Sunday's Golden Globe ceremony has fallen victim

to the ongoing writers' strike,

with actors (in a rare moment of solidarity)

refusing to cross the picket line

This raises the prospect of the Oscars being canceled,

thus saving six hours of our lives

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Watching the cresting of the Obama tidal wave, it seems that the US is having its Princess Diana moment. Hillary Clinton, turning on the tears, wails fruitlessly that Obama is all warm fuzzy feeling but no substance.

‘Wait a minute,’ she said, ‘what is the substance here? What, as famously was said years ago, where's the beef? You know, where is the reality?’

Welcome to Planet Diana. It was only with the death of the People’s Princess that the extent of Britain’s transformation from a country of reason, intelligence, stoicism, self-restraint and responsibility into a land of credulousness, emotional incontinence, sentimentality, irresponsibility and self-obsession became shatteringly apparent.

Princess Diana was an icon of the new Britain because she embodied precisely those latter characteristics.   more »

No matter what you think about Hillary Clinton, no matter how this campaign turns out, there is undeniable satisfaction in watching the pundit class being forced to eat the words of its premature obituaries.

The strategists who were called morons are suddenly geniuses again. The candidate and her husband, who were the subject of such undisguised journalistic venom just 24 hours ago, are suddenly worthy of awe again.

The donors who dissed her are wondering whether they can retract with impunity. The White House staffers-in-waiting who danced on her grave are hoping they said nothing incriminating on the record.

If there were any justice, a number of chattering-class reputations would now be irrecuperable.   more »

Mention the word Starbucks to a barista at any independent coffeehouse, and you'll most likely receive a scowl or a screed.

After all, the mega-chain is responsible for flooding the market with its cookie-cutter approach to coffee; by 2000, it had opened more than 3,500 outlets, and its current goal is to reach the 40,000 mark.

With outlets as far flung as Beijing and Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, the chain may be responsible for its own venti-size brand of cultural imperialism.   more »

"I am the change!" Obama must have spent

a lot of time studying Bill Clinton

He has become an eerie doppelganger

of the same triangulating, capitulating dogma

aimed at romancing any citizen who wants

all image, vague promises and little substance

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Keywords: operator, smooth, image, 2008, president, fake, obama