"The grim truth is that, at this point, we’d be better off if the House Republicans really were the handmaidens of corporate America, rather than ideologues who prefer crisis to compromise."

"A gift to gossip writers, Winehouse was nonetheless famous for actually being good at something. She was retro even in her celebrity; one of the most exposed in a culture of unprecedented over-exposure, she still appeared mysterious, as if she was disguised as herself.... She looked as if everything had already happened to her."

"My issues with Comic Con stem from my own mixed feelings about my nerd past, at once deeply ashamed of that chapter of my history while at the same time enormously resentful that I don’t get more credit for it. In the late 1970’s (yes, that was an actual time, not just a Instagram setting), when I would ride three buses once a month to the Ambassador Hotel for a monthly comic sellers convention, there was no glory awaiting my return; no crowds of cooing girls in nerd glasses waiting to applaud my astute purchase of four copies of Frank Miller’s Daredevil/Kingpin cycle. There were no women in sexy superhero costumes at the convention. There were no women at all, not one, except for the guy who put the thing on’s mother, who sold the tickets. In fact, there weren’t even any other teenagers there, just sweaty, overweight middle aged men, people who looked very much like I do now…"

"The mystery of political conversion narratives is why claiming that you used to believe the wrong thing, because you were stupid, moves you to the front of the line to talk about the new, correct thing that you believe, now that you are smart."

“For the poorest in society, high gas and petrol prices are a problem. But while they are many in number, they are few in spending power, and their economic influence is just not important enough to offset the economic confidence, well-being and spending of the rich.” READ MORE

Uh, yeah, you will probably not see a better lead today: "Floridians are going to have to start pulling up their pants and stop having sex with animals soon." [Via]

"There can't be answers today. While I was still alive writing this, I was sad to know I'll miss these things—not because I won't be able to witness them, but because Air, Marina, and Lauren won't have me there to support their efforts. It turns out that no one can imagine what's really coming in our lives. We can plan, and do what we enjoy, but we can't expect our plans to work out. Some of them might, while most probably won't. Inventions and ideas will appear, and events will occur, that we could never foresee. That's neither bad nor good, but it is real." READ MORE