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Exploring The Camera-Ready

The way broadcast journalists and politicans present themselves to th epublic is explored in Tell Me What You Want ro Hear by Liz Magic Laser

Methadone Tastes Horrible: Anthony Bourdain's 10 Best AMA Responses on Reddit

Early yesterday afternoon, celebrity chef, author and TV star Anthony Bourdain popped into social news mega-site Reddit to do an informal Q&A session -- or AMA (Ask Me Anything in Reddit Speak) -- with the site's users. AMAs have fast become a popular tool for celebrities, newsmakers and even politi ... More >>

Guess Who Is Bringing Ted Nugent to the State of the Union Address?

Texas Rep. Steve Stockman, arguably the Tea Party's No. 1 advocate on Capitol Hill, has already had an eventful first term his second time in Washington. About three weeks ago, Stockman said he was ready to initiate impeachment proceedings against President Barack Obama if Obama's proposed gun-contr ... More >>

Texas Cattle Ranchers Face a Trifecta of Worrying Issues, Which Means Higher Beef Prices in 2013

This year will mark the 136th time the Cattle Raisers Convention has met, but it's in a climate that these cattlemen haven't battled for a long time. More than 2,500 ranchers and landowners are convening in Fort Worth this March to discuss a trifecta of issues that won't easily be solved. Ranchers ... More >>

Karma

To the media outed by the gun owner: You had it coming.

Build-A-Bar: A Byrrh By Any Other Name

First of all, a word on pronunciation. Ever since I requested a shot of "fur-neigh," I've made a habit of asking about pronunciation when ordering any new, especially foreign, ingredient. I've found that very few cocktail and spirit discussions bother with this, and while it's certainly not critical ... More >>

Alex Jones, Texas-Based Radio Host, Conspiracy Theorist Goes Ape Shit on CNN's Piers Morgan (with Video)

Every "9/11 was an inside job" conspiracy theorist's favorite radio host, Alex Jones, made an appearance on Piers Morgan Tonight on CNN Monday night after he launched a petition that has gained over 30,000 signatures to have Morgan deported back to England when the British news show host ripped into ... More >>

Special Best Of Edicion: Do Mexicans Cause the Closures of Hospitals?

And how many cases of leprosy come from Mexico per year?

To the Media Outed by the Gun Owner: You Had It Coming

To the Staff of the Journal News, When I read recently about how a gun owner published the names and addresses of many of you on a Web site in retaliation for you publishing the names and addresses of gun owners in your area, I have to admit my first reaction was, "Sucks to be you." I should note ... More >>

Bronco Bama For The Win: Your Election Night 2012 Live Blog & Comment Feed

"There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth or something I guess..." -- Luke 13:28, A Copy Of The Bible I Swiped From A Hotel Room Hello and welcome to Hair Balls' election night live blog and comment, where tonight I will be chronicling the mania of the 2012 presidential ... More >>

Speak Out: How Far Is Too Far When Musicians Talk Politics?

Imagine this: You go to a concert to see one of your favorite artists. Suddenly, mid-show, they start spewing political rhetoric. You disagree with their ideas, so you and many others leave. Free speech is something we claim to value in this country, but we are biased against opposing viewpoints. R ... More >>

Anthony Bourdain, Part 2: Layovers, Twitter, Ruth Bourdain and the Dangers of Boredom

Yesterday, we caught up with Anthony Bourdain -- chef, author, TV host, publisher and recent Texas barbecue convert. We talked about his love affair with Austin (he used the word "quirky" twice, if you're counting) and his disdain for Dallas Morning News critic Leslie Brenner, why restaurants servi ... More >>

Special Best Of Best Of Edition

Where Have All Our Heroes Gone?: The Four Saddest Fallen Idols of Our Generation

When we're kids, we'll look anywhere for idols and role models. Most often, we look to pop culture and we find our heroes there by way of idolizing whoever's work we enjoy the most. We copy them in the worst ways. We adopt their style of dress, their opinions on music, their viewpoints on the world ... More >>

Five Lessons Learned from Hurricane Isaac

The circus has finally left New Orleans as they begin their clean up after Hurricane Isaac dropped boatloads of rain on the Big Easy earlier this week. Despite some dire early warnings and a near-miss of the GOP convention in Tampa Bay, Isaac was fairly tame by hurricane standards. That didn't stop ... More >>

5 Simple Ways to Tell Hate Bands From Non-Hate Bands

(UPDATED) Burn the Lies: CNN Calls Hatebreed a "White Power" Act CNN caused an uproar earlier this week when it ran a hastily-slapped-together story on racist hate bands in knee-jerk reaction to Sunday's utterly reprehensible Sikh temple shooting in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. In the story, columnist Lon ... More >>

(UPDATED) Burn the Lies: CNN Calls Hatebreed a "White Power" Act

If you would have told me 15 years ago that CNN and Hatebreed would be butting heads, I wouldn't have believed you, but that's where we are in 2012. This week, in the wake of Sunday's tragic Sikh temple shooting in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, news outlets reported that gunman, Wade Michael Page, a 40-ye ... More >>

SCOTUS, Obamacare, CNN Effing Up: Supreme Court Decisions In The Twitterverse (UPDATED With Keen Rick Perry Insight)

If you were two seconds late posting your "BREAKING NEWS!" report of the Supreme Court decision largely upholding Obamacare, you were left in the dust and looking like a fool, fool. Hey, dude, tell us something we don't already know! You get your news by Pony Express? Harrumph. frowny face, etc etc ... More >>

Joe Bankson, Gena Charlton: Liberty Co. Couple Sues Media, Sheriff Over That Psychic-Inspired Search For Mass Graves

Remember last summer's sudden media hysteria about a large amount of children's graves on a Liberty County home? It was all inspired by a psychic who phoned the Liberty County Sheriff's Office, and, we think, some tipster in that office who gave out bad info that led outlets such as CNN to momentar ... More >>

Hank Schyma: Southern Backtones Singer Is Fearless Tornado Chaser

If you saw the dramatic footage out of North Texas Tuesday, hopefully from the safety of your living room or gathered around a TV at work, you know that weather events like those tornadoes can make pretty compelling television. And someone has to head straight into those storms to film all that vide ... More >>

Radio Blues

Ingredient of the Week: Dark Chocolate

First, a quick and dirty lesson on the varieties of chocolate: Unsweetened chocolate is all cacao and no sugar, making it incredibly bitter. It is also known as baking chocolate and is usually found in the baking aisle of grocery stores in the forms of blocks or bars. The sugar is added separat ... More >>

Death Penalty Is Going Out of Style, New Report Says

Texas is still doing its part​America, you just ain't the criminal-killin' place you used to be. A new report from the Death Penalty Information Center says that for the first time since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976, less than 100 executions took place in the U.S. There have bee ... More >>

UT Sports, George Greanias: The Turkeys of the Year Runners-Up

Almost, but not quite​Not everyone can be a winner. Not everyone can be such a loser that they become a Houston Press Turkey of the Year. But while we don't give out participation ribbons, we do think there were some candidates who only barely eked out our 2011 winners. So we salute these in ... More >>

Boom. Penn State Fires Joe Paterno (w/ a VIDEO chronology) & CNN Kicks ESPN's Butt

They are...Penn State​"Joe Paterno is no longer the head football coach, effective immediately." -- John Surma, Vice Chair, Penn State Board of Trustees Boom. Nothing is forever. We all knew there would be a day when Joe Paterno would no longer be the coach of the Penn State Nittany Lions. ... More >>

Liquor Treat: Using Leftover Halloween Sweets for Six Candy Cocktails

Photo by terren in VirginiaCandy overload. Must. Make. Cocktails.​Once Halloween has come and gone, I'm always left with a giant pile of Halloween candy. I have eaten it, tortured people by bringing it in to work, and baked it into all kinds of cakes and desserts. But this year, I plan on tryi ... More >>

C-SPAN Geeks Unite! The Bus Is Coming to Town!

The 2011 edition is coming!!​It takes a certain kind of nerd to admit it, but we will -- C-SPAN is on our regular, limited weeknight channel-clicking rotation. First, see if there's breaking news on CNN, then see if there's even a low-rent college football game, and then on to the glories of H ... More >>

Where Are We Eating?

Last week, we touched on the tasty goodness of arepas when we looked at CNN's list of the world's 50 most delicious dishes (and where you can find them in Houston). This week, we're spotlighting yet another place in town where you can find arepas. But does the arepa below look familiar to you? R ... More >>

CNN Goes In-Depth on Houston and Katrina

It's all about us.​CNN's series Defining America has taken a long look at Houston and its absorption of Katrina evacuees. "Houston, the sprawling, business-friendly oil city, has absorbed some of New Orleans, a compact mecca of music, merriment and food," the report says. One of the main sub ... More >>

Pop Rocks: The Time Has Come, The Walrus Said, To Feed Hugh Hefner To Sharks

Hef's gonna need a bigger boat.​As you may have heard, Shark Week kicks off Sunday on the Discovery Channel. The seven days of (decreasingly) informative marine documentaries and (increasingly) lurid reenactments of REAL LIFE ATTACKS and exposing DEADLY WATERS and what not provide a welcome br ... More >>

CNN Won't Answer Questions About Its Child-Sex Trafficking Crusade

​CNN reporter Amber Lyon has made a crusade out of trumpeting the "fact" that "100,000 to 300,000" children are enslaved into sex trafficking each year. As our sister paper the Village Voice pointed out, in a piece we ran in the print edition, those numbers are almost certainly a gross exagge ... More >>

Cruel Summer -- Andre Jones (1969-2011)

Notable deaths: They do come in threes sometime​In a recent blog post about Major League Baseball realignment, I expressed the following sentiment: The best memories for most sports fans are the ones that took place from their mid-teenage years through their late 20s. Generally, for most of u ... More >>

Gabrielle Giffords: What She Looks Like Now

Giffords: A CNN special on her recovery at TIRR airs Sunday.​Very few people have laid eyes on Gabrielle Giffords since the congresswoman was shot in January. She did appear, in a blurry fashion, in a long-distance shot as she boarded a jet at Ellington Field to go to her husband's shuttle li ... More >>

Shisha and Chardonnay

At Skewers, you can smoke, drink and eat classic Lebanese food.

Bin Laden's Favorite Performers -- Whitney Houston, MacGyver Dude, Etc. -- Offer Twitter Silence On His Death

Losing a big fan is apparently hard on Richard Dean Anderson​When you're no longer in the absolute prime of your career, it can be disheartening to lose a hardcore fan. That's the only reason we can think of that several specific stars haven't tweeted their thoughts on the death of Osama Bin ... More >>

April 29, 1992: Ten Songs About The L.A Riots

​It was 19 years ago today that the Los Angeles riots began after four white police officers, caught on videotape beating the African-American Rodney King after a drug-fueled high-speed chase, were acquitted by a Simi Valley, Calif. jury. The rest of the world watched in shock and sadness as ... More >>

Fix the Justice System

Readers weigh in on falsely accused John Kinsel.

Wall of Shame

CNN, USA Today, and other media organizations got fooled.

Cleveland Gang-Rape Coverage: Controversy Doesn't Die

A "clusterfuck of fail"?​The heat over media coverage of the Cleveland gang-rape doesn't show much signs of slacking, as critics question whether stories in The New York Times and Houston Chronicle displayed a "blame the victim" tone. A round-up of the latest (We've asked Chronicle editor Je ... More >>

Gabrielle Giffords: Get This Woman Toast STAT

Probably not the first thing we would have ordered​There's a breakthrough on Gabrielle Giffords's road to recovery in Houston: She wants toast. Okay, perhaps more important, she asked for it. With her voice. "It's very good news," Giffiords's spokesman C.J. Karamargin told CNN. Well, only i ... More >>

CNN Celebrates Houston's Brother-Filled Marine Batallion

CNN has a piece up that celebrates the 1st batallion of the 23rd Marine Regiment that's stationed at Ellington Field. The Texas reserve unit has gathered fame because it has five sets of brothers, as the Houston Chronicle reported a while back. The unit is set to deploy to Afghanistan soon, so kee ... More >>

Mexican Pop Singer Fights Rape Allegations, Racism

​The latest chapter in Mexican pop singer Kalimba's life saddens us for a number of reasons, but the possibility of never hearing his music again is not one of them. If you haven't heard, while recording his latest album in El Paso, Kalimba was held by the U.S. Border Patrol on suspicion of ... More >>

Gabrielle Giffords Coming to Houston

Gabrielle Giffords with her astronaut husband, Mark Kelly​CNN is reporting that family members say Rep. Gabrielle Giffords will be coming to Houston Friday to begin her long rehab process. The victim of the Tucson shootings will move to an unnamed facility here, but one with "military surgeon ... More >>

Animal Abuse: The Five Worst Houston Examples In 2010

Humans: Will you ever learn?​We like to think that animal abusers will not only get a lump of coal from Santa this time of year, but a pitchfork-in-the-ass from the Other Guy in Red as well. For those of you who like to keep tabs on just how low the human race can sink, here's a roundup of some of ... More >>

Juggalo Hijinks

A Facebook crime spree.

NFL -- Bob McNair's Delusion, Twitter Madness And The Weekend's Best Bets

Orange slices for the Texans!​"I wanted the team to know not only how close we think they are but how close our competitors think they are to being an outstanding team." -- Texans owner Bob McNair, presumably not being held at gunpoint nor under the influence of any drugs or alcohol What Bob ... More >>

State Rep Debbie Riddle's Magnum Opus (Of 96 Pages)

It is its own Cliff's Notes​Debbie Riddle, the state rep from Tomball who camped out in order to pre-file an Arizona-like immigration bill, and who is one of a triumvirate of Texas politicians to look utterly foolish being interviewed on CNN, has become a published author. Taking Back Your Co ... More >>

State Rep. Leo "Birther Bill" Berman: CNN With Another Texas Beatdown

Texas State Representative, Leo Berman, you have joined the hallowed ranks of Congressman Louie Gohmert and your colleague Debbie Riddle: You have been utterly humiliated on CNN. Berman, as we reported earlier, has introduced a "birther" bill in the Lege, demanding that no candidate can get a Texan ... More >>

An Ethiopian Breakfast at Sheba Cafe

Photos by Troy Fields​Whether you've grown tired of typical breakfast and brunch places, whether you're on the hunt for something exotic and new or whether you are simply interested in seeing traditional breakfast foods in a far different setting, breakfast at Sheba Cafe will suit you to a T. ... More >>