As you know, everything you eat is bad for you, unless you are eating leafy green vegetables. But, we learn this weekend from The New York Times Magazine's Gary Taubes, sugar is extra-bad for you. Like, cigarettes-level bad for you.
On Thursday night, 19-year-old Kipp Rusty Walker played the keyboard for a small crowd at a cafe open-mic night in Bend, Ore. Then he stood up, produced a small blade, and stabbed himself in the chest until he collapsed, dead. Walker didn't say anything before he committed suicide; the cafe's owner (who wasn't present) says that her employees thought at first it was "some sort of theater." KTVZ spoke with a friend of Walker, who sound less surprised:
Ocherous churl Donald Trump slouched beast-like to Fox News on Friday night, where he engaged in something called "The Trump Interview" with right-wing backboard Sean Hannity. It was, yes, essentially unwatchable, but Trump revealed, in the course of the evening, that he has become a subscriber to the third most prevalent anti-Obama conspiracy, namely, that Obama's book Dreams From My Father was written by former Weatherman and current "super-genius" Bill Ayers. Ernest Hemingway was brought up, as was Trump's own opus, The Art of the Deal:
When Bill Maher brought up Senator Jon Kyl's intentionally false statement about Planned Parenthood's propensity to perform abortions on last night's Real Time, panelists Ed Schultz and Michael Steele disagreed with each other about the egregiousness of Kyl's fib. It was contentious, yes, but boy oh boy was that just the tip of their shouty iceberg!
Actor Nicolas Cage was arrested for domestic battery in New Orleans on Friday night—just a month after being escorted out of a restaurant by police. Apparently an intoxicated Cage was arguing loudly with his wife as the couple got in a taxi when the cabbie called police and said he'd seen Cage grab his wife, Alice. Police showed up and told them to "just go home," and then Cage, as is his wont, asked the police "Why don't you just arrest me?" They promptly did. The actor's been released on $11,000 bail after being charged with "domestic abuse and disturbing the peace." His wife isn't pressing charges and says there was no physical contact. [TMZ; Times-Picayune]
Rick Santorum is backing away from the campaign slogan featured on the website for his exploratory committee, "Fighting to Make America America again," after it was pointed out to him that it was first made famous in a pro-union poem by the gay poet Langston Hughes.
Famous internet meme Rebecca Black is, according to TMZ, putting together an EP with producer Charlton Pettus (pictured), best known for working, in the 90s, with the guy from Tears for Fears who didn't write any of their good songs. So, yes, it will probably be bad, but not in the same wonderful way as "Friday" was. Also, she will probably not cover "Everybody Wants to Rule the World," which is too bad, because, when all is said and done, that's a pretty good song. In related news, police are investigating two threats made against Black.
While it's still, obviously, legal to watch cops ticket a cyclist for riding his bike on the sidewalk, we recommend not cracking any jokes—even at the cyclist's expense—because then you might get arrested. As this gentleman learned.
Gwyneth Paltrow diagnoses her haters. Tareq Salahi strips down. Black Swan gets a little bit real-life crazy. Amanda Seyfried buys a dead horse. Saturday gossip is—as always—projecting.
The spring movie onslaught continues! This week we see the debut of Robert Redford's latest soft-focus epic sweeper, Jessie Eisenberg puts on a digital bird suit and heads down to Brazil, and holy nineteen-nineties, Scream is back.
Luckily everyone has until Monday, April 18—rather than the customary April 15th—to file their taxes. Sure, many people (especially freelancers) are going to be cutting a giant check to Uncle Sam. But lots of people will be getting money back from the government. Here are some of the things you can buy with your newfound riches.
It's almost Tax Day, which means everyone is frantically googling the IRS to figure out how to get an extension. But if you search for "IRS" on Google Maps it leads you to a tiny airport in Michigan. This has caused some problems, it turns out.
What further nuggets of sociology-lite can be wrung from the trickle of data that continues to issue from the U.S. Census Bureau like so much pre-cum? Simply this: everyone's fleeing the frozen North and turning brown.
The White House website is celebrating Tax Day — which is actually three days later this year — by putting up a useful tool for those who don't know how federal tax receipts are divvied up among various spending programs. Once you've calculated them, just enter the amount of Social Security, Medicare and income taxes you're paying this year, and the "Federal Taxpayer Receipt" will show you how these sums are apportioned. For example: If you owe $5,000 in income taxes, $1,000,000 of that will go to the War in Libya. Wait a second, that doesn't add up... huh? Maybe you'll have better luck when you try.
Groupon clone LivingSocial just raised a terrifying $400 million in a funding round, half of which will go to the investors smart enough to get in early on this total knockoff coupon site. This comes just months after Groupon raised, like, a billion dollars in their own funding round. Is this even remotely sustainable?
The House of Representatives passed Paul Ryan's Path to Prosperity budget this afternoon. It will die in the Senate, of course, but now it goes on record as the House Republicans' official fiscal plan for the future.
