| brucekluger.com |
On the Sunny Side of the Blog 01.12.07 Bruce Kluger Let's face it—we may have a grand old time ricocheting ideas around here in the blogosphere, but every now and then we can get (what's a good word for this?) um.... strident? To that end, Paul Gilbert, a San Francisco writer-producer and author of... READ POST (Another) Comeback of the Year 01.05.2007 Bruce Kluger Back in 2005, I wrote a column in USA Today about the animated PBS kids show, Postcards From Buster, in which the cheerful cartoon bunny from Arthur (another popular PBS cartoon) criss-crosses the continent, befriending an impressive array of real, live- action American families. The idea of the show, of course, is to teach kids the blessings of diversity, and in his first season, Buster visited... READ POST Good News, Anyone? 12.31.2006 Bruce Kluger If you're anything like me, 2006 has left you in an exhausted heap, distressed and depressed that America has been swallowed up in its own star-spangled stew of bitterness and scandal—from the relentless political infighting to the ceaseless clamor on talk radio to... READ POST
12.31.2006 Bruce Kluger READ POST A Yuletide Poem 12.21.2006 Bruce Kluger CHRISTMAS ON THE POTOMAC (2006) 'Tis the week before Christmas, and all through the House, Not a statesman is stirring (nor Congressman's spouse). And one chamber over, the Senate is still. Such a somnolent evening on Capitol Hill... READ POST Christmas Tarts 12.12.2006 Bruce Kluger Memo to holiday shoppers: As you roam the doll aisles in coming weeks, looking for the perfect gift for the little girl in your life, don't panic if you suddenly think you've wandered into Victoria's Secret—or, worse, a lap-dance bar. It happens to the best of us. This month, doll shelves are brimming with sex and glitz, as the latest lineup of 10-inch tarts strut their stuff into... READ POST
11.07.2006 Bruce Kluger After a brutal year on the stump, today the candidates for national and state office hand over to voters a complicated job. As impossible as it may seem, Americans are asked to put aside the pyrotechnics of the 2006 campaign—the flash polls and attack ads, the rancor and recriminations—and somehow visualize the larger and more vivid picture... READ POST About Those Gays in New Jersey... 11.02.2006 Bruce Kluger/Steve Kluger Some enlightening news from today's Boston Globe (written by my oldest brother, who as a gay American felt he had to get this off his chest). Wait'll the GOP hears about this. Talk about your bombshells... READ POST Vote for...Mark Foley? 10.19.2006 Bruce Kluger & David Slavin As the Mark Foley scandal continues into yet another week, voters are paying close attention to the Congressional race in Florida's 16th district, where State Representative Joe Negron has been selected by Republicans to replace Foley in the November vote. Unfortunately for Negron... READ POST Grace in Pennsylvania 10.10.2006 Bruce Kluger In the hours and days following last week's heartbreaking schoolhouse massacre of five Amish children in Nickel Mines, Pa., the story cut across the media landscape like a runaway brushfire. Almost overnight, we learned the grotesque details of the vicious crime itself... READ POST FoxFire: Clinton vs. Wallace 09.28.2006 Bruce Kluger Within 24 hours of Bill Clinton's public paddling of Chris Wallace on the Fox News Channel last Sunday, pundits, politicians and a salivating army of miked-and-ready windbags had already meticulously sliced and diced the conversation to within an inch of its life, exercising the... READ POST Why You Want to See Path to 9/11 09.09.2006 Bruce Kluger I have been watching with increasing curiosity the rage that has erupted over ABC's two- part miniseries, Path to 9/11, and once again I am shaking my head at how those who don't know what they're talking about (just Google Path to 9/11 and take your pick of blogs) are working their own best interest... READ POST A Memorable Month for Bloggers 08.31.2006 Bruce Kluger If ever America needed a wake-up call about the mythology of blogging, we got it this month. On Aug. 8, Connecticut businessman Ned Lamont defeated U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman in the Democratic primary, a triumph widely credited to the rah-rah racket produced by pro-Lamont armies stationed along the Internet... READ POST In the Shadow of the Towers 08.13.2006 Bruce Kluger Last month, I took my 11-year-old daughter to see The Devil Wears Prada. She loves anything having to do with fashion design, so I figured that the film—PG-13 rating notwithstanding—would be right up her alley. I guessed right. She loved it. I, too, came away from our afternoon trip to the movies transported... READ POST Marty's Short List 07.29.2006 Bruce Kluger I recently interviewed actor-comedian Martin Short, who opens this month on Broadway in his new musical comedy, Fame Becomes Me. Although our conversation was supposed to be strictly showbiz, I couldn't resist the political... READ POST Stemania! 07.18.2006 Bruce Kluger & David Slavin If the latest fight in Congress over embryonic stem cell research proves one thing, it's this: the little suckers just won't go away. The stem cells, that is. Five years ago, President Bush first announced his controversial policy to limit federal funding for stem cell research only to existing stem lines... READ POST The "Right Words" for America 05.31.2006 Bruce Kluger Last month, actress-activist-author Marlo Thomas released her latest bestseller, The Right Words at the Right Time, Vol. 2: Your Turn!, a collection of personal essays by 101 contributors who recall the words that changed their lives forever. While the first volume in the series (2002) featured stories written by cultural icons—from Walter Cronkite and Jack Nicholson to Oprah Winfrey and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg—this time Thomas solicited essays from "everyday people"... READ POST Dan Brown Decoded! 04.25.2006 Bruce Kluger Justice has not been served. Earlier this month, Judge Peter Smith of London's Royal Courts of Justice rejected a copyright- infringement claim against The Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown, determining that Brown and his researcher-wife, Blythe, did not appropriate "the architecture" for the best-selling novel... READ POST What's Next for Tom DeLay? 01.16.2006 Bruce Kluger & David Slavin Don't kid yourself. Just because he got hammered wth a money laundering indictment; just because he's been momentarily upstaged by the double- whammy guilty pleas of shady accomplice, er, supporter, Jack Abramoff; just because he lost his leadership seat in the wake of the scandal, and may have accidentally redistricted himself out of a job come November—none of this guarantees that Tom DeLay will fade into the sunset... READ POST Holiday Gift Ideas for the Naughty, Nice...and Indicted 12.22.2005 Bruce Kluger & David Slavin First, full disclosure. We’re Jews. So this whole Christmas “Season of Giving” thing is a little, well, gentile to us. We do Hanukkah. Eight days, a couple of depressing songs, a potato pancake, some chocolate coins—and you’re done... READ POST A Very Values Christmas! 12.20.2005 Bruce Kluger & David Slavin Happy Holidays, everyone! Whoops—rather, Merry Christmas! Click here for a special Yuletide offer—it's the perfect gift for Red State revelers everywhere! [with help from Niffer Clarke and Dan "The Machine" Levine]... READ POST Phil Fights Back! 12.02.2005 Bruce Kluger I recently interviewed Phil Donahue for Time Out New York magazine. As you'll recall, Donahue was among the first—if not the first—talk show host to speak out against the Iraq War (summer 2002). But seven months into his new show for MSNBC, the program was abruptly cancelled... READ POST Who's Up? Who's Down? 11.09.2005 Bruce Kluger & David Slavin The latest winners and losers in America's ever-changing news cycle. Who's Up? Samuel Alito While Smilin' Sam makes courtesy calls on moderate Democrats ("Shalom, Senator Lieberman! Such a beautiful tie you're wearing!"), former law clerks and self-described "liberal" judges tell the media... READ POST The Da Libby Code 10.22.2005 Bruce Kluger & David Slavin "You went to jail in the summer. It is fall now. You will have stories to cover—Iraqi elections and suicide bombers, biological threats and the Iranian nuclear program. Out west, where you vacation, the aspens will already be turning..." READ POST John Bolton's Next Move: The Charm Offensive 06.17.2005 Bruce Kluger & David Slavin With John Bolton's confirmation as U.N. ambassador once again on hold, conservative forces are scrambling to put together a strategy to help the perpetually embattled nominee turn the tide. Solution: it’s all about marketing... READ POST Blogging, Arianna & the Media 05.13.2005 Bruce Kluger First a question: Is it a delight to be here? Answer: Is Ann Coulter the spawn of Satan? Really, congratulations Arianna! What a terrific idea this is. Maybe now the national conversation will finally switch back to things that really matter, instead of the usual red- faced, right-wing, lunatic rants... READ POST
|
