Outside the Beltway

Should you lie to your kids about holiday fantasy characters?

The Sky News leadership is taking a novel approach to charges that it illegally hacked emails: Claiming a right to break the law when they think it’s in the public’s interest to do so.

Sometimes, art imitates life rather than the reverse. And sometimes reality seems stranger than fiction.

Roger Ebert and I don’t agree on much, from politics to movies. But share a fondness for Samuel L. Jackson and a contempt for George Zimmerman.

Dear Bill Maher and Alexandra Pelosi: The plural of anecdote is not data.

Sure, he routinely uses gender-specific slurs against conservative women. But he’s not a misogynist!

Doug Mataconis’ Thursday posting “Herman Cain Releases Bizarre New Video Involving Apparent Goldfish Murder” got picked up on that night’s edition of The Colbert Report.

Movie theater snacks are expensive. This is not cause for a lawsuit.

Was Return Of The Jedi the best of all the Star Wars films? One writer thinks so.

Davy Jones, the face of The Monkees, has died.

An object lesson in celebrity worship from the State of New Jersey.

Cal Thomas made a tasteless joke at Rachel Maddow’s expense. He describes the lesson in civility he learned.

Today’s the 20th anniversary of Wayne’s World

We can feel that we “know” athletes, entertainers, politicians, and others that we’ve followed, rooted for, or whatnot over a period of time and feel a genuine sense of loss when they’re gone.

Whitney Houston, once one of the biggest stars in American popular culture, has died.

Was Clint Eastwood’s Chrysler ad a political message, or just a well done commercial?

This week we learned that even breast cancer can become politicized. Is there anything that can’t at this point?

One wonders why any Republican politician would want to be associated with this image.

Virtually everything Stephen Colbert is doing was legal before Citizens United.

The DC government’s incompetence knows no bounds.

Stephen Colbert’s super PAC, Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow, has raised a little over a million dollars.

Shockingly, Paula Deen, the morbidly obese woman who fries Twinkies on television, has diabetes.

Tim Tebow has been at the center of a culture war battle, but he seems to have a more balanced view of the whole thing.

Cee Lo Green caused on New Year’s Eve by changing the lyrics of Imagine from “And no religion, too” to “And all religions true.”

The trailer for the next Batman movie, “The Dark Knight Rises,” is out.

The constantly changing face of Superman, the iconic comic book superhero, over the 73 years since he debuted in Action Comics #1.

Fareed Zakaria thinks we’re wasting too much time playing Angry Birds.

Rolling Stone’s “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time” for 2011 is much different than their “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time” for 2003.

William Shatner loves deep-fried turkey, but over many Thanksgivings and Christmases he’s made mistakes, burned himself, and nearly burned down his house. In this dramatic retelling, Bill shows us how dangerous turkey fryers can be.

A trailer for Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox using dialogue from Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds

Rick Perry’s “oops” moment may have closed the door on his presidential ambitions but it has opened the window for a promising career as a comic.

Paul Hsieh dubs this, “by far the best 2-cello version of “Welcome to the Jungle” that I’ve ever heard.”

Rick Santorum says Saturday Night Live is bullying” him  for “standing up for the traditional family.”

Herman Cain sings an ode to pizza to the tune of “Imagine.”

Breaking news: There’s a gay man in Hollywood.

Robert Downey, Jr. goes out on a limb for Mel Gibson, returning a favor.

Hank Williams Jr. has offered an apology for calling the Obama administration “the enemy” and comparing the president to Hitler: