Our friends at ego trip count Jay-Z's comments to CNN Monday as the fourth example of a notable rapper to have "publicly voiced some progressive opinion on the issue." (After Chuck D, El-P and Fat Joe.) But there have been more! 50 Cent, Eminem, Prodigy, ASAP Rocky and Lil B have, too. And N.O.R.E, who last year told XXL magazine, “If a gay person bothers you, that’s because they know something about you that you don’t know about yourself yet… Nobody should really care what happens in someone else’s bedroom… That’s their lifestyle. It doesn’t bother me. I live my lifestyle my way. It doesn’t bother me.”

"Jean-Michel only wanted drugs, sex, and rock n’ roll. He didn’t have no science. He didn’t know what to talk to no critics and if he wanted to talk he didn’t have enough to say. When I talk everybody tells me to be quiet. [laughs] Do you know why? Because I have information that comes to you either from [science], or it’s from something that comes from other people – from my peer group. Whether it came down to rap music, hip-hop music – which is slightly different, or whether it comes to break dancing. After the fight and everything like that then everybody tried to say I was [...]

The always lovely Stephen Fry, who will play the Master of Laketown in Peter Jackson's upcoming movie version of The Hobbit, has spoken out against Hollywood producer Saul Zaentz, who owns the worldwide merchandising rights to the original book and is threatening legal action against a Southampton pub of the same name. (Jackson licensed the rights from Zaentz.) The Hobbit the pub has been open as such since 1989, offering live music, Caribbean barbecue (?) and drink specials like The Gandalf, The Bilbo and The Gollum at a 50 pence discount with the display of a "One Card To Bind Them All" loyalty card. "Sometimes [...]

"The Occupy movement was smart in not formulating an explicit program, as I’ve said in other interviews. Once you issue a list of demands in the dominant media-political discourse you then get pigeonholed as an interest group. Then it becomes a question of 'what do the Occupy people want?' And 'will they be satisfied by x?' You saw that even in the media headlines of the Obama birther movement — which was insane — but after the White House released Obama’s long form birth certificate, which in evidentiary ways should close all arguments, the media came back and said, 'Will this satisfy the birthers?' That’s not the question. Who the [...]

“It’s astounding to me that the president is claiming these are recess appointments and within his authority, when Congress was not in fact in recess. These appointments are an affront to the Constitution. No matter how you look at this, it doesn’t pass the smell test. I hope the House considers my resolution as soon as we return to Washington so we can send a message to President Obama.” —Rep. Diane Black (R-TN) makes what Jonathan Bernstein calls "the best self-refuting argument ever."

"He is not like Hitler, who had the courage to kill himself." —Finally, something that is not like Hitler.

“We’re not talking about the smell of Indian food. It’s carcinogens.” —New York City journalist "Jane" complains about the odor of cigarette smoke emanating from the apartment next door to her "1,000-square-foot one-bedroom condo in a posh Upper East Side doorman building."

Awl pal Spencer Ackerman has some thoughts about Beltway culture.

Poor David Sedaris! The recent "truth in journalism" dust-ups—John D'Agata's bizarre book written with a former fact-checker, and the "This American Life" episode-long retraction of Mike Daisey's "The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs"—has given everyone a chance to call Sedaris a liar. But it's okay that he is! Sometimes. Wait, is it? Not really. Let's see what everyone thinks about David Sedaris.

"We won't be reforming this week. Maybe if the government stepped down. If this government stepped down, I'll reform the band. How's that? That's a fair trade, isn't it? I think the country would be better off, don't you? I'll do it if the coalition steps down." —Johnny Marr has issued his ultimatum on a Smiths reunion. Here's hoping British Prime Minister David Cameron is as big a fan of the band as he claims to be.

"The thing to be in 1983 is handsome."

“I apologize for any offense my remarks caused. It was a dumb way of expressing myself. Everyone who knows me knows that I don’t have a prejudiced bone in my body. But as a storyteller I should have been much more thoughtful about the power of language and my choice of words.” —Director Brett Ratner is sorry he said that "rehearsal's for fags."

"Texas Gov. Rick Perry turned his rhetorical fire on Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke here Monday night, saying that the chairman would be committing a 'treasonous' act by ordering the printing of more money." —That would the same Texas Gov. Rick Perry who suggested that his state could secede from the union during his 2010 re-election campaign.