by Nicole Powers
“I think I won a wet T-shirt contest in college.”
– Kristen Schaal
Kristen Schaal has much to hide: She’s somewhat pathological when it comes to winning things, has a wet T-shirt attired skeleton rattling around in her closet, and has a proclivity for the sexy bits in Harlequin romance novels. But as The Daily Show’s Senior Women’s Issues Commentator, she was loud and proud in her support of Hillary Clinton for president. Sadly, that didn’t work out so well (though the Secretary of State gig is not such a bad consolation prize).
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by Nicole Powers
“I’d love it if the government functioned properly.”
– Shepard Fairey
Having been harassed and arrested by agents of the United States’ government as he perpetrated his graffiti art from coast to coast, Shepard Fairy has since earned the respect and gratitude of an American president. Using the visual vocabulary of popular revolution, the humble DIY poster and sticker maker-cum-revered gallery and populist street artist used his graphic skill to transform Barack Obama from a presidential hopeful to a visionary icon.
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by Tamara Palmer
“Your trade secret is that you’re killing people?”
– Howard Straus
In the 1920s, Dr. Max Gerson developed the Gerson Therapy, a methodology of boosting the immune system largely led by an organic diet that has been at controversial odds with conventional medicine for decades — despite a difficult-to-ignore track record of helping people survive cancer and other terminal illnesses.
The Beautiful Truth is a documentary which explores this treatment regimen. It was directed and shot by Steve Kroschel, an accomplished wildlife cinematographer and natural history filmmaker. This is his third film about the Gerson Therapy, but this time his subject hits closer to home; Garret, the 15-year-old boy who serves as the film’s central figure, is Kroschel’s son.
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by Damon Martin
During the holiday season, atheists in America and Canada are letting everyone know they are still good without God. The message has been spread across buses and billboards throughout North America to send an alternative message during this normally oversaturated time of religious rejoice.
Groups like Secular Samaritan, American Humanist Association, and the Centre for Inquiry are responsible for the Christmas time ad buys. The gospel they’re trying to spread with these billboards is that goodness and morality are not in the exclusive domain of those that believe in a higher power.
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by Nicole Powers
“We’ve had 18 years of climate conferences…”
– Ondi Timoner
In her latest documentary, Cool It!, two-time Sundance Grand Jury Prize-winning director Ondi Timoner (We Live In Public and Dig!) sets forth the case for lowering the temperature of the global warming debate, and offers pragmatic solutions to what former Vice President and preeminent environmentalist Al Gore considers a moral issue.
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by Blogbot
We love this cheeky clothing line created by 4th Amendment Wear, which is guaranteed to put a smile on your face this holiday season while the TSA are jingling your balls. The innovative undies aim to remind TSA workers conducting freedom gropes and porn-o-scans of our 4th Amendment rights – you know the ones in the increasingly ignored Bill O’ Rights that say a little something about “the right of the people to be secure in their persons, blah, blah, blah, against unreasonable searches and seizures” without “probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation.” The text is printed in a metallic ink that the manufacturers say “in theory” should show up on TSA scans, and is thoughtfully laid out in easy to read (if slightly small) capital letters (which ironically may provide myopic operatives with a legitimate excuse to move in closer to eyeball the text atop your junk).
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by Brett Warner
It’s 9:45am at the Westfield community center in Trenton, Michigan. Despite a full parking lot and a cluster of cheerful, warmly dressed, sign-holding volunteers proclaiming their district judicial candidates of choice in bright blues and greens – I’m one of only about fifteen people here to vote in the 2010 midterm election.
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