I wrote the book that shook America to splinters in a winter wasteland

... and that means its time to bring the world another edition of Required Political Reading for the Weekend. Voila!

1. Mesh already brought this up (and if you don't know that Mesh already brought this up, you should, because you should be a Regular Reader of the best writer that Covenant produced in my time there), but Tony Kushner is writing an, umm, interesting play about Laura Bush, Dostoyevsky, and Iraq, of which one act and an additional scene are currently available on the internet. Let's just say that if Fox News added "when compared to Tony Kushner" in small print to the bottom of their "Fair and Balanced" trademark, all complaints about their bias would be instantly invalid. So, my point is: sometimes you have to dive into the muck and see what the catfish are dragging their whiskers in.

2. Over at the New Republic, Dr. Jacob Hacker provides us with some interesting insight into our economic condition. He thinks we're not doing so well, but has some rather different ideas about what could be done to fix it. Is he right? Who knows?

3. Respect! Eric Alterman, always worth reading, busts out this piece on Hollywood fund raising. I'll let him advertise his own article: "One night I visited the home of the former TV star Heather Thomas (The Fall Guy) and her husband, the entertainment lawyer and philanthropist Skip Brittenham. I drove past SUVs and assorted luxury vehicles on what felt like a quarter-mile-long driveway to a mansion large enough to house one of the small Amazonian villages the Brittenhams want to save. Just the energy consumed by the house and all the vehicles would power a sizable chunk of Amazonia." Its an ironic job, but someone's got to do it.

Also, it comes to my attention that I have failed to bring the world any exciting pictures since the (excellent) shot of the whale-carcass-eating-worm floating in a watery black void, so I recommend checking out this picture. Kite Flyer totally in the Zone! It also-also comes to my attention that anyone interested in expanding beyond pale people music should pay attention to Aesop Rock while avoiding his latest album.