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Monday, December 12, 2011

2012 / Books / Nerd Your Newt Gingrich Roundup: Does This Make Glenn Beck Darth Vader?

Posted by Paul Constant on Mon, Dec 12, 2011 at 1:31 PM

1. Both Slate and Politico have pieces that point to Newt Gingrich's science-fiction roots. The Slate piece digs up an old interview with Gingrich in which he references high-profile atheist Richard Dawkins and quotes Frank Herbert's novel Dune. Politico revives the old nickname of "Newt Skywalker," which came from Gingrich's fascination with science and technology. He seems like the kind of guy who lovingly pores over every page of the Sharper Image catalog*, making cooing noises all the while.

2. This week's This Modern World has a nice roundup of some of the Gingrich scandals we'll all be talking about for the next few months.

3. Glenn Beck says if Newt Gingrich becomes the Republican nominee, he'd rather vote for Ron Paul as a third party candidate.

* Thanks to Tim Keck for the gag!

Comments (8) RSS

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for he is the kwisatz haderach!

Posted by Max Solomon on December 12, 2011 at 2:12 PM

Sharper Image went bankrupt, right? So Newty has to drool over Brookstone, Hammacher Schlemmer, or Skymall now. I'll bet he's really excited about this news: http://www.theonion.com/articles/brookst…

Posted by Fnarf

on December 12, 2011 at 2:15 PM

Glen Beck should avoid offending the few loyal followers he has. Republicans never forgive.

Posted by Vince on December 12, 2011 at 2:48 PM

Max that sounds like the Sapho talking.

Posted by Zander on December 12, 2011 at 2:58 PM

Sloggers, you disappoint me here. Dune is not an obscure book and you should have read it by now-seriously. Frank Herbert is arguably the most famous Sci-Fi writerWashingtong ever produced. What's more, Sapho is actually on our map. Tsk tsk lazy unread sloggers.

Posted by Zander on December 12, 2011 at 9:27 PM

Oh! Frank Herbert RULES! Not just the Dune series, but his other books, such as the Jesus Incident, The Lazarus Effect, The Dosadi Experiment, and The Godmakers. Amazing, thought-provoking stuff. Favorite author of all time. Period. Not so much for the sci-fi thing, but for his insight into human interaction and the motivations that drive us. Profound stuff.

Posted by Anonymous Artichoke on December 13, 2011 at 2:09 AM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sENMyIdrn…

DARTH NEWT

Posted by darth newt on December 15, 2011 at 8:34 AM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sENMyIdrn…

Watch for Darth Newt

Posted by darth newt on December 15, 2011 at 8:35 AM