Bloomberg reports that U.S. consumer confidence is almost back to pre-recession levels. But is that actually good news? Over at the Big Picture, James Bianco says it’s not clear why “consumer confidence” is a useful metric. It’s not correlated with jobs. Or retail sales. Or anything except recent stock-market headlines: Read full article > >

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‘The world’s most useless economic statistic’

O n the evening of Oct. 4, 1990, Newt Gingrich and his then-wife, Marianne, were enjoying a VIP reception at a Republican fundraiser when they were suddenly hustled over to have their picture taken with President George H.W. Bush. “I thought it was a bad idea,” Gingrich said in a series of interviews in 1992 that have not been previously published. Read full article > >

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In his debut in Washington’s power struggles, Gingrich threw a bomb

MEXICO CITY — Hours after his capture, authorities paraded the alleged mass murderer Oscar Osvaldo Garcia before the news media to have his picture taken. This performance — called “the presentation” — is an almost daily ritual in Mexico. What is new: Mexican law enforcement officers are increasingly bolstering these high-profile “perp walks” with edited video clips of the accused confessing their crimes on camera. In Mexico, the bad guys are allowed to say they want a lawyer. Instead, they say, “I killed 600 people.” Read full article > >

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For Mexico’s accused criminals, made-for-TV confessions

The male pronghorn stood perfectly still, as if posing for the Jeepful of tourists madly snapping his picture. We were marveling at his regal stature, the graceful U-shaped horns, when . . . “He’s pooping!” exclaimed my friend Amanda. “Right in front of us! That’s very rude,” quipped our fellow tourist Harriet Coorssen. Of course, here in Custer State Park’s backcountry, the animals don’t have to mind their manners. This is their turf — all 71,000 acres of it. Luckily, the Buffalo Safari Jeep Tour goes into the heart of that territory, showing you pronghorn, deer, bighorn sheep, mountain goats and, of course, the star attraction — buffaloes. The wildlife reserve is home to roughly 1,300 of the shaggy beasts, one of the biggest publicly owned herds in the world. I’m an animal lover, so the buffalo adventure was the first activity I booked when Amanda and I decided to spend four days exploring the Black Hills of South Dakota in July. Read full article > >

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The Impulsive Traveler: Shuffling off to see the buffalo in South Dakota’s Black Hills

Is Michele Bachmann losing her buzz? The Minnesota congresswoman, fresh off her victory in the all-important Ames Straw Poll, seems to have gotten lost in the shuffle in recent days. Rather than getting a bump from her big win, she’s been getting bumped out of the picture by Texas Gov. Rick Perry . A look at the Twitter statistics tells the story. While the terms “Rick Perry” and “Michele Bachmann” were getting roughly the same number of mentions throughout July, Perry has taken off in August in a way that Bachmann hasn’t. He has had more than 4,000 mentions each day of this week, while Bachmann cracked 2,000 mentions just once – the day she won the straw poll. (A comparison of “Perry” and “Bachmann” yields a similar gap.) Read full article > >

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Bachmann and the buzz factor

The Oscars will return with a new twist in 2012. After backlash regarding its whopping 10 Best Picture nominees two years ago, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has implemented new voting rules, which could result in anywhere from five to…

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Oscar Best Picture Category Revised

Daren Palmer was the picture of success in his Idaho Falls hometown, but he faces prison for a $78 million Ponzi scheme.

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A Fraud Played Out on Family and Friends

Do me a favor: As you read this, pretend you have a small, computer-mouse-shaped device in your hand, and pretend there’s a dial attached to it. When you’re enjoying what you’re reading, pretend to turn the dial up, clockwise. And when you’re not, turn it down — that’s counterclockwise. This is what we do in Hollywood when we have a television show or a film ready to be released: We send it to a facility — sometimes in the hot and dusty San Fernando Valley, sometimes in the glitzy and dissipated Las Vegas — and we show the picture to a bunch of demographically precise Americans. For a small amount of cash, plus pizza, they sit in a dark room with a dial apparatus and watch something that has taken millions of dollars and months to produce. This is called pilot season, and it’s happening now. The goal is to find out which shows might eke out some success when the fall season kicks off. If the process sounds vaguely familiar, that’s probably because it is. In politics, this is called a primary. Read full article > >

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The Republicans’ fall lineup: Who will win the ratings war?

Dear Heloise: I enjoyed the picture of Murphy on the fax machine (a previous Pet Pal — Heloise). I would like to share my experience with my cat, Lizzy, lying on my copying machine. I went to my copier to make copies, and they were coming out light and missing sections of the print. Naturally, I suspected my ink cartridge and replaced it. But the copies looked the same.

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Hints From Heloise: Copy cat

Did you miss the Oscar telecast? Or maybe you watched it and are itching to relive some of your favorite moments from the show. Either way we’ve got you covered. Your friends at Fandango scoured the internet to locate some of the most memorable moments from the 2011 Academy Awards, including a real funny opening sketch inside Alec Baldwin’s dream, the much-talked-about autotuning mash-up segment and a Best Picture montage to end all Best Picture montages. Check out some of the highlights from last night’s show below and let us know what your favorite moment from this year’s Oscar ceremony was. Read More Read Comments

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Oscar Videos: Opening Number, Autotuning Montage, Best Picture Montage and More

IN LOS ANGELES “The King’s Speech,” a stirring British costume drama about King George VI’s struggle with a speech impediment and the challenges of leadership at the dawn of mass media, won Best Picture and three other prizes Sunday night at the Academy Awards.

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‘King’s Speech’ as film wins Best Picture Oscar

IN LOS ANGELES “The King’s Speech,” a stirring British costume drama about King George VI’s struggle with a speech impediment and the challenges of leadership at the dawn of mass media, won Best Picture and three other prizes Sunday night at the Academy Awards.

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‘King’s Speech’ as film wins Best Picture Oscar

We’re comfortably settling in to 2011 and putting 2010 behind us, but with the Oscar ceremony approaching (watch it live on ABC this February 27th) now might be a good time to refresh your memory of which films were the best of 2010, and what it is about them that made us fall head over heels in the first place. The good folks at MovieClips.com have pieced together a great mash-up featuring the best films of 2010 by highlighting some of their most memorable scenes. We have clips from Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (not in the hunt for Best Picture, but an obvious 2010 fan favorite that was sadly overlooked at the box office), Inception, Black Swan, 127 Hours, The King’s Speech, Toy Story 3, True Grit and more. Check out the mash-up below and let us know which film from 2010… Read More Read Comments

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Before the Oscars, Watch This Best of 2010 Mash-Up

You may think this is just another picture of Leonardo DiCaprio hanging around, looking suave (and maybe it is), but it’s also a pic of Leo on the set of his new movie, J. Edgar, in which he plays legendary law man J. Edgar Hoover. These aren’t official photos from the set, but they were taken during production as Leo stepped out for a smoke. The film, which is being directed by Clint Eastwood, will track Hoover throughout his career highlights with appearances from Naomi Watts (playing Hoover’s secretary Helen Grady), Armie Hammer (Hoover’s right-hand man and possible lover, Clyde Tolson), Ed Westwick (playing Agent Smith, who was hired to write Hoover’s biography) and Josh Lucas (as aviator Charles Lindbergh).

Pete Wehner has launched another of his intemperate attacks on the American patriot Glenn Beck. This latest scurrilous attack was prompted by Beck’s criticism of Bill Kristol, a Wehner ally and an advocate, like Wehner, of a worldwide Muslim caliphate. (To be sure, Wehner and Kristol have spoken out against a worldwide Muslim caliphate, but I have proof, which I will reveal at a later date, perhaps on the next-to-last day of the Mayan calendar, that Wehner and Kristol are Ottoman restorationists, as well as thespians and mohels.) Wehner, in his blog on the jihadist magazine Commentary’s website, writes: Beck lectures Kristol on the dangers of “getting into bed with dictators.” It’s “really something the left does and not something the right should do.” But of course Bill’s position on Egypt is that America ought to get out of bed with dictators. That’s the main point of Kristol’s editorial, after all. And whether you agree with Kristol or not, he has been a strong advocate for the so-called Freedom Agenda, which argues that in the past the United States, in opting for “stability” over liberty in the Middle East, has gotten neither. Wehner then goes on to disparage Beck’s acute understanding of world politics, which he suggest is both “feverish” and “conspiratorial.” Oh, Mr. Wehner, what you don’t understand! Here is Beck on the coming collapse: Morocco — important, significant al-Qaeda activity. The king has been battling. But if you go back here, you have – - remember, this is Iraq. Look at what you’re surrounded by. Iraq is really important, especially to the Shiites, especially to the Twelvers who are in charge of this country right now. Because what is in Iraq? There’s one place that we told our bombers not to bomb. Does anybody know what it was? Two wars in Iraq. We said no bombing there. Ancient Babylon. Ancient Babylon. Why? Because the Bible tells us that that is the seat — right here — of power of a global, evil empire. Well, that’s also where the 12th imam from Iran is supposedly going to show up. Everybody on this side wants ancient Babylon for their caliphate. He goes on: Turkey was originally the seat of the Ottoman Empire, the last caliphate. It’s now modern day Turkey. It has Islamist government that is moving aggressively pro-Iran, anti-Israel. Saudi Arabia, God help them, I don’t know what happens to those guys. And the Gulf States are all nearly defenseless and tiny, all of them, throw them in. Do you have it? Now, what happens? You move over to Asia and grab the ones — once this dominoes starts to fall and the Muslims start to see oh, my gosh, we might have a caliphate. We might be able to have Islam impose Sharia law all over the globe. You start to lose all of Asia. Now, let’s go up this way, shall we? Turkey’s prime minister came out and supported today the Egypt protesters. Morocco. Morocco — if Morocco flips, it puts pressure on Portugal and Spain. It could close off the Strait of Gibraltar, which is right here. We all know how weak this entire area. The Iberian Peninsula is very weak. What about this don’t you understand, Mr. Wehner? Is it not shockingly clear to you? Glenn Beck has performed a great service for us, by highlighting the weakness of the Iberian Peninsula (the foremost challenge facing American policymakers at this moment, obviously)  and the role ancient Babylon will play in the coming campaign for the worldwide imposition of Muslim law. Combine this trenchant analysis of Muslim politics with his recent attempt to highlight the pernicious work of the nine most evil people in world history, eight of whom, entirely coincidentally, are Jewish , and you should begin to get the picture. Of course, the conspiracy goes deeper than Beck has yet revealed; I’m hoping that, in coming days, if the Freemasons, working in concert with Hezbollah and the Washington Redskins, don’t succeed in suppressing the truth, that Beck will reveal the identities of the most pernicious players in this grotesque campaign to subvert our way of life. I can’t reveal too much here, but I think it’s fair to say that Beck will be paying a lot of attention in the coming weeks to the dastardly, pro-caliphate work of Joy Behar; tthe makers of Little Debbie snack cakes; the 1980s hair band Def Leppard; Omar Sharif; and the Automobile Association of America. And remember, you read it here first.

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Glenn Beck Is Right