Southern California is being ravaged by fires. In one of the most damaged areas, Yorba Linda, 113 homes have been destroyed. Forecasters predict calming winds in the upcoming weeks.

Dallas Mavericks owner, Mark Cuban, has taken a page out of the McCain-Palin playbook, and is living up to his organization’s moniker. Cuban has been accused of insider trading by the SEC because of his recent moves on the market.

Cross burnings. Schoolchildren chanting “Assassinate Obama.” Black figures hung from nooses. Racial epithets scrawled on homes and cars. From California to Maine, police have documented a range of alleged crimes, from vandalism and vague threats to at least one physical attack. Insults and taunts have been delivered by adults, college students and second-graders. Looks like…

Obama Round-Up Cory Booker: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cory-booker/barack-obama-is-elected-p_b_142499.html “Obama’s Elected — Now What?” Frank Rich: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/16/opinion/16rich.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&oref=slogin “GOP Evokes Apartheid”      Hutchinson: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/earl-ofari-hutchinson/obama-assassination-jitte_b_144063.html “Assassination Jitters” Ruben Navarrette: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/16/opinion/16rich.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&oref=slogin “Did Affirmative Action Affect Election?” Robinson: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/11/obamas_win_changing_social_att.html “Bad Day for Comedians” Hitchens: http://www.slate.com/id/2204240/ “Barack to Reality” Terrence Heath: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/terrance-heath/first-you-get-mad_b_143975.html “On Prop 8: Get Mad” David Remnick: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/11/17/081117fa_fact_remnick “The Joshua Generation” John…

Early into British filmmaker Danny Boyle’s most excellent, Slumdog Millionaire, we see Jamal, our plucky hero—all of 8 years old—dive feet first into the depths of a steaming Mumbai outhouse, only to emerge, crowing and covered in excrement, triumphantly clutching the object of his worship: a photo of Amitabh Bachchan, India’s biggest movie star. A…

Everyone’s wondering how the new presidential children, Sasha and Malia, will survive the cloistered, scrutinized life of the White House. In fact, in a Daily Beast interview today, FDR’s grandson Curtis Roosevelt—who spent a dozen of his childhood years living there—said, “I hope the Obama children are sufficiently prepared to have some grounding and some…

Going on stage to sing is like stepping into a perfect world. The past means nothing. Worries about the future do not exist. All that matters is the music. I live for this…. My voice is heard by the people when I speak about the evils that are strangling South Africa. Every day there is…

In an ideal world, you’d turn the camera on Bernie Mac and just let him do his thing, unhampered by the vagaries of script and plot, of character development and narrative cohesion. The Mac Man was at his best when he could riff, all bug-eyes and righteous apoplexy, whipping himself into a crescendo of carefully…

You don’t have to have firsthand memories of the T-formation or of the American Football League to recall vividly when the regular season game between the New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts amounted to a playoff preview. These two teams meet on Sunday night, but anyone calling it postseason precursor is either wildly optimistic or…