6/09: Anyone who happened to miss this piece by Lakhdar Boumediene, entitled My Guantánamo Nightmare should check it out, here. Here is a taste of the sickening, yet predictable torment this…
FIRST OFF, LET’S dispense with decorum and declare the obvious: Russell Brand is brilliant, and quite possibly a genius. In addition to his comedic and acting abilities, he is a…
I. Personal Remember when Born in the U.S.A. was ubiquitous? The album and the song. Bruce was already big, but he wasn’t over the top. Born in the U.S.A. put…
i. Ridic, Redux LAST MONTH I WROTE about the Power of Political Narrative and the ways Republicans have kept it simple (stupid) and mostly stuck to an inflexible script for…
i. Magical Thinking and the Memory Hole LIKE MOST EVERYONE ELSE I know, I grew up—really grew up, if I’ve ever actually grown up—in the Reagan 80’s. Take my childhood,…
(I first wrote this piece in November, 2009 under the title "Born in the U.S.A. or, Every Day is Veterans Day". Today marks the 30th anniversary of the date this…
Whatever your feelings and opinions regarding minimum wage in the United States, you owe it to yourself (not to mention the people struggling in minimum wage jobs) to read this…
My series concerning the Intersection of Technology and _____ continued last week. (previous discussions can be found here.) It was my pleasure to introduce politics into the discussion, and my…
Take this joke, please. Or this one: Funny, for sure. But cut with way more than a sliver of dead seriousness. This is what Bill Hicks brought to the…
Don't you remember, back in the '70s (or early '80s), learning about people banning or burning books and thinking, even as a grade schooler, that this represented an ancient, embarrassing…
Sean Murphy