The New York Philharmonic will arrive in North Korea this Monday, as reported in the Los Angeles Times, and perform the following day for an elite crowd that might include the country’s dictator, Kim Jong Il. The performance, which will be broadcast on state television, has been steeped in controversy.
Supporters argue the performance will [...]

Lori Gottlieb’s article “Marry Him!” in the March issue of the Atlantic Monthly has been causing quite the stir among late 20 and 30-something women. Gottlieb, who never married and is now raising a child on her own, makes the argument that women should stop being so damn picky while looking for Mr. Right and [...]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNf6ubjdYmc

So much for Sen. John McCain being a man of principle who stood up to the Bush Administration and fellow Republicans. (See previous post on waterboarding.) Turns out, he too is just another politician hungry for votes.
On Wednesday McCain voted against a Senate bill that would ban waterboarding and all forms of physical interrogation methods [...]

While you were voting, phone banking, mastering delegate math or dodging a killer tornado in the Midwest, the Bush administration was busy finally admitting to and condoning torture.
CIA Director Michael Hayden chose stormy distracting Super Tuesday to concede for the record that the CIA used waterboarding to extract information from three Al Qaeda suspects. “In [...]

In case anyone hadn’t heard which presidential candidate is capturing the youth vote, the Barack Obama campaign made it crystal clear tonight. Their official Los Angeles Super Tuesday election night party was a) held at Avalon, a club in Hollywood, and b) it felt like a Bar Mitzvah.
In between cheering “Si! Se puede!” and watching [...]

Allow me to brag: my grandmother was one of the first female executive directors of a Jewish Community Center (also called a YM-YWHA) in the United States. She not only led “the Y” in Suffolk County, Long Island; she founded it.
“I started the Y from scratch in 1975 in a little office about the [...]

When Oiyan Poon was president of the University of California Student Association, she learned first-hand how difficult it was to get young people active in politics. But then Barack Obama came along. “I started seeing a difference,” she says.
Around the same time, her father—who had always voted Republican—told Oiyan he was going to vote [...]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LOvWoK_8f8

If you haven’t yet felt the tinge of excitement and inspiration in the presidential campaign, check out this video. Have the tissues nearby.
It’s pretty damn amazing that a presidential candidate who actually has an excellent chance of winning can be this inspiring to so many people. This isn’t Mike Gravel or Ron Paul - [...]

Hard to watch Bush’s State of the Union address without being distracted by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, fidgeting in her seat as she decided which way she would go on each point. She alternated between squirming in her chair as she pretended to read the speech while the Republicans cheered on some conservative point like the [...]

Why does ending the mess in Iraq have to be all about America? I am waiting for a presidential candidate to propose an Iraq strategy based not only on the interests of American troops and families, but also on the interests of the Iraqis.
I mean no disrespect to American troops. I am with the rest [...]

Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards showed up at the Writers Guild of America strike yesterday at NBC studios in Burbank. He walked the picket line and then gave a brief shout out to the writers and to union members across industries in every part of the country. Unions are a bulwark against the corporate take [...]

When Ricky was 16, he went to a party and met a girl named Amanda. She told him she was also 16, he says. They hit it off and had sex.
Turns out, Amanda was 13. According to Iowa state law, where they were living, a 13-year-old cannot consent to sex. Ricky was arrested, held in [...]

Great party, except that now I’m 16, going to jail, and a registered sex offender. Awesome.

I learned in my undergrad psych class that the pledge system in frats is about cognitive dissonance. The theory is if you destroy your body and soul to pledge a fraternity, you will forever be convinced it was worth it. In order to not regret going through the agony of pledging, you convince yourself that [...]

From across the desk I wonder: Is hating foreigners a prerequisite for U.S. immigration officials?