A few years ago, I was idly talking to a group of friends about Andrew Holleran's 1978 novel Dancer from the Dance. The book elegantly describes the gay culture of Manhattan and Fire Island at the time it was written, and in doing so shares some sentiment that reads less than politically correct to modern sensibilities. I lamented this—specifically some race jokes, which I think are supposed to be taken as straightforward humor—to the people that I was talking to, and one of them gently challenged my complaint. "I think that you have to take what you can from any piece of pop culture and ignore the bad stuff," she said with a shrug.

Columbia may be both the largest city in South Carolina and its capital, but that doesn't mean the city's interim police chief has anything better to do than threaten to hunt down and arrest citizens who post complaints on his department's Facebook page.

For some reason, the Washington, D.C., NFL team is observing Native American Heritage Month on its website this year. The tribute begins with a photo of Native American sports legend Jim Thorpe meeting original franchise coach William "Lone Star" Dietz, whose ethnic background goes unspecified.

The major news out of Mark Halperin and John Heilemann's Double Down is that Obama considered dumping Biden as vice-president, but the book also solves one of the 2012 presidential campaign's biggest mysteries: Who told Harry Reid that Mitt Romney paid “basically” no taxes for a decade.

A year after Hurricane Sandy hit our shores, tragedy strikes New York City again: pioneer blogger Andrew Sullivan is leaving. "I loved New York City with a passion," he writes today, "until I tried to live here."

A University of Michigan frat says the "Hood Ratchet Thursday" party thrown for "bad bitches, white girls, basketball players, thugs and gangsters" and "ratchet pussy" wasn't about race until the black students who complained made it so.

These horrible Fundamentalist Christian comics turned up in my kids' treat bags last night. We've got the English and Spanish editions of The Beast and The Devil's Night, along with an extremely dubious off-brand "Luvpop" all within a factory-sealed plastic bag. What kind of horrible treats were hiding in your bag?

In its report on the shooting at LAX this morning, The Globe and Mail published a shocking report attributed to the LAPD that former NSA chief Michael Hayden had been shot dead in the incident, and that a "radical Christian group" had claimed responsibility.

It’s easy to take for granted how far gay-straight relations have come in the past 30 years. It’s so easy, in fact, that David Carr published a piece in the New York Times last week wondering “What if Gawker tried to out an anchor at Fox News and no one cared?”—the implication being that the culture had "moved on" from caring about someone's sexual orientation.

A gunman armed with a high-powered rifle stormed Los Angeles International Airport today, injuring at least 7 people. According to police, the incident is under control, and the suspect is in custody.

While most libraries around the country are doing their best to remain relevant, one Texas town has decided to speed up its library's demise by threatening to arrest residents who don't return books on time.

[A model with a hairstyle created by Chinese hairstylist Wu Jia plays a tablet computer as she prepares for a show at China Fashion Week in Beijing Friday. Photo by Andy Wong via AP]

Congress hosted a "historic" hearing this week to allow lawmakers to hear directly from survivors of a U.S. drone strike. Only five elected officials showed up.

Border officials at Montreal's Trudeau International Airport had themselves a particularly happy Halloween after busting a passenger with four-and-a-half pounds of cocaine stuffed inside three pumpkins.

An aging shepherd who was confronted by a bear while walking through a raspberry field near his home lived to tell his tale despite being thrown off a cliff by the animal after the two came to blows.

Toronto radio host Bill Carroll is positive that "Ian," a drunk guy who called his show yesterday to defend crack-smoking Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, was Ford himself. Was it? Well, you can listen yourself, but the fact that it's even within the realm of possibility speaks for itself.

If you're going to leave a lascivious comment underneath a gallery of glamour model lingerie pics informing the world that you're willing to leave your loving family for just "one night" with the gallery's subject, make sure your comments aren't linked to your Facebook account.

Minutes after he arrested someone on a robbery charge, an NYPD sergeant reportedly shot himself to death outside his Brooklyn police station last night.