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In 2006, New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd published a book with the inflammatory title "Are Men Necessary?" Eight years later, feminist author Hanna Rosin wrote a piece for TIME magazine Thursday with the substantially more inflammatory title "Men Are Obsolete: Five Reasons We Are Definitely Witnessing The End of Men":

The inauguration of unreconstructed liberal Bill de Blasio as New York’s newest mayor excited liberals hoping for a return to pre-Clinton times...and yet there were the Clintons, seeming to endorse the whole thing. In Thursday’s Washington Post, columnist Melinda Henneberger wrote on page A-2 that the event was “not just a progressive jamboree but a 90-minute pummeling of outgoing mayor…

Apparently, "I will think before I tweet" should be on Irin Carmon's New Year's resolution list. Her failure to do so shortly before the ball dropped in Times Square signaling the beginning of 2014 has caused her considerable embarrassment. On Tuesday, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor issued an injunction which "temporarily prevented(the government) from enforcing contraceptive coverage…

Full disclosure: I never heard of Dean Obeidallah before his name came up in connection with the dustup over an MSNBC panel’s ill-chosen reactions to a Mitt Romney family photo. Obeidallah, who self-identifies as a comedian, was on the panel, and if his commentary was any indication of his sense of humor, I haven’t been missing much. He has a piece at the Daily Beast defending himself against…

Discuss the news of the day and anything else you'd like...

New York magazine political writer John Heilemann and his co-author Mark Halperin appeared on the PBS NewsHour on Monday to discuss their book on the 2012 election, “Double Down.” PBS anchor Gwen Ifill asked, “I wonder if Americans aren`t just sick of this and to the degree that elections never end. Do they ever end? Or are they a constant, not just the elective process, but the whole idea of…

Schlockumentary filmmaker Michael Moore made quite a statement on New Year's Day. In an op-ed published at the New York Times, Moore wrote, "Obamacare is awful."

A recurring theme during the Obama presidency has been that, despite the distinct sense he gives of a man who sees himself as “above it all,” the president is a regular down-to-earth Joe. His efforts to connect with the hoi polloi have not always succeeded. His most recent attempt, enrolling in Obamacare, was sullied by the revelation that he didn’t actually dirty his own hands navigating the…

The late Republican congressman Charles Norwood would probably be sad about what happened at the Charles Norwood VA Medical Center in Augusta, Georgia last week. Via the Deacon’s Bench blog, Wesley Brown reported the veterans’ hospital is “taking a stricter stance on its policy banning carolers from singing religious Christmas music in public patient areas.” They presented a group of…

On Pearl Harbor Day, Campbell’s got in a lot of trouble when it tweeted out a picture of its SpaghettiOs mascot holding an American flag and asking people to "take a moment to remember #PearlHarbor with us." On NBC’s “New Year’s Eve with Carson Daly,” actress and comedienne Natasha Leggero disgustingly joked, “It sucks that the only survivors of Pearl Harbor are being mocked by the only food…

Filmmaker Kevin Smith wasn’t satisfied making a religion-bashing comedy in “Dogma,” or a religion-bashing gore film with overtones of David Koresh and Fred Phelps called “Red State.” The website Film School Rejects reports Smith has a new film in the planning stages. It’s “the punnily-titled ‘Helena Handbag’....he’s currently writing the screenplay based off [his own podscast] SModcast…

Happy 2014! Today's starter topic: Which MSNBC host (if any) do you think will say or do something to get fired?

I've not read the official obituaries because they are predictable. "Billionaire." "Reclusive." "GOP donor." "Swift Boat Vets." "Industrialist." "Controversial." "Dallas, Texas." And there you have it: the death of a sinister figure driven by greed, the puppeteer manipulating the political process, a 21st century J.R. Ewing. (Or is it Mr. Burns?) If this is what you've read, it’s written by…

Harold Simmons, the Texas billionaire who has served as chairman of the board of the Media Research Center, died Saturday. If you've enjoyed any of MRC's work over the years, one major force keeping the televisions on was Mr. Simmons. So we were especially disgusted (if not shocked) when the New York Times obituary carried the headline "Harold Simmons Dies at 82; Backed Swift Boat Ads." That’…