Why I’ve Never Thrown Myself A Birthday Party
Published: Good Men Project (April 4, 2015) Like so many Millennials, Matthew Rozsa isn’t sure he sees the point in throwing birthday parties. — It recently occurred to me that, in less than five weeks, I will be turning thirty years old. May 8th, to be exact – I was born on the same day that New Coke was released into the global marketplace with infamously lackluster results. It was also the...
It’s time for Obama to fight anti-gay bigotry in Indiana
Published: Daily Dot (April 2, 2015) As Arkansas contemplates a “religious freedom bill” akin to the controversial measure recently passed in Indiana, one may very well wonder: What, if anything, can President Obama do about this? More specifically, can he use his power to issue executive orders—one that has already been utilized to historic effect throughout his presidency—to halt a movement of...
In Defense of Being Opinionated
Published: Good Men Project (April 2, 2015), Daily Dot (April 6, 2015) Is it entitled for millennials to believe their opinions matter? Matthew Rozsa argues: No. ___ Writers tend to be argumentative creatures (it’s part of our opinionated personality type), and consequently some of my most memorable debates have been with other practitioners of my craft. Such was the case a couple months ago...
The case against torture
Published: Daily Dot (March 31, 2015) If there was any doubt that Jeb Bush would repeat his brother’s mistakes on the use of torture if elected president, it has been decisively dispelled. Last December, the Senate published a report that harshly criticized the use of torture by George W. Bush’s administration. Although it noted that the president himself wasn’t informed of the details of these...
A Great Cosmic Joke: The Hilarious Human Body
Published: Good Men Project (March 31, 2015) Human beings are clumsy, hairless monkeys obsessed with looking beautiful. How is that not funny? ___ For as long as I can remember, I have found the emotion of awkwardness to be endlessly amusing. It’s why I enjoy TV shows like “Tim & Eric Awesome Show, Great Job,” so-bad-they’re-good movies like “Troll 2,” and reciting anecdotes from the Darwin...
It’s Time for Civil Disobedience in Indiana
Published: Good Men Project (March 30, 2015) It is time to bring the nonviolent protests of the 1960s civil rights movement to anti-gay Indiana. I don’t live in Indiana, and because I don’t own a car, there is little chance I’ll be visiting anytime soon. Nevertheless, like most decent people, I am horrified by Indiana’s recent so-called “religious freedom” bill that would allow businesses to...
Inside the Texas bill that stops you from filming police brutality
Published: Daily Dot (March 30, 2015) Those with power must be held accountable for how they use it. This may seem like a self-evident proposition, but it is actually facing a considerable challenge in Texas right now. If passed, a new bill sponsored by Rep. Jason Villalba (R-Dallas) would define the act of “filming, recording, photographing, or documenting the officer within 25 feet of [a...
It’s time to kill the PATRIOT Act
Published: Daily Dot (March 26, 2015) It’s doubtful that the PATRIOT Act will be repealed in this legislative session, but make no mistake about it: Dispensing with this bill, one of the more pernicious legacies of the post-9/11 erosion of American civil liberties, is long overdue. First, here's an introduction to the measure that could theoretically pull this off: the Surveillance State Repeal...
The real reason Ted Cruz will never be elected president
Published: Daily Dot (March 26, 2015), Salon (March 28, 2015) Despite what he wants you to think, Ted Cruz is not the great anti-politician of our time. In fact, he may be our most potent symbol of everything that is wrong with modern politics. This would be hard to believe if you’ve been listening to him, of course. He desperately wants to be thought of as the one principled man in...
Why Texas shouldn’t ban the Confederate flag from license plates
Published: Daily Dot (March 25, 2015) Whether it's Reddit trolls or real-life ones, freedom of speech in the Internet age can be very unpleasant. The Supreme Court is currently preparing to hear a controversial case about whether the government of Texas has the right to ban hate speech from state-issued license plates; in this case, the issue is over use of a Confederate flag-based insignia by a...
Ted Cruz’s birthplace matters – but not for the reason you think
Published: Daily Dot (March 24, 2015), Salon (March 26, 2015), Interview with CBC - Edmonton (March 26, 2015) It’s the hypocrisy, stupid. Much mirth has already been derived from Ted Cruz’s announcement that he is running for president in 2016; Twitter users were sharpening their rhetorical knives with cutting hashtags in preparation for his official declaration, while pundits from Jamelle Bouie...
To Stop Not Moving: The Story of a Sick Week
Published: Good Men Project (March 24, 2015) A man who very rarely takes sick days—or weeks—discusses how he recently collapsed from exhaustion. ___ The movie poster is probably fake, a cheap knock-off sold by an unscrupulous Amazon vendor, but that doesn’t bother me. I’m transfixed by the image of a single quarter, either carefully placed or carelessly tossed onto droplets of blood, which is...
The Sentencing Gap: Why are Men More Likely to Go to Prison?
Published: Good Men Project (March 17, 2015) co-author Liskula Cohen Men are statistically more likely to go to prison than women for the same crime. Feminists and Men’s Rights Activists alike should be outraged. People forget that prisons aren’t always there to protect us; in fact, they often aren’t there to help us at all. When you have a primarily or entirely privatized penal system, prisons...
The University of Oklahoma shouldn’t have shut down its racist frat
Published: Daily Dot (March 16, 2015) co-author Tillie Adelson To understand why the University of Oklahoma was wrong to expel the students responsible for singing a racist chant (as well as disband the Sigma Alpha Epsilon chapter on their campus), it is first important to understand the legal arguments in favor and against the college’s decision, and only then can you fully realize why both...
Why do we laugh at male body image issues?
Published: Good Men Project (March 14, 2015) co-author Liskula Cohen Liskula Cohen asks an important question: Why do we think it’s okay to body shame men? It’s hard to argue that we don’t derive a sadistic enjoyment of male sexual humiliation. Prison rape is treated in comedy as a punchline instead of an atrocity; lazy kids’ comedies rely on the trope of a man being injured in the groin as a...
Learning to Live With Dread
Published: Good Men Project (March 12, 2015) Matthew Rozsa shares his secret for not worrying about the end of world and everything else that makes him anxious. ___ Every morning I wake up with a sinking feeling in my gut. If the day goes well, I sweat jittery bullets at the unshakable fear that the good will somehow be taken away from me and replaced with devastating disappointments and...
Is Hillary’s shot at being America’s first female president over?
Published: Daily Dot (March 9, 2015) Whether or not Hillary Clinton becomes America’s first female president on January 20, 2017, one thing is certain: If the American electorate denies her the privilege of shattering the nation’s highest glass ceiling, it won’t be because she decided to use a personalized email address as Secretary of State. This doesn’t necessarily mean we won’t wind up...