With interactive and immediate exchange of ideas and content, 2011 proved to be the year of social media. As the year comes to a close, Prose Before Hos would like to thank the following sites for aiding in that crucial exchange:

Crooks and Liars:

A politically left blog that follows political events and their coverage.

Salon:

Combining commentary, investigative reporting, and open forum discussion into one progressive site, Salon aspires to uncover what truly matters in politics and culture.

Balloon Juice:

With categories ranging from beer blogging to Occupy Wall Street, Balloon Juice provides readers with a unique array of pop culture and political posts.

Common Dreams:

While reporting and and analyzing of-the-minute news and events, Common Dreams posts links to other like-minded progressive sites.

Democracy Now!:

Broadcast on over 900 stations, Democracy Now! is an independent news program that offers perspectives rarely voiced by mainstream and corporate-owned media.

One of the best annual webseries, Foreign Policy’s The Stories You Missed in 2011. Go read it, now!

Perfect, as always; Sports Media Asks Molestation Victims What This Means For Joe Paterno’s Legacy:

“When you told your family how Coach Sandusky forced you to engage in illicit ‘soap battles’ with him in the shower, what were their thoughts on Joe Paterno?” he continued as the abuse victim stared silently back at him. “Was their immediate response worry and concern for how this might tarnish his six Fiesta Bowl wins?”

In 1971 I wrote and shot a scene for Annie Hall involving the Knicks and Earl The Pearl. I was extolling the concept of the physical over the cerebral, so I wrote a fantasy basketball game in which all the great thinkers of history – Kant and Nietzsche and Kierkegaard – played against the Knicks. I cast actors who looked like those philosophers to play those roles and they played against the real Knicks. We used the players on the team at that time including Earl, Bill Bradley and Walt Frazier, and we shot it inside Madison Square Garden after the last game of the season. Of course the Knicks were smooth and beat the philosophers easily; all their cerebration was impotent against the Knicks.

Via greatest blog ever, Spike Lee and Woody Allen at Knicks Games.

For a great summary on wealth inequality, unemployment, and a range of other metrics showing how just miserable and unjust the American has become, check out this Business Insider post: Here’s What The Wall Street Protesters Are So Angry About.

Trust me, it’s for your benefit:

“Well I sure hope they got a kick out of watching me sit there for three hours,” I thought angrily. Then I got all huffy puffy like an outraged, white consumer guy. “Well, they just lost themselves a customer!”

Finally, The Atlantic has done what we have all secretly longed for: created a gallery dedicated to former KGB spy, Judo master, and (largely considered) the richest man in Europe, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. And man is it brilliant.

Rebel fighters in Libya made a surprising find after successfully taking over Muammar Gaddafi’s palace: a photo album dedicated to none other than Condoleezza Rice.

Yup, that’s right. Turns out the Libyan dictator was obsessed with the former Secretary of State. For more, check out MSNBC’s photoblog, In the ruins of Gadhafi’s lair, rebels find album filled with photos of his ‘darling’ Condoleezza Rice.

Oh me oh my:

The agreement between the Oakland rapping guys was this: Each rapping guy would be allotted one section of the rap song to rap about whatever he wanted. The only exception was the Two Pack rapper, who would be rapping during the first and final block of the rapping song. This was because he was the leader and if the other Oakland rapping guys had any misgivings about that, then they certainly knew better than to say anything.

Even the backup rapping guys who were only allowed to chime in occasionally to respond to the lyrics knew that.

“We should all remember to rap about some of our own positive characteristics,” said one rapping guy. “That way, the listener trusts our interpretation of the subject matter.”

“Good idea!” said another rapper. “Then it’s like a resume!”

Keep reading… trust me. And then move on to the whole Tom Oatmeal blog.

Ah, the Onion at it’s finest:

WASHINGTON—Calling a GOP victory in the 2012 presidential election antithetical to the party platform, top Republicans revealed a new long-term political strategy Tuesday: reelecting Barack Obama and making his life even more of a living hell than it already is.

“For three years, the Republican Party has coalesced around the single goal of making President Obama’s every waking moment sheer and utter torture,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters. “But we can’t continue to do that if he’s not in office.”