One of the weirdest things in the very odd Mark Sanford story was Sanford's strange quoting of the Bible in emails to his "soul-mate," Maria Chapur. In between suggestive mentions of her tan lines and her two "magnificent" parts, Sanford suddenly waxed religious, writing, "I looked to where I often...

Attn: Gov. Mark Sanford
Re: Maria Chapur

Shut Up!

A rumor has been circulating that Michael Jackson had converted to Christianity shortly before his death, after a meeting with singers Andrae & Sandra Crouch, with whom he previously worked with on songs like Man In The Mirror.

Jackson was a member of the Jehovah's Witness sect for many...

A few years back, my pal, Hollywood veteran Michael Levine sent me this quote from the great American military man, General George Patton: "Take calculated risks. That is quite different from being rash." It was a game changer for me.

When I think of that quote, two other...

Steve McEveety is a Hollywood oddity: He's humble. I know. Weird. When his last film came out he identified himself as "a producer of The Passion of The Christ." But he wasn't a producer, but rather the producer.

As producer of the inspired-by rock soundtrack of that film who...

For the last several days I've watched the cable pundits argue back and forth about whether President Obama's strategy of staying on the sidelines of the Iranian Revolution was wise. When liberal pundits and Pat Buchanan argued that Obama's nuanced policy was just what was needed I was convinced they...

One of my earliest memories as a child was trying to understand what a Watergate was (it was something bad) and why an auto company, Ford, had its own administration and what that "Ford administration" was anyway. While most kids were playing with their model airplanes, I was thinking about...

David Kinnaman is an expert on what the devout among us think. As president of a polling outfit called The Barna Group, a California-based group that studies trends in religion and spirituality, he spends his time pouring over data, analyzing what we believe and why.

Kinnaman and his co-author...

The best thing about traveling abroad is that it reminds us as Americans how great our country is and how much we love it. I'm not talking about the really important things like freedom and the constitution and the bill of rights and all that, but the more mundane things-like...

Japan is about to wrap its second decade of being in a seemingly unrelenting economic funk. Tim Geithner is supposed to be a student of what Japan did wrong, but I can't help but shake the feeling that he's making the same mistakes they made.

The trains are full of...

Japan once had a thriving film industry... and then it didn't.... and now, thanks to filmmakers like my friend Kanjiro Sakura, it's coming back. Kanjiro has established himself in Japan as one of the country's top producers and his latest, Battle Under Orion, premieres in Japan this month. Recently...

Yesterday I was a guest on the John & Ken show on KFI, Southern California's most powerful radio station to talk about a piece I'd written about their role in the defeat of several of Governor Schwarzenegger's ballot initiatives. There are definitely parallels between what is happening today in California...

President Obama's Notre Dame speech-a plea for reconciliation, and a request that both sides in the abortion debate respect each other and work to limit abortions-was noteworthy for what it didn't contain: a defense of the basic right to abortion, a rationale for why it should remain legal and readily...

So, it looks like Angels & Demons is going to be a box-office dud this weekend, barely holding off Star Trek and taking in a little more than half in box office revenue what the Da Vinci Code did in its opening weekend.

This despite the desperate...

Some Americans remember where they were when President Kennedy was shot, while others remember the first time they saw the Beatles. I remember the first time I heard Rapper's Delight by the Sugar Hill Gang. Eric AKA The Fish Martin was the big man on campus and in the pre-Walkman...

Del Breckenfeld knows all about cool. He is the author of a recently published book called The Cool Factor and recently dropped by to be a guest on the Bully! Pulpit Show. I've known Del for some time because of his work at Fender Guitars where he is...

One of the things I like the most about America is that our Founding Fathers had such a clear understanding of human nature, which is to say they didn't trust it and set up a system of government with lots of checks and balances precisely because they didn't fully trust...

Hollywood Publicist/Author Michael Levine turned 55 the other day and somehow thought it would be a good idea to invite his friends over and have us roast him. He may be regretting that decision by now. The rolling party began on Friday night at the home of political commentator...

Last night I dropped by Molly Malone's to hear a few songs from a new friend named Joy Williams who is visiting L.A. with her husband, Nate Yetton from Nashville. Joy has been around the music scene for awhile, but is only 26 and has a bright future...

Last week I attended the OC Music Awards in Anaheim for the very first time and learned quite a bit about a music scene that has not gotten much press. Living in the shadow of Los Angeles, the OC has had a thriving music scene for years, I learned,...