E. J. Dionne Jr. examines 2006's political and cultural changes in this Washington Post column:

"It wasn't all that long ago that Democrats and liberals were said to be out of touch with "the real America," which was defined as encompassing the states that voted for President Bush in 2004, including the entire South. Democrats seemed to accept this definition of reality, and they struggled -- often looking ridiculous in the process -- to become fluent in NASCAR talk and to discuss religion with the inflections of a white Southern evangelicalism foreign to so many of them.

Now the conventional wisdom sees Republicans in danger of becoming merely a Southern regional party. Isn't it amazing how quickly the supposedly "real America" was transformed into a besieged conservative enclave out of touch with the rest of the country?"

For the 5th straight year, Fimoculous has compiled his list of Best of the Year lists.

The Dayton Daily News compiled this list of the worst Christmas specials and TV movies ever.

This Washington Post article explains how the Madden football video game is bringing a new generation of fans to the NFL.

"This is a phenomenon the National Football League never could have anticipated. In a world in which 53 million copies of the game have been sold in the last 17 years -- the latest version sold an unprecedented two million copies in its first weekend of release last summer -- Madden has provided the league a perfect conduit to its next generation of fans. And all because of attention to arcane details that has demystified the complexities of football to a population that never before understood them."

According to this New York Times article, the surf's up in Cleveland:

"It was the kind of day that lives mostly in Cleveland surfers’ fantasies. Pushed by the storm’s winds, water the color of chocolate milk rose 10 feet in the air before slamming onto a beach of boulders and logs. The temperature was 40 degrees and falling. One surfer, Vince Labbe, climbed onto his board only to get blown backward by 40-mile-an-hour winds."

The Guardian's Jonathan Jones lists the 50 works of art you should see before you die.

Richard Simmons returns to the Late Show for the first time in five years in this funny YouTube Video.

Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government presents "A Conversation with Stephen Colbert."