George Lucas: Hollywood Didn’t Want To Fund ‘Red Tails’ Because Of Its Black Cast (VIDEO)

In an appearance on The Daily Show last night, George Lucas said that he had trouble getting funding for his new movie, “Red Tails,” because of its black cast. . .

“It’s because it’s an all-black movie. There’s no major white roles in it at all…I showed it to all of them and they said no. We don’t know how to market a movie like this.”

“Red Tails,” which stars Cuba Gooding, Jr., and Terrence Howard, is based on the Tuskegee Airmen, the group of pioneering black pilots who fought in the United States’ segregated armed forces during World War II.

Watch interview with Jon Stewart here . . .