Bernie Sanders and the Plight of Jews Who Criticize Israel
Published: The Good Men Project (October 8, 2015) When you’re a Jewish person who is willing to criticize the State of Israel, you quickly discover three things: To many other critics of Israel, the authenticity of your position will be constantly questioned. Indeed, whereas a non-Jewish critic of Israel can easily acknowledge that the situation is complicated, a Jewish critic is often held in...
The Work I Dread
Published: The Good Men Project (October 6, 2015) Despite my fear of sounding self-pitying, I want to tell you about my strange relationship with work. It will make me feel better and might help a few of my readers. I'm a chronic workaholic. As I write this, I am a freelance columnist for several online publications, an elected official for my local Democratic Party, and a full-time PhD student...
The worst thing about Uber’s predatory surge pricing is that everyone is doing it
Published: The Daily Dot (October 6, 2015) Since early 2012, the mobile company Uber—a ridesharing app that helps consumers request cabs and other transportation services with their smartphones—has employed a form of price gouging known as “surge pricing.” The controversial and often costly practice uses an algorithm to increase the price of service during peak hours—when there’s high demand and...
Activision should be ashamed of its ‘Call of Duty’ terrorism hoax
Published: The Daily Dot (October 4, 2015) To promote the upcoming Call of Duty: Black Ops III, Activision reskinned the franchise’s Twitter account into a fake news agency called “Current Events Aggregate.” Its plan was to tease the plot of the new game through these fictitious news stories. Unfortunately, the company neglected to clearly indicate that any of the tweets they posted - which...
Can IQ Tests Make Misogynists’ Dreams Come True?
Published: The Good Men Project (October 4, 2015) In a recent editorial for Breitbart, Milo Yiannopoulos is pushing for the argument that “the smartest people in the world are all men.” To support this claim, Yiannopoulos is relying on that old staple for pseudoscientific arguments – IQ tests. “There’s little doubt that men occupy more of the higher end of the IQ scale,” Yiannopoulos observes....
An Asperger’s Bill of Rights
Published: Asperger's 101 (October 2, 2015) If you are a High Functioning Autistic (HFA), the odds are troublingly high that you also suffer from some form of depression. As someone who suffers from depression myself, I’ve spent a great deal of time thinking about how to find happiness when you struggle with the burdens of having an autistic brain. One possibility for the prevalence of...
Why J-Law Is Wrong About Trump
Published: The Good Men Project (October 1, 2015) While promoting The Hunger Games: Mockinjay - Part 2, Jennifer Lawrence and Liam Hemsworth both expressed justifiable disdain at the prospect of Donald Trump winning next year's presidential election. "If Donald Trump becomes president, that will be the end of the world," the Academy Award-winning actress reportedly said. "I'll back you up on...
No One Can Afford To Sit It Out!
Published: Network (October 1, 2015) Though the 2016 presidential field gets most attention, Pennsylvania voters should elect well-qualified Democratic nominees Christine Donohue, Kevin Dougherty, and David Wecht to Pennsylvania’s highest court this November to block partisan attempts to neutralize our impact next year. Likewise, prospects for a responsibly managed Northampton County depend on...
A prisoner was dragged 107 feet by guards and died 9 days later—where’s his hashtag?
Published: The Daily Dot (September 25, 2015) Back in October, 59-year-old Wayne County Jail inmate Abdul Akbar suffered multiple bodily injuries—after prison guards tried to restrain him. Reports obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request claim that Akbar became violent after he overslept and missed breakfast, destroying a computer and resisting guards’ orders when they tried to...
When College Liberalism Is Wrong
Published: The Good Men Project (September 24, 2015) Once upon a time, I was a Republican. It was only a few years after the September 11th terrorist attacks and, despite my reservations about the war in Iraq, I believed that maintaining a strong national security apparatus was America’s foremost priority. Because I bought the Bush administration’s line of bull that Democrats were isolationist...
Here’s the real reason Scott Walker dropped out of the 2016 presidential race
Published: The Daily Dot (September 22, 2015) On Tuesday morning, Gov. Scott Walker (R-Wisc.) announced what many had widely speculated, following a nationwide drop in support: He is dropping out of the presidential race. Walker emphasized in a Facebook post that he hopes his withdrawal will encourage a more “positive” race. That’s a nice message, but optimism isn’t entirely the reason for his...
The anti-Semitism against Bernie Sanders
Published: Salon (September 22, 2015), The Daily Dot (September 20, 2015) Is America ready to elect a Jewish president? Ann Coulter did her part to draw attention to that question this week, when she sent out a tweet many believed was anti-Semitic implying Republicans only mentioned Israel because they thought it would win them Jewish voters. The question is also relevant now because Sen. Bernie...
When Do You Go Full Bald?
Published: The Good Men Project (September 22, 2015) Although my hairline started receding during my mid-20s, it didn’t become especially noticeable until about a year ago. Before then, people still felt comfortable joking that my increasingly prominent widow’s peak would someday turn me into a proverbial chrome dome. It wasn’t until the humor stopped and the sympathy commenced that I realized I...
Why Everyone Needs A Brains Trust
Published: The Good Men Project (September 17, 2015) It recently occurred to me that there is a special type of friend in my life who I've never really honored. For that matter, I've noticed that although a lot of people have forged these unique relationships, they aren't widely discussed in the media. While I could spend an entire article speculating as to why that's the case, I think our time...
Stop telling Joe Biden to run for president
Published: Salon (September 17, 2015), The Daily Dot (September 14, 2015) Perhaps it was inevitable that the Internet would want Joe Biden to run for president. After all, Hillary Clinton has maintained a massive lead in national polls since the beginning of the 2016 presidential election cycle and seemingly inevitable elections are kind of boring—especially when compared to the heated 2008...
3 Quick Tips for Awkward, Lonely Nerds
Published: The Good Men Project (September 15, 2015) Back in January, Salon ran an editorial by famous writer and game show winner Arthur Chu called "The plight of the bitter nerd." Apparently this piece proved quite popular, since it has recently reemerged as one of the site's biggest hits, and there is good reason for this. Instead of taking a simplistic approach to the concerns and feelings...
The sex offender behind “Jeepers Creepers”: Should Hollywood support Victor Salva’s return to the hit horror franchise?
Published: Salon (September 14, 2015) You may not know the name Victor Salva, but if you’re a fan of horror movies the chances are good you’ve seen one of his most famous films: “Jeepers Creepers,” the2001 sleeper hit about a winged monster in the Nebraska countryside who goes on a killing spree every 23 years to replenish his internal organs. Considering that it spawned a successful sequel in...