DAILY MAIL: On the 150th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, professors at Southern Oregon University will devote the week to emphasizing that evolution is more than a theory — it’s hard science.”It’s theory and it’s fact. You can say it’s ‘just a theory’ like the theory that the earth goes around the sun,” says biology professor Charles Weldon, lead speaker of Darwin Week. “In science, a theory is not speculation. It’s supported by mountains of evidence. It’s one of the best supported theories in science.” A century and a half after publication of Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species,” some 44 percent of Americans still believe in the Biblical account of creation by God in seven days, according to a Gallup poll. Weldon calls that “shocking.” MORE

LOS ANGELES TIMES: Blue eyes are typically associated with beauty, or perhaps Frank Sinatra. But to University of Wisconsin anthropologist John Hawks, they represent an evolutionary mystery. For nearly all of human history, everyone in the world had brown eyes. Then, between 6,000 and 10,000 years ago, the first blue-eyed baby was born somewhere near the Black Sea. For some reason, that baby’s descendants gained a 5% evolutionary advantage over their brown-eyed competitors, and today the number of people with blue eyes tops half a billion. “What does it mean?” asked Hawks, who studies the forces that have shaped the human species for the last 6 million years.  Nobody knows. It is one of the questions about evolution that persist 200 years after the birth of Charles Darwin, whose birthday will be celebrated worldwide Thursday. MORE

RELATED: Though Darwin published his masterwork, “On the Origin of Species,” 150 years ago and died in 1882, studies on evolution continue apace. Much of that effort focuses on the species Darwin considered the pinnacle of the evolutionary process: Homo sapiens.  Until recently, conventional wisdom held that human beings had mastered their environment so thoroughly that the imperative to evolve in many ways diminished about 10,000 years ago, when agriculture gave rise to more-stable societies.

“People thought that with technology and culture, there’d be no reason for physical things to make any difference,” said Milford Wolpoff, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Michigan. “If you can ride a horse, it doesn’t matter if you can run fast.”

That turned out to be wrong. As it happens, the pace of evolution has been speeding up — not slowing down — in the 40,000 years since our ancestors fanned out from Ethiopia to populate the globe.  And in the 5,000 to 10,000 years since agriculture triggered the growth of large societies, the pace has accelerated to 100 times historical levels.
“When there’s more people, there are more mutations,” Wolpoff said. “And when there are more mutations, there’s more selection.” MORE

JACKSONVILLE NEWS: Amid much controversy a year ago, the Florida Board of Education approved new standards that require public schools to teach that the scientific theory of evolution is the foundation of all biological science. But don’t think that battle is over. Not even close. State Sen. Stephen Wise, a Jacksonville Republican, said he plans to introduce a bill to require teachers who teach evolution to also discuss the idea of intelligent design.

Intelligent design is the concept that life is so complex that it couldn’t occur naturally but must have had an intelligent force working to make it happen.Wise, the chief sponsor of the bill, expects the Senate to take it up when it meets in March. He said its intent is simple: “If you’re going to teach evolution, then you have to teach the other side so you can have critical thinking.” Wise said that if the Legislature passes the bill, he wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a legal challenge.

Intelligent design has been in the courts before. In 2005, a federal judge barred a Pennsylvania school district from teaching intelligent design in public schools, calling it an example of “breathtaking inanity.” The judge, a Republican, wrote that there was “overwhelming evidence” that the theory is a “religious view,” not scientific theory. Wise’s planned bill isn’t a surprise to those who favor teaching evolution. “We were expecting some sort of effort to blunt evolution education,” said Paul Cottle, a physics professor at Florida State University who helped draft the year-old science standards on evolution. “What you are describing is one of the tools in the standard anti-evolution toolbox.” MORE

FAITHWORLD: Speaking of Darwin, we’ve done several posts about the Turkish anti-Darwin campaigner Harun Yahya and his Islamic creationst campaign against evolution. Most of the attention on this has been on his mega-book Atlas of Creation, how it’s being distributed in Europe and what the reaction to it has been. We’re bound to hear a lot more about Darwin, evolution and faith this year, as it’s also the 150th anniversary of the publication of On The Origin Of Species. This debate has been going on for decades and the pros and cons have been gone through a thousand times. Is there anything new to say about this? MORE

RELATED: What was interesting, though, was the way he explained the Atlas campaign as part of his Muslim vision of the end times. Several Turks have told me they suspect he considers himself the Mahdi, the Muslim saviour who comes at the end of time to fight with Jesus against evil and establish Islam as the only world religion. He denied this, but it a way vague enough that his supporters might still believe it. Whatever it is, he sees some role for himself in the end times, which he said will come in the next 20 to 25 years. MORE

FRANCIS BACON: ‘To conclude, therefore, let no man … think or maintain that a man can search too far or be too well studied in the book of God’s word, or in the book of God’s works; divinity or philosophy; but rather let men endeavor an endless progress or proficience in both.’ – Title Page, Origin Of The Species, Charles Darwin, 1859

THE MUMMIES: (You’ve Got To Fight To Live) On The Planet Of The Apes

the mummies- you must fight to live on the planet of the apes (funtastic) from rob downs on Vimeo.

Just do it, people.

BY ELIZABETH FLYNN Dear anti-snob art nerds: Get your streetwise (but intellectual) ass to the coolest First Friday party in town, Cut Copy- a Stencil Show, tonight at South Philly’s favorite gallery T&P Fine Art! Jon Halperin has curated another amazing group show, consisting entirely of stencil graffiti art. He’s included pieces from some of the biggest names in the genre, two of which, Papermonster and Pure Evil, I talked to about their work and the history of the medium.

Halperin says that “Stencil art is my art drug of choice. I’ve been following this scene since 2005. I suppose it was my accidental introduction to Banksy, then just getting into other UK stencil artists like Nick Walker, D*Face, and Eelus. Then I found international artists, and lastly, the US artists, most notably Rene Gagnon. This is what makes up a great deal of my personal collection and I really wanted to do a show like this in Philly, which hasn’t really seen a stencil art show in the past.”

Some of the artists that he’s really excited to include are,”Eelus and Jef Aerosol were biggies. Mr. Brainwash as well….I went to the preview night of his show in LA…it was amazing. He rented out an old TV studio and put together a show that rivaled Banksy’s first LA show.”

Though Pure Evil is in Sao Paolo, Brazil, opening a show there, Halperin said that there are quite a few artists that are coming to the opening tonight, so you can meet them and say you knew them when. With the prominence of Shepard Fairey these days, it’s very likely that one or two of these contributors could reach that level of international acclaim. “2Cent is flying in from LA, he also has a show with locals Nose and El Toro in June at T&P. Buildmore will be there, as will Papermonster. Incidentally, if you start seeing a bunch of 2cent stencils around Philly after this weekend…total coincidence, ha ha.”

Papermonster is very excited about the show. Though he’s a relatively young artist, he’s got the chops and the credentials to roll with some of the bigger names included. He’s been influenced by a number of them. “One of my mentors within the stencil graffiti and urban art world has been Blek le Rat. He truly pioneered the art form in Paris and has been a great leader in opening the doors for stencil art to be accepted into galleries and other venues along with many other extremely talented and hard working urban/stencil artists such as Banksy, Nick Walker, Shepard Fairey, David Choe, Flying Fortress, Swoon, Chris Stain, and the list goes on. With each urban artist breaking new ground and gaining success it really helps continue to evolution of urban art and it pushes artists who are new and want to create to work harder and be hungrier for success.”

You’ll find Papermonster at the show tonight repping his work and T&P Fine Art. ”I believe that T&P Fine Art is an incredible venue with no limits. They are bringing the best of the best to the public and you can really see that they want to showcase new things that will inspire and bring something unique for the public at large. This stencil show is their way of demonstrating the variety of styles and subjects within stencil art as well as between stencil artists throughout the world and it is an opportunity that you do not want to pass up. I will definitely be there for the opening with a massive amount of free stickers to hand out to everyone I meet or walks through those gallery doors.”

Pure Evil just can’t make it, being on another continent and all, but he took the time to talk to me about his work. One of the reasons that stencil graffiti has gained prominence recently is its inherently political nature. Pure Evil expounds,”the act of painting on a wall in the street is a political act in itself, but I want to talk about society and politics in my work.”

His influences are across the board and worth quoting in their entirety, since he is hilarious. “I am influenced by a psychedelic mix of gonzo American pop culture, rock n roll, 19th century London life and French literature, pearly kings and queens, fantasy art, customized motorcycles, Latino culture, Victorian children’s adventure books, Maoist propaganda, Situationism, occultism, latex sex, dead despots and dictators and a whole twisted ark load of asylum bound pandas, budgies, butterflies, bunnies, and psychotic penguins and you start to understand my quadrophrenic [sic] gallows humor.”

Maybe it might be better to pretend that T&P Fine Art is what Pure Evil thinks about it, rather than a rad art show. “I have this image in my mind that it’s like a place I visited in a Kasbah in Cairo where I bought hashish one time, but that could be just completely wrong.”

So come out tonight. There’s free beer, first dibs on the keg at 7pm, and there’s bound to be all kinds of art happening up and down the block. I’m bringing my markers for sure. Enthusiastically, Beth.

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FIRST FRIDAY ON FRANKFORD AVENUE

BY TIFFANY YOON Philadelphia is supposed to warm up this weekend and what better way to spend the evening then First Friday on Frankford Avenue. The New Kensington Community Development Center has organized a group of Kensington and Fishtown businesses to cater to those seeking new art, delicious snacks and wine to spare. The events begin at 5pm and run until 9pm. Here’s a comprehensive list of functions to check out courtesy of the NKCDC’s Frankford Avenue Corridor Coordinator Ryan Briggs:

The Highwire – 2040 Frankford Avenue

The Highwire has again held an open submission process for area artists, juried by Isaiah Zagar. Friday’s opening will showcase a modicum of local talent, under the collective theme “Lookin’ for Love”, in honor of St. Valentine. Come for the art, stay for a free poetry reading featuring published authors Adam Fieled, David Prater, Sarah Birl and Paul Siegell.

The Goldfish Gallery – 2214 Frankford Ave.

Goldfish Gallery will be showcasing “Four Figurative Artists”, a joint showing of photography by Roman Blazic and Benjamin Hunter, as well as sculptures by Jeremy Leichman and Joan Benefiel.

Proximity Gallery – 2434 E. Dauphin St.

Proximity Gallery will present “Circling Cartography”, a collection of works by Marie DeMarais, a mixed media artist from Kensington.

Angler Arts – 1550 E. Montgomery Ave.

Angler Arts will be kicking out the family friendly jams with a family friendly dance party with their dance instructors.

The Rocket Cat café – 2001 Frankford Ave.

Rocket Cat hosts Jeff Thomas, a local icon in the Philadelphia art scene, who will be displaying his plaster sculptures and photo collections.

Bambi – 1817 Frankford Ave.

Bambi is running a double feature this month with seamstress Katie Henry and watercolor painter Katherine Kaminski.

The Memphis Taproom, all off on its own at Cumberland and Memphis St. The tap will be featuring the artwork of Sarah Ferone on its walls, above the din of Friday night regulars.

Germ Bookstore – 2005 Frankford Ave.

GERM, in keeping with their Teutonic psycho-supernatural bent of late, is hosting “Deitsch Heathen Hexology”, a gallery of modernist renditions of 18th century Pennsylvania Dutch “barn-charms”. These seemingly quaint symbols that adorn many Dutch country barns in the Delaware Valley region and beyond were thought to ward of negative spirits and promote fertility. Belief in the hexes has deep roots in traditional German culture. The most exciting barn-themed exhibit you will ever see! The Hexology exhibition also blends the Pennsylvania Dutch pagan symbols with Indian mythology with a work by artist Hunter Yoder, a Kensington local. Yoder, a former student of Johnny Ott, the famed “father of Hexology”, painted a hex utilizing the image of the Indian god Vishnu that combines parts from 9 different animals. As David Williams, the owner of Germ books explains in the words of Yoder, “This isn’t just something we came up with in the 70’s”The art of Hexology, along with the pagan practices of the first German immigrants that make up the Pennsylvania Dutch goes back 3,000 years. It’s not meant to be an evangelical show, as these pieces aren’t replications of actual hexes, but “the aesthetics are really top notch”, said Williams. Stop by Germ to view these beautiful pieces by Hunter Yoder, Valulfr Vaerulsson, Swan Hilde and other Philly native Patricia Hall. Also, don’t forget to say hello to Gunther, the polish mannequin that sits in the back of the gallery.

*

Other businesses taking part in the First Friday events include The Barbary, Villa and Hut, Johnny Brenda’s, Sketch Burger, hot Potato, Perpetua Antiques, Circle Thrift, Paddy’s Well, The Garden Center, the Memphis Taproom and Atlantis Lost Bar. There will also be artwork by local artists Christopher Bye and Kimberly DiJohn at Mr. Bill’s Deli located at Tulip and Berks streets.

[First Friday Photos by TIFFANY YOON]

BOSTON PHOENIX: In his bestselling autobiography, Dreams From My Father, President Obama introduces us to his high school friend, “Ray,” who, like him, is bi-racial. Who, also like him, is casting about to find his place in the world. But, who, unlike him, has a potty mouth that would make a sailor blush. Best of all? When reading the audiobook version of his bio, Obama does impressions of Ray’s manner of speech. Swear words and all. It’s fucking awesome. And it’s a way of talking we probably won’t be hearing from him now that he’s POTUS. Or will we? MORE

LISTEN: “You know that guy ain’t shit. Sorry-ass motherfucker ain’t got nothing on me.” (MP3)

LISTEN: “This shit’s getting way too complicated for me.” (MP3)

LISTEN: “There are white folks, and then there are ignorant motherfuckers like you.” (MP3)

LISTEN: “You ain’t my bitch, nigga! Buy your own damn fries!” (MP3)

LISTEN: “Sure you can have my number, baby!” (MP3)

PRESIDENT OBAMA SIGNS SCHIP: Ensuring Health Insurance of 11 Million Children

***

ANSWER: No, We Simply Cannot Have A Grown-Up Conversation About Marijuana

ASSOCIATED PRESS: Michael Phelps was suspended from competition for three months by USA Swimming, the latest fallout from a photo that showed the Olympic great inhaling from a marijuana pipe. The sport’s national governing body also cut off its financial support to Phelps for the same three-month period, effective Thursday.

“This is not a situation where any anti-doping rule was violated, but we decided to send a strong message to Michael because he disappointed so many people, particularly the hundreds of thousands of USA Swimming member kids who look up to him as a role model and a hero,” the Colorado Springs-based federation said in a statement. “Michael has voluntarily accepted this reprimand and has committed to earn back our trust.”

Phelps won a record eight gold medals in Beijing and returned to America as one of the world’s most acclaimed athletes. Now he’s enduring a wave of bad news in the wake of the photo, published Sunday by News of the World, a British tabloid. Earlier Thursday, cereal and snack maker Kellogg Co. announced it wouldn’t renew its sponsorship contract with Phelps, saying his behavior is “not consistent with the image of Kellogg.” The swimmer appeared on the company’s cereal boxes after his Olympic triumph. MORE

BUZZNEWSROOM: Exclusive! Subway has officially de-linked Michael Phelps as they prepare to drop his recently announced sponsorship deal. Before Michael’s bong hits hit the headlines, Michael Phelps was featured on the Subway web site. However, since the swimmer’s pothead scandal, Subway has removed all links to pages featuring the Olympic swimmer. MORE

PREVIOUSLY: Now Can We Have A Grown-Up Conversation About Marijuana? Of Course, NOT!

PREVIOUSLY: The Reefer Madness Of American Pot Laws

Why Is Marijuana Illegal? Answer After The Jump

Read the rest of this entry »

BY BRENDAN SKWIRE How the hell did an old school hardcore punk kid like me get into old timey music? That’s a pretty short story.  Even back in the day, I always loved older hardcore better than newer stuff. Youth of Today was fine, but Minor Threat was better (someday i will tell the story of how I made Ian Mackaye lose his temper), and the Sex Pistols was even better than that and so on and so on.

The fact is, I’ve always loved old shit, so when I got a little older and my tastes in music began to expand, it was fated that I’d run into bluegrass music, which scratched the itch for a long time (an itch that brought me to Philadelphia with Jim and Jennie and the Pinetops).  I thought I’d found my depth.  I was SO wrong. A lot of people get bluegrass and old time confused, probably because the instrumentation is so similar, especially the fiddles, guitars, and banjos.  But old time is very different from bluegrass, and, as the name indicates, much older.

Although there are plenty of people happy to debate the topic, it is popularly accepted that bluegrass music was invented by Bill Monroe in 1940, and that the first recordings with the sound we now know as bluegrass were recorded in 1945.  Old time music, on the other hand, largely came over with the settlers and pioneers from England, Ireland, and Scotland. the French brought a lot of music as well.

Bill’s music was new, based on old time fiddling, but also incorporating aspects of blues, popular music, and even a little swing jazz. The beat was different too, closer to yet-to-be-born rock-n-roll than the steadier, more relaxed beat that people could dance to. Also notable in Bill’s music was improvisation: you never really saw any tune performed exactly the same way twice, and every performer gets a chance to take a solo. It’s competitive music. It’s super fun to play.  Audiences are generally like jazz audiences, listening respectfully and applauding banjo breaks the same way jazz fans clap after a trumpet solo.

“Old time,” my fiddle-playing friend Nik says, “is like acoustic trance music.”  At least the fiddle tunes are. While a bluegrass song is generally about 3 minutes long, old time songs can go on for a lot longer than that. In some sessions, I’ve played “Fiddler’s Dram” for nearly 20 minutes, and could have gone on for a few more bars.  Many of these songs are meant to be played at dances or parties, where you could reasonably expect people to be in the middle of a contradance; like today’s trance and electronic musics, most fiddle tunes have few or no lyrics, and a catchy melody that self perpetuates. Some of my favorite old time songs have no resolution whatsoever.

This brings me to the role of the fiddle in old time music.  As I mentioned, in bluegrass, every player takes a solo.  In the majority of old time instrumentals, the fiddle player is the only lead player. The banjo is played in the more rhythmic “clawhammer” style, which has a sound not dissimilar from a chicken clucking.  The style doesn’t have the same kind of drive as the three finger method used in bluegrass (think of the “Bonnie and Clyde” theme or the intro music to “Car Talk”).  There’s no real improvisation in the melody.  Old time music may also incorporate instruments that you don’t typically see in a bluegrass band, including washboards, harmonicas, and kazoos.  A lot of old time bands don’t have a bass, but some will feature a cello or even a piano.

And then there’s the lyrical weirdness factor. Where bluegrass can be a bit uptight, and has a tendency toward melodramatic lovelorn “gloom despair and agony on me” diatribes (not that there’s anything wrong with that), old time is bawdy, downright offensive, and frequently completely insane. Examples include “Kitty and the Baby”, which is about a drunk cat that scratches a baby, who in turn hits the cat with a hammer; or the aptly named “Prohibition is a Failure”, recorded during those dark days of forced abstinence, and which includes a simple but effective recipe for making beer in the second verse. And don’t get me started on “Black Annie”, which is as bizarre as it is unprintable.

So why am I writing all this stuff about music dating back, in some cases, centuries?  Because my band, the Dill Pickles, is playing around 11:00 PM this Friday February 6 at Fergies. We’re two Narbs and a carpetbagger, playing fiddle tunes and jug band stomps better suited to the Great Depression than our Shiny New World of the Fut…Oh wait? You say it feels like Black Thursday all over again?  Well then we’ll fit right in. And so will you: we’ll see you at Fergie’s tonight! We’re gonna party like it’s 1929 (except now the booze is legal).

Brendan Skwire Plays bass in the Dill Pickles and blogs at BRENDAN CALLING.

1. Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp Have Nothing Better To Do
The main attraction of this particular production of RENT is original cast members Adam Pascal as AIDS-infected guitarist Roger Davis and Anthony Rapp as filmmaker Mark Cohen. For avid RENT fans, it’s a trip down memory lane. For everyone else, it’s men at work. Paschal and Rapp perform with grace and ease, no doubt inspiring the same sense of awe they did during RENT’s first production, perhaps even more so. Whatever. Sitting in the audience, I couldn’t help but think…

2. 1996 Just Called And They Want Their Hip Musical Back
The lighting, props and set design are nothing short of spectacular, if you like that kind of thing. As Davis explains in the beginning, he and his roommates share a warehouse loft in NYC, surviving on siphoned electricity from a neighboring tenement, a scrap paper filled fire barrel for heat, and wearing every shred of clothing they can scrounge up to abate the bitter of cold of a not-so-merry Christmas time. Every set structure—particularly the looming, tangled network of metal bars and wires that vaguely resembles a Christmas tree—is darkly intricate, and at times, aglow with scattered candlelight. So I will give it this much: As musicals go, this one is easy on the eyes. But the ears, not so much. Because…

3. It’s One Long Power Ballad
Of all the sins committed in the name RENT none is more odious than its popularization of the power ballad, which is a little like popularizing the Mullet. Typically, these are simple-scored songs of sweeping emotionality, where histrionics is often mistaken for catharsis. Needless to say, RENT is replete with this brand of tear-jerking, heartstring-yanking tripe, such to the extent that you find yourself wishing that you had brought a flask of bourbon (thank God I actually did) to numb the soul from all this strained melodrama. Not to mention the intermittent sing-talking.

4. It’s Not Nearly As Deep As It Thinks It Is
If there is one thing RENT prompts other than boisterous reprises from the departing audience, it’s a dialogue about HIV/AIDS. Part of what spurred RENT’s meteoric rise in popularity during the mid 90’s was it’s rep for fearlessly confronting the HIV/AIDS pandemic, which had received scant attention at the time. Critics questioned whether it spread the gruesome truth about HIV/AIDS, or merely gathered a gaggle of gorgeous performers together to sing and dance their way around an “edgy” issue, exploiting the destitute for profits and fame. Either way, all these years later it seems harmless if stale at best, and at worst it seems dated, overwrought and verging on self-parody.

5. Only Old Hens From The ‘Burbs Still Think This Is Edgy
During the “On the Street” number, a bag lady, played by Gwen Stewart from the original cast, castigates Roger for filming her in his ongoing documentary about homeless life, “My life is not for you to make a name for yourself on…[stop] trying to use me to kill [your] guilt.” I couldn’t have said it any better myself about the whole travesty of the thing called RENT: a two and a half hour long barrage of cloying, hookless power balladry that witlessly portrays HIV-positive, junkie, homeless artists as being perpetually hunky-dory, airbrushing away of the true horror of their circumstances so as to keep it matinee-friendly. As for its AIDS awareness advocacy, RENT is more exploitation than realization — it’s all take and no give. Enough, already. Make it stop. – AARON STELLA

RENT THE MUSICAL Runs Through Sunday At The Academy Of Music

BY DAVE ALLEN Like time, news waits for no man. Keeping up with the funny papers has always been an all-day job, even in the pre-Internets era. These days, however, it’s a two-man job. That’s right, these days you need someone to do your reading for you, or risk falling hopelessly behind and, as a result, increasing your chances of dying lonely and somewhat bitter. That’s why every week, PAPERBOY does your alt-weekly reading for you. We pore over those time-consuming cover stories and give you the takeaway, suss out the cover art, warn you off the ink-wasters and steer you towards the gooey center. Why? Because we love you!

ON THE COVER

CP: You might be tempted to give up on this year’s Grammy telecast. The nominations leave out more and more quality artists and recordings every year, and the live performances are often truncated, lip-synced or just downright bad. This year, though, you’ve got a local rooting interest. No, not Diplo (though I think he’s got the edge for Record of the Year). It’s Jazmine Sullivan, and Drew Lazor shows us her roots and her gospel-forged sound.

Joyce Johnson, who for close to 20 years has headed the St. Andrew’s youth department, including its youth choir, The Golden Specials, remembers the first time she heard Jazmine sing. She was at the Sullivan residence, working on music with Jazmine’s mother. “Pam wanted to teach me this song, so we could take it back to the choir,” says Johnson. “Jazmine was about 18 months old, in the playpen. Her mom gave me the soprano note, and she was singing the alto note.

Out of nowhere, the still-in-diapers Sullivan opened her mouth and tossed out the tenor part in pitch-perfect harmony.

“I got upset and left,” laughs Johnson. “I said, ‘I’m not going to stand here and let your 18-month-old baby out-sing me!”

Even if contemporary R&B isn’t your thing, it’s pretty amazing what Sullivan’s already seen and done: signed by Jive before she graduated high school, writing songs for American Idol winners. Like most profiles of any Philly-bred fast riser (see John Legend cover, July 3, ‘08), it’s overly slick, with way too many space-filling lyric quotes. Still, it’ll make you wanna stand up and cheer for the girl, especially if she can knock off the Jonas Brothers and a coupla British lasses for Best New Artist. That, plus the Roots bumrushing the stage if Kanye or that “apple bottom jeans” song win anything, would restore my faith in the Grammys.

PW: Holy in-depth reporting, Batman! After a few weeks of scant (but still well-done) cover stories, Tara Murtha plunges into the Women Against Abuse shelter and the difficulties its employees and residents are facing. Big points for exploring an issue that’s been overlooked, as Murtha notes, in the face of “public outcry over libraries closing and a shortened Mummer’s parade.” It’s a public-minded but also very personal approach, starting with former resident-turned-counselor Stephanie Price.

For the past four years she’s been working full-time at the shelter. The road from terrified victim of domestic violence to working as a professional on the front lines has been winding and paved with pain. Talking with Price, you’d never guess what she had to put up with; she waves her good-natured tough-girl attitude around like a wand.

Maybe it’s a defense mechanism, but the positive vibe helps at work, where the 40-year-old spends her days helping women and their children cope with the emotional, practical and financial hurdles that come with escaping domestic violence. It’s not easy work, and though it took seven years to get around to it, Price says she always had it in the back of her mind to work here and give back to the community that saved her life…

Even if she keeps her job, for Price, the cuts are personal: She knows firsthand how hard it is to get back on your feet after surviving domestic violence, and now she sees it’s only getting harder for the thousands of battered women and their children trapped by poverty.

Anecotes with the stats to back them up: “Domestic violence results in $3 to 5 billion lost annually in absenteeism, decreased productivity and health and safety costs,” for starters. Nice gesture to tack on Price’s email address to the online edition, but the addinghotline — the one that Price said saved her life — would be a good move too. This is the real deal.

INSIDE THE BOOK

CP: Islands in the stream: That is what we want. SEPTA’s Quiet Car: I’ll take Maxwell Smart’s Cone of Silence any day. My real introduction to Big 5 basketball was seeing LaSalle stick it to my alma mater. “How cold the collective heart has grown”: Madness in the Motor City.

PW: Hey, that guy led my tour at Philadelphia Brewing last weekend! Glad he didn’t make us run. “…the place is a dump“: All kinds of PR problems for the libraries. A primer on music-blog hateration: wrong week for even a fake low-blow on Buddy Holly, though. Nice try, D-Mac, but bring back Beer Lass. Six recommendations > four.

WINNER: Two bold, strong women anchor both covers this week, but I gotta give the nod to PW. After so much sound and fury over the city’s budget, stories like the one Tara Murtha dug up have been largely under the radar. Not anymore, though. Bravo.

WFMU BLOG: Lux Interior, lead singer of The Cramps, passed away this morning due to an existing heart condition at Glendale Memorial Hospital in Glendale, California at 4:30 AM PST today. Lux has been an inspiration and influence to millions of artists and fans around the world. He and wife Poison Ivy’s contributions with The Cramps have had an immeasurable impact on modern music. The Cramps emerged from the original New York punk scene of CBGB and Max’s Kansas City, with a singular sound and iconography. Their distinct take on rockabilly and surf along with their midnight movie imagery reminded us all just how exciting, dangerous, vital and sexy rock and roll should be and has spawned entire subcultures. Lux was a fearless frontman who transformed every stage he stepped on into a place of passion, abandon, and true freedom. He is a rare icon who will be missed dearly. The family requests that you respect their privacy during this difficult time. MORE

LA TIMES: Lux Interior, the singer, songwriter and founding member of the pioneering New York City horror-punk band the Cramps, died Tuesday. He was 60. Interior, whose real name was Erick Lee Purkhiser, died at Glendale Memorial Hospital of a previously-existing heart condition, according to a statement from his publicist. With his wife, guitarist “Poison” Ivy Rorschach, Interior formed the Cramps in 1976, pairing lyrics that expressed their love of B-movie camp with ferocious rockabilly and surf-inspired instrumentation. The band became a staple of the late ’70s Manhattan punk scene emerging from clubs like Max’s Kansas City and CBGB and was one of the first acts to realize the potential of punk rock as theater and spectacle. Often dressed in macabre, gender-bending costumes onstage, Interior evoked a lanky, proto-goth Elvis Presley, and his band quickly became notorious for volatile and decadent live performances. MORE

THECRAMPS.COM: It would be almost impossible to have never heard of The CRAMPS. Their career has been the stuff of legend. Dangerously bizarre but most of all cool, The CRAMPS represent everything that is truly reprehensible about rock’n’roll.  Founding members Lux Interior (the psycho-sexual Elvis/Werewolf hybrid from hell) and guitar-slinging soul-mate Poison Ivy (the ultimate bad girl vixen) are the architects of a wicked sound that distills a cross of swamp water, moonshine and nitro down to a dangerous and unstable musical substance. In the spring of 1976, The CRAMPS began to fester in a NYC apartment. Without fresh air or natural light, the group developed its uniquely mutant strain of rock’n’roll aided only by the sickly blue rays of late night TV. While the jackhammer rhythms of punk were proliferating in NYC, The CRAMPS dove into the deepest recesses of the rock’n’roll psyche for the most primal of all rhythmic impulses — rockabilly — the sound of southern culture falling apart in a blaze of shudders and hiccups. As late night sci-fi reruns colored the room, The CRAMPS also picked and chose amongst the psychotic debris of previous rock eras - instrumental rock, surf, psychedelia, and sixties punk. And then they added the junkiest element of all — themselves. Their cultural impact has spawned a legion of devil cults and dance-floor catfights, and created in its wake a cavalcade of cave-stomping imitators. As punk rock pioneers in the late seventies, they cut their teeth on the stages of CBGB and Max’s Kansas City and recorded their first record at Sam Phillips legendary Sun Studios, funded mainly by Ivy’s income as a dominatrix in NYC. They coined the now popular term “psychobilly” on their 1976 gig posters. Their hair-raising live performances are still a total, no-holds-barred rock’n’roll assault. After a quarter century of mayhem, they’re too far gone to even consider any other course. MORE

THE CRAMPS: Live At Napa State Mental Hospital

MIND HACKS: During a 1978 tour, psychobilly punk band The Cramps created one of the strangest moments in the history of both rock n’ roll and psychiatry when they played a gig inside Napa State Mental Hospital. It’s hard to believe it actually happened. The story sounds more like an exaggerated rock legend than an account of a real concert, but no suspension of disbelief is needed. Someone filmed the gig. We can only guess how the band got permission to play inside one of California’s biggest mental institutions, but play they did, to a few supporters and a fired-up crowd of psychiatric inpatients. The footage is grainy, black and white, and chaotic; the onlookers look bemused at first, a few start dancing, a few just wander. As the first song fades, the lead singer, Lux Interior, addresses the crowd: “We’re The Cramps, and we’re from New York City and we drove 3,000 miles to play for you people.” “Fuck you!” a patient yells back. He cracks a smile. “And somebody told me you people are crazy! But I’m not so sure about that; you seem to be all right to me.” The gig ascends into pure punk rock chaos. Patients jump on stage and pogo like they were Saturday night regulars. Lux suddenly duets with a member of the crowd who grabs the mike and adds her own improvised lyrics to the mix. One song finishes with the lead singer sprawled on the floor with two female members of the audience. One of them shouts “I got the Cramps!”  MORE

BOLLOCKS: Jonesy On The Dole; Rotten Buttered; Sid Still Dead

LOS ANGELES TIMES: It’s come to this — a Sex Pistol drives a Prius. On a recent crisp afternoon, Steve Jones, the guitar architect of London punk in its primacy, zipped down Hollywood Boulevard in his shiny white hybrid Toyota, which is customized with a rooftop image of her majesty Queen Elizabeth, a safety pin jutting from her lip. And you thought punk rock was dead.

Even with the distraction of nubile young tourists strolling up the Walk of Fame, Jones was in a melancholy mood. You see, like so many people in America these days, the 53-year-old rock star turned radio DJ is looking for a job. Jones joined the ranks of the unemployed on Jan. 17, when Indie 103.1, the scruffy but revered L.A. rock station, became a victim of a vicious downturn in advertising revenue. For five years, the Sex Pistol had been the gloriously unpolished voice of “Jonesy’s Jukebox,” an eccentric and unpredictable two-hour lunchtime show on which he played any obscure record he wanted, chatted up famous guests or just, well, whistled.

The show was rebroadcast in the late afternoon, and its pirate soul became the signature of a station that Rolling Stone, Esquire, Spin and other national magazines celebrated as the best commercial radio outlet in the nation. Jones had plenty of war stories: Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders, for example, dropped by to recount her 1970s sexual escapades with the Sex Pistol. “You won’t hear that on KROQ,” Jones said, referring to the rock powerhouse station in Los Angeles that is far more slick in its approach.

Might KROQ be a home for Jones? He won’t say whom he has talked to, but he’s decided to limit his choices to L.A. or New York. If a good fit doesn’t present itself, Jones has talked about going on tour with Iggy Pop and the Stooges — the band’s guitarist, Ron Asheton, died last month at age 60, and having an old friend take his place might help the band soldier on. MORE

RELATED: Dairy Crest spent £5m on the campaign featuring the singer, better known by his alter ego of Johnny Rotten. The company said the promotion of its Country Life butter by the punk legend under the “Great British Butter” slogan led to an 85% leap in sales of its spreads in its third quarter. The TV advert features Lydon, who now lives in Los Angeles, mocking the British way of life; frowning at morris dancers and getting chased by cows. He then delivers the payoff line: “Do I buy Country Life because it’s British? No I buy it because it’s great butter.” The campaign works because it mocks the picture postcard ideal of Britain, while reinforcing the Britishness of the product. MORE

QUESTION: Why Is This Man Selling Car Insurance?

SKY NEWS: Mark Allen, Dairy Crest chief executive, said the advert had “delivered increased brand awareness”. Ironic celebrity endorsements have come into fashion recently with ad agencies pairing leftfield figures with mainstream brands. The best known recent example is another punk icon, Iggy Pop. The singer is currently appearing on screens promoting swiftcover.com in the unlikely role of car insurance salesman. Ad experts say the reason the ads work is that this new breed of celebrity endorsement is fronted by memorable and unlikely figures, rather than publicity hungry Hollywood stars. MORE

MCCLAREN: No Way Sid Killed Nancy

MALCOLM MCLAREN: Punk Rock created a new kind of teenage angst. Sid [Vicious] embodied this in his sound and stance. To watch him was to watch a naïve, vulnerable, sad, beautiful and ugly teenager being loved for doing something different. He lowered the bar of entry and allowed everyone into the creative process. The line between the audience and band was blurred. Sid was once the Pistols fan who invented the Pogo (a dance involving jumping in once place and thrashing about). It created chaos, threw the fan at the feet of the band and suddenly, the fan was the center of attention and the star. Sid spelled trouble wherever he went—a wicked, sexy kind of trouble you can’t resist. He was the ultimate DIY Punk Idol: someone easy to assemble and therefore become. Sid didn’t just wear the clothes; he acted them. He single-handedly reinvented the classic Havana tuxedo into an outlaw costume by styling it with a pair of black drainpipe jeans and what would become the ubiquitous Punk garter that he wore so sweetly around his left thigh.They said he was capable of anything.

But to kill Nancy? I was stunned when I first heard this and I still can’t believe it. Sid was capable of a wide range of self-destructive acts, but I didn’t think that he could kill someone, especially his girlfriend, unless it was a botched double suicide. No! I don’t believe Sid killed Nancy. She was his first and only love of his life. As everyone knows, you may argue with your first (he lost his virginity to Nancy), sometimes might want to beat their brains in, leave them, move on, and be with others—but you never get over them. No. Sid was the sucker. The stupid, clumsy fool that night at the Chelsea Hotel. He passed out on the bed, having taken fistfuls of Tuinal. All around him, drug dealers, friends of Nancy came and went from Room 100. Money was stolen and Sid’s knife (similar to that of 007’s) was taken from the wall where it was hung and seemingly used by someone defending themselves in a struggle with Nancy. Nancy was no pushover. I tried having her kidnapped in London and put on a plane back to New York. Probably, she caught this person stealing money from the bedroom drawer.

I was positive about Sid’s innocence and acquittal. But Sid’s trial was going to cost a fortune, and with the Sex Pistols account drained, I thought he could sing for his supper at the Sands in Las Vegas and pay the bills. Sid already had several hits under his belt—covers of Eddie Cochran’s “C’mon Everybody” and “Something Else” as well as “My Way.” During the preparations for Sid’s trial, my conversations with various promoters had me contemplating Sid performing in Las Vegas. After all, Sid was the only Punk candidate who could fill Elvis’s shoes. Sid’s mother, Anne, was kind enough and helped him wherever she could. A small-time drug dealer, she smuggled heroin in her vagina to Sid at Riker’s Island, a detention center in New York where he was awaiting trial for the murder of Nancy. A dutiful mother, she aided him in his last breath, killing him, and killing herself years later. MORE

GIZIMODO: If you had $15.6 septillion and 94 cents in your account, would you save the world from the economic crisis or build a Death Star, destroy the world, and move on to invade the galaxy? A guy called Ryszard Gold—who probably is an alien villain from the Outer Rim planets and got a 49-point score in our Geek Social Aptitude Test—made the calculation of the most basic Death Star’s price with current materials and space transport costs here on Earth. Here’s a quick summary…MORE

HOT DOCUMENT: So we just got this email from the White House Press Office outlining state by state how the Obama Stimulus Plan will, um, stimulate the economy. The Devil is in the details and you can find them after the jump. But more importantly, we NEVER got an email from the Bush White House Press Office. Not one. Nor did we ever get one from Clinton, Bush, Reagan, Carter, Ford, Nixon, Johnson, JFK, FDR, Lincoln or George fucking Washington’s White House Press Office. So, to get this email from the Obama White House, after we just sophmorically posted a doctored pic of the President toking on a bong, well, in our professional opinion this is change we can believe in!

Read the rest of this entry »

WASHINGTON POST: Olympian swimmer Michael Phelps and Sheriff Leon Lott of South Carolina’s Richland County are being forced to treat seriously a crime that shouldn’t be one. As everyone knows by now, Phelps was photographed smoking from an Olympic-sized bong during a University of South Carolina party last November. [Sheriff] Lott is threatening action against Phelps because … he has to. Widely respected and admired as a “good guy” who came up through the ranks, Lott is in a jam. Not one to sweat the small stuff, he nevertheless has said that he’ll charge Phelps with a crime if he determines that the 14-time gold-medal winner did, in fact, smoke pot in his county.

The sheriff’s job will be made both easier and tougher by evidence that includes a photograph of Phelps with his face buried in a smoke-filled tube and what Lott has called a “partial confession.” Phelps has said that the photo is legit. The only missing link, apparently, is the exact location of the party. What’s tough is that Lott probably doesn’t want to press charges because it’s a waste of time and resources. He’s got much bigger fish to fry, but several recent drug-related crimes — including at least two high-profile murders — have captured community attention.

And the law is the law. Therein lies the problem.

Our marijuana laws have been ludicrous for as long as we’ve been alive. Almost half of us (42 percent) have tried marijuana at least once, according to a report published last year in PLoS Medicine, a journal of the Public Library of Science. The U.S., in fact, boasts the highest percentage of pot smokers among 17 nations surveyed, including The Netherlands, where cannabis clouds waft from coffeehouse windows. Among them are no small number of high-ranking South Carolina leaders (we knew us when), who surely cringe every time a young person gets fingered for a “crime” they themselves have committed.

Other better-known former tokers include our current president and a couple of previous ones, as well as a Supreme Court justice, to name just a few. A complete list would require the slaughter of several mature forests. Understandably, parents worry that their kids will emulate their idol, but the problem isn’t Phelps, who is, in fact, an adult. The problem is our laws — and our lies. Obviously, children shouldn’t smoke anything, legal or otherwise. Nor should they drink alcoholic beverages, even though their parents might. There are good reasons for substance restrictions for children that need not apply to adults.

That’s the real drug message that should inform our children and our laws, rather than the nonsense that currently passes for drug information. Today’s anti-drug campaigns are slightly wonkier than yesterday’s “Reefer Madness,” but equally likely to become party hits rather than drug deterrents. One recent ad produced by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy says: “Hey, not trying to be your mom, but there aren’t many jobs out there for potheads.” Whoa, dude, except maybe, like, president of the United States. MORE

PHAWKER: Arrest God, He Grew The Shit!

PREVIOUSLY: Now Can We Have A Grown-Up Conversation About Marijuana? Of Course NOT!

FRESH AIR

Sarah Chayes first went to Afghanistan to report on the Taliban for NPR, but in 2002, after the fall of the Taliban government in Kabul, she left journalism and dedicated herself to rebuilding the country. She drew on her experiences to write her 2006 book, The Punishment of Virtue. Chayes is an advocate for economic development in Afghanistan, and she founded a cooperative in Kandahar that produces skin-care products from local crops. The cooperative aims to help farmers earn a living from licit crops rather than opium. Chayes joins Fresh Air to explain how the Taliban is using both fear and persuasion to once again expand its power in Afghanistan.

ALSO, Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid joins Fresh Air to discuss recent Taliban advances in Pakistan. Taliban-led violence in Pakistan, especially on the Afghanistan border, appears to be escalating. On Feb. 3, militants associated with the hard-line religious movement destroyed a bridge in Northwest Pakistan that supplies food, gas, and equipment to US-led forces in Afghanistan. On Feb. 2, an American U.N. official was kidnapped and his Pakistani driver were killed; officials say they suspect Taliban militants. Rashid covers Pakistani culture and politics for a number of publications including The Daily Telegraph and The Far Eastern Economic Review. He has written several books, including Descent into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia and the bestseller Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil, and Fundamentalism in Central Asia. He is a regular guest on Fresh Air.

RADIO TIMES

Hour 1
We learn about President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s first one hundred days in office and how his administration reinvented the role of the federal government. Our guest is ADAM COHEN, author of “Nothing to Fear: FDR’s Inner Circle and the Hundred Days That Created Modern America.” He is assistant editorial page editor of the New York Times, where he has been an member of the Editorial Board since 2002. Listen to the mp3

Hour 2
We discuss the ethical and medical issues raised by case of Nadya Suleman. Last week, this single mother of six gave birth to octuplets. Our guests are RUTH LEVY GUYER, bioethics professor at Haverford College. She is author of Baby at Risk: The Uncertain Legacies of Medical Miracles for Babies, Families, and Society. JACQUELINE GUTMANN, Board Certified in Obstetrics and Gynecology and in Reproductive Endocrinology. She practices at Northern Fertility and Reproductive Associates in Philadelphia. Listen to the mp3

THIS AMERICAN LIFE

The New Boss

Stories about what happens when someone new takes over—someone with a vision of how things ought to be. Plus, NPR international economics correspondent Adam Davidson of the Planet Money podcast on how Obama’s new stimulus plan might actually be the first ever test of a very, very old theory. Our crack economics duo, Producer Alex Blumberg and NPR International Economics Correspondent Adam Davidson, on how a dead, slutty, elitist British man, John Maynard Keynes, is about to take over the American economy. President Obama’s new stimulus plan relies on Keynes’ theory, which says that government can spend its way out of a downward economic spiral. Alex and Adam explain why this might actually be the first ever test of this very old idea. You can hear Alex and Adam’s other economics stories on the  Planet Money podcast.

WORLD CAFE

Global superstar Tom Jones is “opening up shop” once more with the release of 24 Hours, his first U.S. album release in more than 15 years. The exuberant performer first rose to fame in the early 1960s, but it was his hit single “It’s Not Unusual” in 1965 that made him a living legend. Jones’ clean-cut style, infectious blues and energetic pop tunes have helped him sustain a long career that continues unabated. With 24 Hours, perhaps his most intimate album to date, Jones opted to get more involved in the songwriting process. The result is a highly personal collection, including a soul-baring track written for his wife of more than 50 years, Linda. The album also features a cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “The Hitter” and a collaboration with Bono. The genre-crossing crooner talks with host David Dye about how the vintage sound of new music by Amy Winehouse and Duffy inspired him to recapture the essence of his ’60s-era work. He’ll also share some priceless memories of encounters with Elvis Presley and Otis Redding.

TOM JONES: Delilah

AINTITCOOL: You want to hear the REALITY behind that clip? I know this because I happen to be somewhere where someone that was there that day and for the shoot is. And this person isn’t a publicist, nor are they invested in Bale’s career. They’re just someone that thinks it is absolute bullshit that this moment in Bale’s life is being aired and that the real story should get out there. The DP on TERMINATOR SALVATION, Shane Hurlbut, is a apparently a light tweaker. He’s a fairly young DP and likes to fiddle with his lights on set during action, which is a big “NO NO” on most productions unless worked out in advance with performers. But apparently Shane was a pretty unrepentant light tweaker. The scene in question, was a very emotional and tough scene between Christian Bale and Bryce Howard. A scene that required soul bearing and a deep level of immersive concentration. The sort of scene where everyone on set knows not to get in anyone’s eye lines, and definitely not to move lights around while FILMING. You lock that shit down before the scene starts. Bale had indeed warned the DP on multiple occasions about messing with lights while the cameras were rolling, and Bale was in the midst of a painful scene with Bryce, what was described to me as being the emotional center of the film and his character for the film. MORE

[VERY NSFW]

PREVIOUSLY: Hey Christian Bale, Why So Serious?

WIRED: It didn’t take long for Slumdog Millionaire star Dev Patel to go Hollywood. M. Night Shyamalan has cast the 18-year-old actor for his supernatural martial-arts movie The Last Airbender, which begins filming in Greenland next month.”Patel was already one of the guys I was interested in,” Shyamalan told Variety. “Then I saw Slumdog Millionaire, and the kid just grew in my eyes.” The movie is the first in a planned trilogy that Shyamalan is writing, directing and producing based on Emmy-winning animated TV series Avatar: The Last Airbender. Patel replaces actor/musician Jesse McCartney, who decided to skip Shyamalan’s martial-arts “boot camp” for the movie to do tour dates, according to Variety. MORE

AINTITCOOL: The great Aaron (not Alan) Sorkin, who first made his mark on cinema with “A Few Good Men,” has scripted “The Challenge,” about a Navy lawyer representing Osama Bin Laden’s driver, who was imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay for five years. It’s based on Jonathan Mahler’s book The Challenge: Hamdan v. Rumsfeld and the Fight over Presidential Power. Fans of “A Few Good Men” will recall the Tom Cruise/Jack Nicholson movie was about a Navy lawyer exposing dark deeds committed at Guantanamo Bay. George Clooney, whose prior big-screen directorial efforts include the excellent Charlie Kaufman-scripted “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind,” as well as “Good Night, and Good Luck” and “Leatherheads,” wants to direct and play the lawyer, according to Tuesday morning’s Variety. MORE

[Photo by JEFF FUSCO]

HUFFPO: “We can’t send a message to the American people that we have two sets of rules- one for prominent people and one for ordinary people,” he told Fox News’ Chris Wallace. “Ultimately I have to take responsibility for a process that resulted in us not having an HHS Secretary at a time when people need relief on their healthcare costs.” Certainly, the Daschle drama had taken the White House by a surprise. Democrats on the Hill were convinced that revelations of failed tax payments would not be enough to derail the nomination. A source with direct knowledge of Monday night’s Finance Committee meeting said that both Republicans and Democrats seemed willing to give Daschle a pass — albeit with minor slaps on the wrist. But the storm didn’t clear. And on Tuesday morning the former Senate Majority Leader informed the president of his intention to withdraw. It was Daschle’s decision alone, Obama said. MORE

NEW YORK TIMES: At last, the new administration is waking up to the need for top officials to live up to the high ethical standards set by the president. It should give Americans new hope that President Obama will live up to his campaign vows to reform government. Even before the Tom Daschle choice blew up, Mr. Obama had lost some reformist luster. He nominated a lobbyist for deputy secretary of defense after pledging to keep lobbyists out of government, and his pick for Treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, was found to have not paid back taxes he clearly realized were due. So it was a critical mass of trouble when two other nominees for high office were found to have failed to pay taxes until the floodlight of White House appointments shone on them. Withdrawing was the only thing to do. Former Senator Daschle, who the president had chosen for secretary of health and human services, failed to pay substantial past taxes and earned a sizable income from health-related companies that would be affected by the reforms he was supposed to lead. His withdrawal need not undermine the administration’s push for health care reform. Had he won Senate confirmation, his past financial ties would have provided a handy target for critics of any plans he might put forward. MORE

NEW YORK TIMES: The Obama administration is expected to impose a cap of $500,000 on the compensation of executives at companies that receive large new infusions of federal bailout money.

BOB HERBERT: What’s up with the Republicans? Have they no sense that their policies have sent the country hurtling down the road to ruin? Are they so divorced from reality that in their delusionary state they honestly believe we need more of their tax cuts for the rich and their other forms of plutocratic irresponsibility, the very things that got us to this deplorable state? The G.O.P.’s latest campaign is aimed at undermining President Obama’s effort to cope with the national economic emergency by attacking the spending in his stimulus package and repeating ad nauseam the Republican mantra for ever more tax cuts […] The question that I would like answered is why anyone listens to this crowd anymore. MORE

PAUL KRUGMAN: As the debate over President Obama’s economic stimulus plan gets under way, one thing is certain: many of the plan’s opponents aren’t arguing in good faith. Conservatives really, really don’t want to see a second New Deal, and they certainly don’t want to see government activism vindicated. So they are reaching for any stick they can find with which to beat proposals for increased government spending. Some of these arguments are obvious cheap shots. John Boehner, the House minority leader, has already made headlines with one such shot: looking at an $825 billion plan to rebuild infrastructure, sustain essential services and more, he derided a minor provision that would expand Medicaid family-planning services — and called it a plan to “spend hundreds of millions of dollars on contraceptives.” But the obvious cheap shots don’t pose as much danger to the Obama administration’s efforts to get a plan through as arguments and assertions that are equally fraudulent but can seem superficially plausible to those who don’t know their way around economic concepts and numbers. So as a public service, let me try to debunk some of the major antistimulus arguments that have already surfaced. Any time you hear someone reciting one of these arguments, write him or her off as a dishonest flack. MORE

POP ECON: The problem for the GOP, is much wider than BO’s personal popularity. The real problem is that they sold us a pig in a poke and the pig turned out to be not just dead but festering putrid. And everybody knows it. As far as discussing the stimulus plan is concerned at least, the people who caused the problem have no credibility because we now know they’re the ones who caused the problem. After 30 years, there are too many people who have finally caught on to the conservative dumbshow, which is why Obama was elected in the first place. MORE

THE ONLY REASONABLE ANSWER: Duffonomics

PLAYBOY: My name is Duff McKagan. By way of introduction, I play rock & roll music as a profession and have been fortunate enough to have been a founding member of both Guns N’ Roses and Velvet Revolver. I’m not tooting my own horn here, just letting you people know who I am. The beer on The Simpsons was named after me and not the opposite. You see, I was also known to be a big drinker.

Playboy has asked me to pen a weekly column on finance. This first piece will serve as sort of “mission statement” to inform you of what to expect from now until they fire me. You may be asking yourself at this point, “What the hell does this dude know about money?” Well, here is a quick version of my story:

I got sober in 1994. I suddenly found that I had a ton of time on my hands—bars and drug runs are very time-consuming passions. I found a file cabinet in my basement that held all of my GN’R financial statements from the previous six years. I began to try to make sense of these. The problem was, they weren’t written for the common person to read, and perhaps they were even meant to mislead a typical over-busy rock guy. I was 30 years old and didn’t know what any of the technical terms meant. I didn’t know what a financial “vehicle” or a “bond” (tax-free or otherwise) was, never mind the inverse relationship of supply and demand! I enrolled in a class at Santa Monica College the very next week, and it was there that I found my calling and—don’t laugh—my love of academia. MORE