That would be stupid. Yet some newscasters seemed to say it, and this columnist appears to believe it, though since she’s really just using that as a hook to argue for feeding kids, we’ll give her some slack. What it did was strike down a badly written law, in which a State tries to...
Politics as Theater
Tea Bagging Isn’t Funny Anymore
Some of us who spend too much time being careful like having an outrageous friend. The friend who makes broadly offensive challenging statements that undercut the generally vanilla consensus most of society gets by on. Sure, we don’t take what she says too seriously, but sometimes we’ll defend it as something that could be...
Is It Really Socialist To Be Anti-Immigration?
Not necessarily. You could be anti-immigration for racist reasons, or out of “cultural-erosion” fears. Or, if you believe most immigrants are non-working, non-consuming entities who will somehow place a cost on the system, you could believe that free enterprise needs the support of the powerful state to control market conditions. But otherwise, yeah....
Arizona Governor: F*ck the Police!
Okay, I’m paraphrasing a bit. But here she is: Think about it. If you’re a police officer, you are constantly making difficult judgments. Yes, you have to enforce the law, but you only have a certain amount of time, and every infraction you address means a dozen others that will escape notice. Of course...
What About the Pope?
There is a big discussion going on about whether the Pope should be held responsible for a certain pedophile priest. Apparently the (not-pope-at-the-time) knew something, had some administrative responsibility, and took some kind of action. I don’t think we really know what he knew, when he knew it, or whether what he did constitutes...
Writing a new story: the run-off election
I think people (by which I mean the press) underestimate the importance of writing a new story in Afghanistan. Instead of business as usual, Karzai is acknowledging voter fraud and entering a run-off election. Obama gets a lot of the credit for this. While this may not seem like a big deal here, America’s...
Who Cares? The Carrie Prejean Tempest
Once again, a beauty pageant model is brought to task for “bad behavior” and nude photos. This time, the woman is Carrie Prejean, a Miss California, and target of Perez Hilton. The photos exist, but we’ll probably never see them, because she was 17 when they were taken. Big deal. I’m going back and...
Why Rush Limbaugh Hates America
I Love America. This includes many pieces of America that, taken individually, I don’t like so much. Some, I loath. But altogether, put it in a big pile, and I’ll keep it. Fight for it. Whatever. Here are just a sampling of the many pieces of America: Giant balls of twine and three-story lava-lamps,...
Piranha II vs. Avatar
Piranha II is James Cameron’s first feature movie, and Avatar is the most recent. How has his moral message and story-telling evolved? In Piranha II, you were likely to get killed by a carnivorous flying fish if: You are female and naked. You have sex unconnected to romance. You’re a somewhat ridiculous older woman....
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