Liberal Talk Radio

Last night’s epic Phillies-Rockies NLDS game which Philadelphia won 6-5 began way, way too late for east coast viewers. The 10:07 p.m. Eastern start time meant that the game didn’t end until nearly quarter after two in the morning — criminally unfair for Phillies fans. The mostly explicit reason: TBS wanting to air the Yankees-Twins [...]

I’m not sure when the last time was that I checked the “bottom” of my soul — it’s possible I may never have checked down there — but some have: Judith A. McHale was expecting a contentious session with Ansar Abbasi, a Pakistani journalist known for his harsh criticism of American foreign policy, when she [...]

Sometime — probably in the very near future — someone will make a biopic of John Hughes’ life. Done correctly, it could win an Academy Award — even if only because A.O. Scott is the right age for it. When they get around to writing it, the screenwriter will use Molly Ringwald’s op-ed as a [...]

I don’t know which is worse, that Michael Jackson had a one-night stand with a woman or that the lyrics to “Billie Jean” have now suddenly come into focus for me 25 years later: Michael Jackson’s father insisted Thursday night that a Norwegian dancer is in fact the King of Pop’s love child. “Yes, I [...]

First rule — keep baby-killing philosopher/utilitarian ethicist/professor Peter Singer way the hell away from “rationing” arguments. You’d think the Republicans were behind this one . . .

Our enthusiasm for the sport aside, this seems to go beyond even the 1919 Black Sox Scandal: Football is being used as a vehicle for money laundering, according to an agency responsible for tracking the proceeds of crime. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) report warns football is at risk from criminals buying clubs, transferring [...]

A game in which you can test your familiarity with the two humorists. Andy Rooney excerpts are taken from his 60 Minutes commentaries. David Sedaris excerpts are from his Me Talk Pretty One Day story collection. For each subject there are two writing examples; you decide who is who. Part One: Computers David Sedaris or [...]

Back in February, we used the Google Suggest feature (“As you type into the search box, Google Suggest guesses what you’re typing and offers suggestions in real time . . . Our algorithms use a wide range of information to predict the queries users are most likely to want to see”), to see what the [...]

In a philly.com poll on whether readers believe vigilantes should be prosecuted, “no” is leading “yes” by a 2-to-1 margin right now (64.6% to 27.6% with 7.8% “not sure”). This after residents in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia severely beat a “person of interest” in a case involving the rape of an 11-year-old: Many in [...]

A Times op-ed today questions the usefulness of all the commemorative coins out there. Something I learned: Those of you (ahem and ahem) who are busy railing against the penny may or may not realize that this year is a bad time to bang the drum: In 2009, the United States Mint will mint and [...]