Colin Kaepernick, quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers will not stand during the playing of the national anthem at NFL games. As he put it, after refusing to stand during the 49ers against the Packers this past weekend: I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country thatContinue reading “Colin Kaepernick Will Not ‘Behave’ And That’s A Damn Good Thing”
Category Archives: Politics
Donald Trump Looks A Gift Horse In The Mouth
A smarter politician than Donald Trump would have realized the windfall Khizr Khan had granted him, one with which he could have pulled off a miraculous triangulation of his own. To do this Trump could have done the following: Welcomed Khizr Khan’s remarks, acknowledged his family’s sacrifice, and then said, “This is the kind ofContinue reading “Donald Trump Looks A Gift Horse In The Mouth”
Orange Is The New Black And The Privatization of Prisons
Spoilers Ahead. Orange is The New Black has attracted–not unjustifiedly–some flak for its powerful and painful fourth season: it has been accused of being ‘trauma porn for white people,’ and of having ‘failed the Dominican community.’ Still, the show has provided some powerful drama in those thirteen episodes, largely by throwing off any pretensions thatContinue reading “Orange Is The New Black And The Privatization of Prisons”
Dan Savage Should Run For Dogcatcher
Dan Savage thinks the Greens should walk before they try to run: I have a problem with the Greens…. I have a problem with these fake, attention seeking, grandstanding Green…party candidates who pop up every four years, like mushrooms in shit, saying that they’re building a third party. And those of us who don’t haveContinue reading “Dan Savage Should Run For Dogcatcher”
Melville On ‘The Most Dangerous Sort’: The Outwardly Rational Madman
In Billy Budd, Sailor (Barnes and Noble Classic Edition, New York, p. 40) Herman Melville writes: [T]he thing which in eminent instances signalizes so exceptional a nature is this: though the man’s even temper and discreet bearing would seem to intimate a mind peculiarly subject to the law of reason, not the less in his heartContinue reading “Melville On ‘The Most Dangerous Sort’: The Outwardly Rational Madman”
Teflon Trump’s Terrifying Troops
I did not watch the Donald Trump acceptance speech last night; I did not want to run the risk of a disturbed night’s sleep. I did however, read a transcript that was available on the net before he went live. It was a terrifying read just because it was so ‘good’: pitch-perfect in its toneContinue reading “Teflon Trump’s Terrifying Troops”
A Trump Win And The First-Past-The-Post System
Every election cycle, we learn all over again, the bad news about ‘swing states’ and ‘undecided voters’ and ‘independents.’ There are ‘red states’ and ‘blue states’ and then there are ‘states in play’: those electoral precincts in the nation whose demographics make their electoral outcomes uncertain. Every election cycle, the political candidates of the twoContinue reading “A Trump Win And The First-Past-The-Post System”
Bertrand Russell On Deterrence By Making ‘Freedom More Pleasant’
In ‘What I Believe,’ an essay whose content–selectively quoted–was instrumental in him having his appointment at the City College of New York revoked¹, Bertrand Russell wrote: One other respect in which our society suffers from the theological conception of ‘sin’ is the treatment of criminals. The view that criminals are ‘wicked’ and ‘deserve’ punishment isContinue reading “Bertrand Russell On Deterrence By Making ‘Freedom More Pleasant’”
Veterans And The Dallas And Baton Rouge Shootings: Wars Return Home
Today, on Facebook, Chad Kautzer offered some brief reflections–“not interested in condemning or justifying”–on the shootings in Baton Rouge. They begin as follows: First, the police have to stop killing black and brown people. I say that up front, because it’s the social relation and institutional practice that frames everything. Period. Second, although it’s tooContinue reading “Veterans And The Dallas And Baton Rouge Shootings: Wars Return Home”
Francine Prose On The Consolations Of Post-Apocalyptic Literature
In reviewing Margaret Atwood‘s Stone Mattress: Nine Tales Francine Prose makes a pair of perceptive remarks in her conclusion. First, [T]book offers none of the peculiar comforts and reassurances of such post-apocalyptic novels as Atwood’s MaddAddam trilogy. It denies us the glorious fantasy of flaming out en masse instead of, so much less dramatically, in aContinue reading “Francine Prose On The Consolations Of Post-Apocalyptic Literature”
Samir Chopra 