The Republican presidential debate this Wednesday featured all the candidates, but somehow it became a two person throw-down: former frontrunner Mitt Romney versus new guy Rick Perry.  Mitt Romney was a well-acknowledged favorite for the Republican nomination until about a month ago, when Texas Governor Rick Perry came charging into the race. At the debate, Romney talked about his plan to boost jobs, and Perry attacked Social Security, calling it a “monstrous lie” and a Ponzi scheme. A third, unlikely, leader also emerged during the debate: the former Governor of Utah Jon Huntsman, who acted calm, cool and collected throughout. Of course, you can’t put sparring politicians in a room without at least one dramatic event. On Wednesday, this came during a commercial break, when Perry approached Rep. Ron Paul and got all up in his grill: Paul’s supporters are saying Perry assaulted their guy, but Paul says no such thing happened. Bummer. Read More »

Today marks the 10th anniversary of 9/11 and we wanted to honor the tragedy by reflecting on our personal experiences about where we were and what we felt when we first heard about the attack. Several of our writers contributed their stories and we welcome you to share yours in the comments below.

I didn’t really understand what was going on — I was in the middle of a 3rd grade spelling test. I thought my little friend was totally feeding me shit — after all, what third grader can believe that something so big could crumble so easily? – Leah

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I feel like I’ve been reading really long, heavy books lately and I was ready for a change. It’s not that they’re not good (on the contrary, they’ve been great!), it’s just that they really weigh down my beach bag and I needed a book that didn’t leave deep, red grooves in my shoulder. I searched my local library (yes, I still use the public library and I LOVE IT. Who doesn’t love FREE STUFF?) high and low for a short, YA read. And I found a fantastic one!

“Love is the Higher Law” is by David Levithan, one of my favorite young adult authors (cha-ching!) and takes its name from U2 lyrics I’ve always loved (double cha-ching!). David is a lifelong New Yorker, who was obviously deeply affected by the tragic events of 9/11. He decided to write this book both as a way to get out his emotions over that traumatic day, and also because he doesn’t think there are enough books about it. Not that he thinks people should abuse a tragedy for the sake of literature, of course, but because he wanted to make sure that day was preserved so in the future, children who were babies in 2001 can read a primary account of what happened.

The novel focuses on three main characters – Claire, Jasper and Peter – and switches between their points of view. They are all loosely intertwined, but become much closer after 9/11. The book goes through how each of the three experience the day and then also how it changes them after. Claire is in her high school class when the planes hit and runs to her little brother’s elementary school. Afterward, she can’t return home for a week and finds herself wandering the streets of New York late at night, looking for reasons and hope. Jasper slept through the whole thing. His parents were in Korea and so he is forced to deal with everything alone. Peter was in line to buy the new Bob Dylan album. All of them experience 9/11 in ways only a New Yorker can: Two pillars that figuratively held up their hometown have been destroyed and they question everything they knew and completely reassess. Read More »

Ok, we get it. Megan Fox is hot.

Is that Kim Kardashian?!

Is there such a thing as the middle-school 15?

50 Cent’s got some beef with Lil Wayne.

Look who’s official. My, my, my. What a surprise.

Pretty sure there are more appropriate ways to honor 9/11

New York remembers.

Don’t worry, this happy couple is still ON.

Taylor Swift: now that’s a role model.

Kick start your study habits.

Lady Gaga. Pantless. Again.

Narciso Rodriguez for eBay?

Wanna see Kate Gosselin naked?

John Mayer and Kristin Cavillari are dating?!

Cute boots. Cheap price. Yay Target!

Who’s excited for SATC 2?

Emma Watson starts at Brown. Stalkers abound.

Who needs 911 when you have Facebook?

As inauguration day approaches, President Bush is preparing to leave the White House, his home of far too long 8 years.

Earlier this morning, Mr. President held his final press conference as our Commander- In- Chief and I’m sure he has been reminiscing his time of service to our great country.

I wonder, though, what W.’s most memorable, thrilling moment was during his 8-year-reign of terror .

Could it be learning that our nation was under attack when the towers were hit on 9\11? No.

Maybe it was the rush of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina? Wrong.

Could it be that journalist chucking a shoe at him during a press conference? Uh uh.

Our President says that during his time in office he has never felt more anxious than he did when he…wait for it…threw the opening pitch at the 2001 World Series. At least this was his response when People Magazine asked him.

Now I know that Mr. President has be scrutinized almost from the moment he stepped into office – and I won’t lie, I’ve been one to cast a stone or two – but I always felt that the President of the mighty United States absolutely deserves some amount of respect. I mean, the man is running a country. He did the best he could in a sh*tty situation…I guess. Read More »

Women hear about bad things that happen to other women all of the time. But I, like many others, forget that these things could happen to me. Luckily, when I was kidnapped by a taxi driver on Friday night, I had my cell phone on me.

The phone only had battery power because I’d shut it off earlier that night when I saw it only had one bar. I thought to myself, “You don’t want to have a dead phone in case of an emergency.”

Thank god I thought that because six hours later, I was calling 911 on a taxi driver who refused to let me out of his car. I’d tried to use my debit card to pay for our ride, but he claimed his machine was not working. I requested to try again and he began to grow angry with me, shouting, “This is your problem! Not my problem!”

When I finally told the man that this was actually HIS problem, he child locked all of the doors in the car and sped off with me, screaming about how he would just take me to the police station. This was all quite baffling to me. After all, I had my card in my hand and was ready and willing to pay for the cab right there if his machine would work.

I tried everything I could to unlock the doors. They wouldn’t budge. I was pounding on the glass between the driver’s seat and mine. I put my head through the hole in the glass to tell him to stop the car and he raised his hand to hit me; luckily, I moved away. At this point, I grabbed my phone and called 911. Read More »

Once, when I in 6th grade and still innocent, I tried a piece of a pot brownie that a friend had stolen from her big brother. Upon swallowing, I became convinced I was high and sat down on the floor, steadying myself with my hands because “the world was spinning out of control.”

Yes, I was lame, but I was 12 and lived in suburbia. I was allowed.

But this guy…well…he really doesn’t have any excuse. Except maybe that he’s a douchebag.