Like we said... nothing to do with Miss California.

We are waiting for a couple of new pieces from our contributors, including an organic beer piece that we’ve literally been promising for years. Anyway, Ben just sent me an email and told me to stall, so in the meantime, here are five items that we thought deserved your attention.

1) The History Chanel is stepping away from its typical fair and airing 16 new programs including The Naturalized,  a special from Jon Stewart’s Busboy Productions. According to broadcastingcable.com the show will follow 8 people as they navigate their way through the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Busboy is known for producing The Colbert Report and Important Things with Demetri Martin. It’ll be interesting to see how they treat the material. Also, we hope it somehow becomes a platform to make Jim Cramer look like an asshole. You have to write what you know, right?

2) Speaking of documentaries and, ahem, assholes… Conservative politicians like our good friend “Crarry Laig” are the subject of a new film by This Film Is Not Yet Rated’s Kirby Dick. The film, which looks to out gay politicians who support anti-gay legislation, got a bit of free publicity this week when NPR spiked their review. The reason? NPR’s review made mention of the people featured in the film, which they deamed to be a violation of their privacy. Well Duh! You could have gotten that much from the poster. In a related note Charlie Crist is skipping a gubnatorial reelection bid to run for Senate. Either he is looking to make a run for president in 2012, or he is looking to get in on the hot beltway action. Nudge nudge wink wink.

Here is the trailer. Apparently people with blurry faces are all gay.

3) In Vauban, Germany 70 percent of families do not own cars. The reason? No street parking, driveways or garages. It is ok to own a car, but you have to park it in one of two garages on the outskirts of town. And besides, the streets are car-free anyway. To get around Vauban’s citizens use bikes or *gasp* public transit. It’s a bold model, but one that we hope catches on. It reminds me of when you get really far in Sim City and the only way to keep playing is to bulldoze all the roads and put in light rail. Actually, I guess that’s the idea exactly . We’re pumping our friend Carl for his thoughts on this and we hope to have more soon.

4) Ben found a blog post the theorizes that the CIA and the EU worked together to destabilize Iceland because of… um… Oil! Also because rabid anti-Semite and loony individual Bobby Fischer said so. Read it for yourself.

5) Sticking with crazy, here is a video of a couple of little kids in Japan beating up a zombie. I have no reason to make this up.

I’d say “Only in Japan!” but you know that FOX would do an entire series on Toddler Vs. Zombies in a second.

About The Author
Stirling is a writer and art director in New York City. He lives in Manhattan with his wife and daughter. The opinions expressed on this site are his own and do not necessarily represent those of his employer. He stresses that this last bit is very important. - Visit Stirling's site.