Sen. Tim Scott credits his single mother for his rise from poverty to the national stage

◼ A private man with an even more private mother, Scott sat down with The Post and Courier the morning after his historic election Tuesday to talk about their relationship and its role in his ascent to the national stage. - Post & Courier [Charleston, SC]

"To every kid growing up in poverty wondering if fitting in means dumbing down, the answer is no," he says. "To every single mom who struggles to make ends meet, who wonders if her efforts are in vain, they are not."

..."To moms like mine who worked 16 hours a day and came home and looked at my report card and said, 'Unacceptable,'" he recalls, pausing. "Well, she did more than that. But she did say 'Unacceptable.'" KEEP READING

In the film Obvious Child, Jenny Slate plays Donna Stern, a stand-up comedian who specializes in making jokes about her private parts, with the occasional foray into fart humor

◼ Our Conservative Popular Culture - Jonah Goldberg/Real Clear Politics

...My late friend Andrew Breitbart liked to say that politics is downstream of culture, meaning that any truly successful political turnaround needs to start by changing popular attitudes. Adam Bellow, a storied editor of conservative books, has a similar conviction and is trying to launch a conservative revolt in the world of fiction.

I wish them great success. Still, I think there’s something missing in this ancient conversation on the right (conservatives have been making such arguments since the 1950s — if not the 1450s, with the publication of the Gutenberg Bible). Conservatives refuse to celebrate, or even notice, how much of the popular culture is on their side.

Sure, Hollywood is generally very liberal, but America isn’t. Judging by their campaign donations, Hollywood liberals are very supportive of abortion rights. But there’s a reason why sitcoms since Maude haven’t had a lot of storylines about abortion. Indeed, nearly every pregnant TV character treats her unborn child as if it’s already a human being.

The Left may be anti-military, but such movies tend to do poorly, which is why we see more pro-military films. Similarly, it’s a safe bet that Hollywood liberals loathe guns. But you wouldn’t know that by what they produce. Not many action stars save the day by quoting a poem. Most Hollywood liberals probably oppose the death penalty, yet they make lots of movies where the bad guy meets a grisly death to the cheers of the audience. The Left rolls its eyes at “family values,” but family values are at the heart of most successful sitcoms and dramas....