Hey and welcome back to Thursday, but more urgently, welcome back to Magazines. (Last week there was a highly frustrating situation involving your Wonkette intern’s personal computer, sunflower seed shells, and several failed technologies.) But no matter: onwards to The Nation., which you’ll recall has been on our radar since that time we had to talk about The American Prospect as if we wanted to do that all along. Now, however, the time has come to read The Nation, which despite running a full two (2) articles on pirates have decided to go with a Rupert Murdoch meta cover image instead of, oh, I don’t know, actual pirates attacking ships? MORE »

THE NATION HAS A SEX COLUMN: For more than three centuries, The Nation has defined “American Erotica” with its articles about public policy or whatever. But now it has a sex columnist who will write stuff about how Obama is so sexy. [The Nation]

William F. Buckley Jr., founder of conservative ideas and delightful sailor, died earlier this week. This afternoon, the Nation posted an article challenging Buckley’s legacy. “Buckley’s so-called boldness and playfulness had an ideological flip-side,” Richard Kim writes, “cruelty, pettiness and a tendency to embrace fascistic solutions in the guise of pragmatism.” What the hell is wrong with Richard Kim? Doesn’t he know that it is, objectively, too soon to question Buckley’s ideas? If Kim expects anyone to show up at his funeral after this stunt, he’s kidding himself. MORE »

ELDERLY LIBERAL MAGAZINE ENDORSES OBAMA: In an embarrassing effort to attract illiterate “youth voters,” an old political magazine called The Nation has endorsed “youth sensation” Barack Obama. [CBS News]

New episodes of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show and The Colbert Report will start airing on Monday without the help of their starving writers, but plenty of writerly guests are lining up to promote themselves on the teevee shows. First up for Colbert: Andrew Sullivan, who may try to explain just what was going on in this creepy Iowa fantasy he posted yesterday. MORE »

Ice, buses, John Edwards, coffee shops, ethanol, farmers, ice, darkness … is it any wonder the national press corps is having a group nervous breakdown in Iowa? Here are some grim blind-item examples of people with broken hearts and broken minds: MORE »

Who here uses Facebook? Uh huh, that’s what I thought, pretty much all of you. Guess what? You’re all going to fucking die. Or that’s what The Nation says in an article they just posted, and kudos to them for getting a whole issue to press the night of their Christmas party. Double kudos for showing me such a good time and not skimping on the booze. As a result, I almost feel bad about what I’m about to do. But, hey, my people did kill Christ so that really says something about my Christmas spirit. Anywho, we’ll take a look at The Nation’s paranoid schizophrenic Facebook-as-Fascism story and explain why it’s, well, retarded, right after the jump. MORE »

Yesterday at the supermarket, while wondering at the price they’re asking for red peppers, we were surprised to see President George Bush making like he was examining the zucchinis. He really wasn’t about to buy the courgettes, but pretending to do so gave him cover for sidling up to the other shoppers.

It’s easier to strike up a conversation with somebody picking out a head of romaine if you seem to be doing the same with the squash. The other shoppers weren’t having any of it, however. The President would sidle up to a woman looking over the chicory, and she would move down to the celery. He came after her at the celery and she scooted over to the radishes.

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Nation muckraker Max Blumenthal’s scoop on the Washington Times (BREAKING: Times editors are ultra-right wingers!) has received, in his words, a “mixed reaction.” This is sorta what he’s talking about:

Ok, that’s kinda funny. But in the sorta sad way that all blog comment zingers are. MORE »

• The Washington Times may have editors with a history of questionable views on race! 10/09/06

• ABC’s 9/11 miniseries may have been pitched and produced by people with a history of questionable views on history! 09/25/06
• Senator George Allen may have a history of questionable views on race! 09/11/06
• Evangelical Christians may be aligning themselves conservative Jews due to their questionable ideas on the Rapture! 08/14/06
• Representative Bob Ney may have questionable views on ethics!
• Senator Joe McCarthy may have been exaggerating a bit with that whole Communists in the State Department thing!
• A President Harding appointee may have illegally leased public oil reserves to a private company!

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Redding News Review, yesterday: MORE »