Social movements are bizarre things. They sprout up, they simmer down to nothing, they flame brightly and then fade. They have their own little lives. The funniest and weirdest one of my lifetime has got to be the Black Lives Matter/All Lives Matter marches of five years ago. Fed up with young black men getting … Read more
In a supposedly “free” country, and one so devoted to capitalism that it’s willing to give up democracy, wouldn’t you expect more choices for types of everything? It seems to me that we’re getting to a point where we do have a few choices, though they’re really just marginally different from the other options. CARSCars … Read more
I think their proper name is Yoga Pants, but if so then 90% of the women I know are constantly on their way to a yoga class, because these things are everywhere. And every woman I know, regardless of age, size, shape, race, sexual orientation or marital status owns at least a few pairs of … Read more
This seems to be a recurring theme in American social life, the attempt to simply destroy humor, to stop people from laughing, from enjoying life, from making fun of others, from anything remotely fun. Although this is one of the many things the different political “sides” blame on the other side, it’s actually true across … Read more
Late 20th century and, Lord knows, early 21st century America has been a time when the powers that be wielded fear like a master surgeon, using it liberally but specifically enough to scare us into doing whatever the hell stupid policy they wanted to implement. Start a war in the Middle East with no exit … Read more
Of all the dumbass laws out there, Indecent Exposure has got to be one of the dumbest. It’s against the law to tie a giraffe to a telephone pole in the state of Georgia (for real), but was this ever actually an issue? Was there an era, long forgotten to history, where people couldn’t get … Read more
Fascists dislike anything out of the ordinary and unconventional (Adorno, et al 1950). We got wind of this when “Christians” objected to the opening art performance of the Olympics where a blue figure appeared at a long table. The performers were odd and weird and there was public outrage that this scene was making fun … Read more
It’s simple. It’s the mother of invention. It’s necessity, or, to be exact, the lack of necessity. Before the Industrial Revolution, the world’s slowest, most influential and most damaging revolution, manly men and their womanly wives had to plan their marital relations to coincide with certain moments in the menstrual cycle. They did this because … Read more
There have been two brief, very brief, periods when I had some hope for the future of the internet. The first was in the late 1990’s, when it morphed from a military communication project to a potentially world-shattering new way to live. But, if I’m being honest, that optimism was far more about the idea … Read more
We’re going to look behind the political bullshit at the real underlying foundations, the real stuff. TV news anchors rant about immigration a lot. Politicians from both sides bemoaning too little or too much immigration in a predictable line-dance. Old dudes at the country club complain about it so often you’ve got to wonder if … Read more