The new issue of Doublethink is out, and, if I may say so myself, it has several excellent articles. Katherine Mangu-Ward has a brilliant essay called “The Virtuous Eater,” which simultaneously makes light and takes seriously the new ethics of eating locally, seasonally, and organically. Jason Mattera has a terrific profile of National Review’s Ramesh Ponnuru, exploring the softer side of the author of The Party of Death. Also, the magazine looks better than ever with its new cover design.

After you savor these tender filets of journalism, I hope you’ll consider taking out a subscription, this being the week of the magazine’s big subscription drive.

Here’s my tailored-to-Galley-Slaves-Readers Pitch: For only $17.60 a year you can strike a blow against liberal media bias by supporting Doublethink, a magazine that is training the new generation of libertarian and conservative journalists, not to spend their careers lingering in the right-wing ghetto, but to insert themselves into the mainstream. Alternatively, if you don’t think liberal media bias is that big a deal and all you want to see is good journalism, well, then for only $17.60 a year you can subscribe to a super magazine that rarely mentions liberal media bias because its writers are too busy reporting real stories.

Disclosure: In case you don’t know this, I happen to be the editor of Doublethink.

A brief interruption to plug the CATO Institute’s excellent new podcast center. This free service is brought to you by Galley Friend Anastasia Uglova, who not only is the tech wonder behind this venture, but who also voices the intros on the podcasts.

Visit early and often.

Today he reminds me why I fell in love with him, all over again:

Some people say no one in Hollywood has the courage to stand up for themselves. Some people don’t know Teri Hatcher. Page Six says:

“The actress left her longtime manager Eli Selden (a woman) last year during Selden’s fight with breast cancer. One source said: ‘Eli got her the role in ‘Desperate Housewives,’ and soon after that was diagnosed with breast cancer and fought it valiantly.’ One source says Hatcher ‘left Eli because she told her, ‘You can’t focus on me right now during this important time in my life…’ “

It’s about time someone stood up to those pricks with cancer. It’s always me, me, me with those people. I need kemo, I want to live, MY bone marrow is low. I don’t know if they’re just fishin for compliments or what, but it’s really unattractive. And Teri Hatcher doesn’t have time for such selfish antics. If they didn’t want to die so bad, they should have become a leather mummy. Like Teri.

Is this trailer for Aquaman or Mercy Reef or M:I4?

Egotastic says that it’s for a show the new CW declined to pick up.

Update: It just occurred to me: Does this make Ving Black Manta?

Fantastic Sun story on German preparation for the World Cup:

GERMAN cops will use sweeping powers to collar England fans doing Basil Fawlty-style Hitler impressions at the World Cup.

Yobs will be instantly banged up for TWO WEEKS if they goose-step like John Cleese in his most famous Fawlty Towers scene.

Bonus if you get the headline.

Fire up the BitTorrent:

Top movie studios look set to delay the HDCP copy protection system – which would only work on next-gen DVD players with HDMI ports, unlike the low-end PS3 and Microsoft’s Xbox 360 HD-DVD peripheral – for four to six years.

The move would mean that all movie content produced until 2010 at the earliest, and possibly as far as 2012, will not carry the Image Constraint Token – a security feature which would restrict high-definition playback only to equipment with HDMI ports and HDCP encryption.

. . . whether or not the trailer for Ghost Rider makes the movie like five times worse than The Punisher. I can’t say for sure.

When will Marvel get around to putting the rest of its fourth-tier characters on the big screen? I can’t wait for the Submariner and the Silver Surfer, myself.

I caught the double episode of “24” last night, and I continue to astonished by the performance of Gregory Itzin, who plays creepy President Charles Logan, second-rate politician and third-rate man. One key to Itzin’s performance is his poker-faced display of Logan’s Nixon-esque weakness for self-pity, even as the ruthless leader allows the murder of innocent Americans, the assassination of a former president, and commits enough acts of treason to make one dizzy. Another key is the voice. Itzin makes Logan sound like he’s always sorry about something, humble and penitent, even as Logan imagines himself an uber-president, able to play everyone else like a cheap violin. Also, when President Logan is lying, which is most of the time, Itzin makes it obvious, but the man is trying so hard to be believed that you can see why the person he’s lying to gives him a pass. And after all, he’s the president. Or was. Alas, we won’t have Logan to kick around anymore.

Jean Smart as first lady has also been excellent, of course, and Mary Lynn Rajskub, as Chloe, continues to prove that she’s one of the best actresses on television right now.