Far-right, religious zealot and GOP hack Ben "Larry Craig was framed" Stein has finally been purged from the New York Times:

Ben Stein's TV ads for a scuzzy "free" credit product have finally caught up to him: The New York Times has fired Stein as a Sunday business columnist for violating ethics guidelines.

Stein was pilloried online for his endorsement of the bait-and-switch operation, which offers a free credit score but charges an outrageous $30 per month to see the credit report behind the score. As Reuters blogger Felix Salmon pointed out, consumers can get a free online report under federal law.

The Times' issue, though, is that Stein has violated its ethics policy, which states "it is an inherent conflict for a journalist to perform public relations work, paid or unpaid." Salmon blogged about that issue, too. It's surprising that it hasn't come up until now; Stein has been a regular contributor to the Times for four years, and is quite recognizable to TV audiences. After playing a high-school teacher in the 1986 movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off (R.I.P. John Hughes), Stein went on to host two shows on Comedy Central, including the Emmy-award-winning Win Ben Stein's Money, and a show on VH1. He also frequently appeared in cameo roles on sitcoms like Seinfeld.
Read on...

Stein?....Stein?....Stein?....

You can view this video right here by getting the latest version of Flash Player!

DOWNLOADS: 168

PLAYS: 35

(Psychedelic Furs - Quintessential 80's)

A sort of homage to the passing of John Hughes tonight. I remember what impact his films had on that decade, more or less defining yet another generation of misunderstood youth - but not in a malevolent way. The music changed too - the rough edge of Punk smoothed out and New Wave took center stage, at least for a while.

One of those bands that seemed to epitomize the 80's was Psychedelic Furs. Maybe because you couldn't think of "Pretty In Pink" without thinking of them, or of Molly Ringwald, or both for that matter.

I dug this BBC Transcription out, a Radio One concert from May 28, 1984 featuring an hour with The Psychedelic Furs recorded live at The Hammersmith Odeon.

A visit to the 80's seemed like a good thing to do tonight.

The film world suffered a tragic loss with the passing of John Hughes earlier today, and I'd argue that the music world did as well. So many great songs of the eighties are inextricably linked to his films; "Don't You Forget About Me by Simple Minds" (The Breakfast Club), "True" by Spandau Ballet (Sixteen Candles), and even that "Oh Yeah" song in Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

It was hard to pick one to feature, but the title song of the Hughes-penned Pretty in Pink by the Psychedelic Furs wins out for me.

Thanks for the films, John, and thanks for the music.