There are two interesting things that came out of John McCain's last appearance on The O'Reilly Factor. One, he clearly lied about voting for Bush in 2000. Arianna Huffington said earlier this week that he told a table full of guests at a dinner they had together that he did not vote for Bush in the 2000 general election. Since then, there have been four other witnesses that corroborated Huffington's story to The Washington Post, New York Times and LA Times.

That's part of the reason why McCain looks and sounds so nervous below, which leads to the second interesting point. He has entered the maniacal laughter competition with Hillary Clinton. His laugh below is so forced and awkward that it's a little painful to look at. So, check out the video below and then tell us who has the weirder laugh, McCain or Hillary:




So, who gets your vote?

Young Turks on You Tube or Watch the Whole Show Here

Okay, maybe "boy band" is pushing. It's more like a "man band." But they sound great.

This pitch-perfect insta-hit is the first single from Hardly News, the newest best online source for news -- starring among others, my longtime friend, Renaissance Man Vance DeGeneres.

Steve Wilder of Omaha Nebraska woke up suffocating due to complications from throat cancer. The radiation treatments he received years ago resulted in scar tissue, which Wilder says left him with a "shrunken throat." But he decided to take matters into his own hands when he grabbed a steak knife and made a quarter-inch incision that saved his life. Watch the video for more details!

Nan Mooney wrote a piece for Babble this week about moving back home with her parents when she got pregnant. Only she's not a member of the Spears family. She's in her late thirties and a published author.

But she didn't have a partner or a child-friendly job, so she decided to give herself time to not have to worry about rent and her parents time with their new grandson.

The only problem: she started to feel like a teenager again, and not in the good way.

Since 1964 Benihana has defined "Eatertainment." There are 80 restaurants world-wide. (Strangely there are more Benihanas in Venezuela than in Canada! And only one in Japan. Romania also has one.)

Clay Aiken is a longtime devotee of Benihana's. We spoke a lot about the Claymate phenomenon, which extends to Japan, where fans naturally are called Claysians. (Fans in Kuala Lumpur are Maclaysians, which sounds a little fast food-y.)

Much of our chat, which included a discussion of Pan-Claysian cuisine, didn't make it into the video below. Still I hope you enjoy...

In the video below we explain the main two strategic errors that the Clinton team made. We also talk about the third reason they lost -- their frame of mind. Find out what their two big mistakes were and how their arrogance cost them this election:




Here is the Time magazine article I referenced in the video above.

Young Turks on You Tube or Watch the Whole Show Here

Peter Singer is a calm, lucid and able debater, and our debate at Biola University in Los Angeles on April 25 was lively and hard-fought. Not for nothing is Singer considered a world-class philosopher and advocate. You can watch the debate here.

Singer praised me for not simply making assertions of faith or hurling Bible passages at him but rather for using reason and argument to make my case . And I complimented Singer for stepping, so to speak, into the lion's den. (Biola actually stands for Bible Institute of Los Angeles.) Unlike the pusillanimous Richard Dawkins, who doesn't dare to debate me even at his home campus of Oxford, Singer was brave to come to a Christian campus to dispute the resolution "God: Yes or No." The audience of 3,000 was mostly though not exclusively Christian.

So perhaps atheism has found an able advocate. But unbelievers may want to think twice before lining up behind Singer, who argues in favor of infanticide, euthanasia and (this is not a joke) animal rights! One of Singer's interesting proposals concerns what may be called "fourth trimester" abortions, i.e. the right to kill one's offspring even after birth!

Here are some choice Singer quotations on the subject which I get from his books Rethinking Life and Death and Writings on an Ethical Life.

On how mothers should be permitted to kill their offspring until the age of 28 days: "My colleague Helga Kuhse and I suggest that a period of twenty-eight days after birth might be allowed before an infant is accepted as having the same right to life as others."

On why abortion is less morally significant than killing a rat: "Rats are indisputably more aware of their surroundings, and more able to respond in purposeful and complex ways to things they like or dislike, than a fetus at ten or even thirty-two weeks gestation."

On why pigs, chickens and fish have more rights to life than unborn humans: "The calf, the pig, and the much-derided chicken come out well ahead of the fetus at any stage of pregnancy, while if we make the comparison with a fetus of less than three months, a fish would show more signs of consciousness."

On why infants aren't normal human beings with rights to life and liberty: "Characteristics like rationality, autonomy and self-consciousness...make a difference. Infants lack these characteristics. Killing them, therefore, cannot be equated with killing normal human beings."

In my opening statement I showed the profound connection between Singer's Darwinian atheism and his advocacy of infanticide and euthanasia. Remarkably Singer responded by saying he didn't come to debate his bioethical views! Rather, he wanted the debate to focus exclusively on the question of whether God exists or not. I didn't want this to be a debate in which Singer and I ended up talking on completely different subjects, so I engaged him on his chosen ground.

Even so, I was disappointed that Singer wouldn't stand up for the opinions that have made him famous, or infamous. Our topic resolution was broad enough to permit a discussion both of the existence of God and also of the social implications of the theist and the atheist positions. I view Singer's work as exploring the consequences of living in a truly secular society, devoid not only of the Christian God but also of Christian morality.

So while Christianity introduced into Western civilization the concept of dignity of human life, Singer explicitly says we have to get rid of this outdated concept. He contends that God is dead and we should recognize ourselves as Darwinian primates who enjoy no special status compared to the other animals. In the animal kingdom, after all, parents sometimes kill and even devour their offpsring. Singer argues that the West can learn from the other cultures like the Kalahari where children are routinely killed when they are unwanted, even when they are several years old.

Some of Singer's critics call him a Nazi and compare his proposals to Hitler's schemes for eliminating the unwanted, the unfit and the disabled. But as I note in the debate, Singer is no Hitler. He doesn't want state-sponsored killings. Rather, he wants the decision to kill to be made by you and me. Instead of government-conducted genocide, Singer favors free-market homicide.

Given the connection that Singer draws between atheism and child murder, using the former as his premise to recommend the latter, I wonder if our atheist friends are going to rush to embrace this guy as one of their heroes. Is Singer showing us where the road to complete secularism actually leads?

The author of this Boston Globe article has a new way of mapping the U.S. Rather than looking at topography or industry, he looked at personality types, specifically these five: agreeableness, conscientiousness, extroversion, neuroticism and openness to experience.

Then he mapped the personality tests his team did across the country and voila! All regional stereotypes are scientifically proven to be true! For example, the map at right is of neurotics. (That would be our hometown in the heart of the storm.)

Here's what he says about the rest of the country:

Iron Man vs. Made of Honor: Seems more lopsided than Obama vs. Clinton. What would it take for you (all of you, not just superdelegates) to choose Made of Honor at the multiplex?

Pope Benedict is eager to reach more young people, so he's embracing new technology, including social networking and text messaging.

According to this Reuters article: The Pope will text daily messages of inspiration and hope during the six-day Sydney event while digital prayer walls will be erected at event sites and the church will set up a Catholic social networking Web site akin to a Catholic Facebook.

Wow is he going to get a lot of friend requests. But if he really wants to reach today's kids, he should start talking like them. For his first text, may we suggest: "Jesus luvz u. For realz."

We just cleaned out our week's inbox, and here's what we learned: Most of you think the drinking age should stay where it is; kids should be taught moderation; and that incest cellar guy should be, let's see . . . ah yes: "tortured until he is dead."

Thanks for sharing! And thanks in particular to the reader who posted this insightful comment: "Ada makes such common sense it is hard to imagine those who disagree with her having any." It's probably some relative of ours in disguise, but hey, we'll take it!

This video is an awareness test. See if you can get the right answer to the question they ask:





Young Turks on You Tube and Young Turks on Young Turks

The Smoking Gun has all the icky details of a sexual harassment suit against The Weather Channel.

A former anchorwoman, Hillary Andrews, claims her co-anchor, Bob Stokes, repeatedly propositioned her with classy lines like, "Will you lick my swizzle stick?"

Then, says TSG: When she rebuffed his advances, Andrews charged, Stokes's "hostility and volatility became a constant" and he sought to "sabotage" her on-air performance and even resorted to insulting her during live shows.

We got a link to the new Obama Girl video and were thinking, didn't we just post one of these? Let's skip this one. And then we saw scary, scary Mike Gravel trying to rap in it and were like, oh, let's definitely skip this one. But then "Soulja Boy" came on and watching Mike Gravel do the "Soulja Boy" dance made us realize we're not the worst person in the world at it. (Here's an instructional video if you want to feel good about yourself too.) Crank that!

Portland, Oregon, is living up to its reputation as an alternative-culture mecca with this new city-wide art commission: "The Acupuncture Project."

The website (full of pretty images of locations with 23-food-tall "needles" stuck in them) explains the project:

"Think of the city as a body the way traditional Chinese medicine does-- not only as a physical entity but also as a system of energy that flows in distinct pathways called meridians. The energy, or Qi, needs to be in balance. If a person's Qi is out of balance, disease can set in. The same could be true for a city. This project explores the junction between art, regional planning, the environment, Asian medicine and the health of a city."