Frank Rich at the Times on Obama’s condescendingly piecemeal approach to gay rights, forty years later.

… we should be happy that in 2006 science fiction pulled on its balaclava. Whether or not we can wring out the slightest sympathy for suicide bombers from Iraq or Palestine or Leeds, we should certainly be forced to try, if only to clarify our thinking. And while mainstream authors such as Updike and Amis and Rushdie have tried to take us into the mind of terrorists, they stopped short of what would have been far more disturbing and effective: making their plotters into likeable heroes and seducing us into a unwary emotional involvement with their struggle.

Only science fiction has gone that far, and for this — even more than for decrying the theft of our civil liberties — it deserves our rapt attention.

(Link via Colleen Mondor)

I remember seeing this call for submissions last year; I’m fiercely glad the project was successful.

She is an active senator who, like most members of Congress, has to be in Washington for part of most weeks. He is a former president running a multimillion-dollar global foundation.

… together, they fight crime!

Previously linked here: a new and more complete transcript of Colbert’s speech at the White House correspondents’ dinner.

The video of Colbert’s speech. (Plus a YouTube mirror of the video.)

Thank You Stephen Colbert — collecting signatures of thanks for Colbert’s “speaking truthiness to power,” as the site puts it.