If Politicians Were Paid Based on Real Accomplishments, Here’s What They’d Earn
Published: mic (April 10, 2014) Over the past couple weeks, while President Barack Obama has taken to podiums everywhere to rally support for raising the minimum wage, members of Congress have been rushing to support him. "I think the American people should know that the members of Congress are underpaid," said retiring Congressman Jim Moran, a Virginia Democrat who has served in the House of...
These Are The TV Characters Getting Asperger’s Wrong, From Someone Who Has It
Published: mic (April 10, 2014) When I was first diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome at the age of 14, Asperger's was barely on the public radar. One of my earliest experiences discussing the condition with others was having them make vulgar puns about the name. To say the least, the last 15 years have seen a remarkable change in public awareness. Not only is Asperger's syndrome as commonly known...
Jenny McCarthy Wants to Save Me From My Autism, But She Just Doesn’t Get It
Published: mic (April 2, 2014) I have something uniquely in common with several million other Americans: I'm autistic. At a time when Jenny McCarthy is spearheading a dangerous movement that blames my condition on vaccines — a myth dispelled by WebMD here — I am naturally sensitive to any mention of autism in the news, of which there have been a lot lately, especially when it's discussed as if...
Why Even Some Liberals and Independents Are Refusing to Sign Up For Obamacare
Published: mic (March 31, 2014) The Obamacare deadline is Monday, and a flurry of reports, headlines and talking heads are weighing in its success or failure. But sometimes politics cannot be understood without a human touch. One of the most devastating aspects of the Affordable Care Act's (ACA) implementation, flying under the radar, is the unwillingness of Republican-led states to accept the...
Which Famous President Is Just Like You? Take the Quiz
Published: mic (March 24, 2014) We all probably have a favorite president or two, but which of them is most like you in their beliefs? Not every president is included (sorry Thomas Jefferson and Theodore Roosevelt), but this quick quiz should help you discover which of our many leaders is a kindred spirit. The points have nothing to do with whether one is "winning" or "losing," just add them up...
11 Quirky Things You Never Knew About America’s Presidents
Published: mic (March 18, 2014) It's easy to recite well-known presidential trivia — Washington was our first president, Cleveland was the only president to serve nonconsecutive terms, etc. — but do you know the quirkier facts? As an American history aficionado, it was hard for me to pick favorites from among the countless "quirky" presidential factoids. But ... 1. Only one president had to...
The Creator of Westboro Baptist Used to Be a Die-Hard Civil Rights Fighter – What Happened?
Published: mic (March 16, 2014) Reverend Fred Phelps, the founder of the notorious Westboro Baptist Church, is reportedly "on the edge of death" at a hospice in Kansas. In case your memory needs refreshing, Phelps is best known for organizing protests at the funerals of anti-LGBT hate crime victims, soldiers, and celebrities under the slogan "God Hates Fags." He also used to be a champion of...
10 Ways Ronald Reagan Isn’t the Hero the GOP Thinks He Is
Published: mic (March 14, 2014) A CPAC attendee wearing a Ronald Reagan mask. Republicans sure love to talk about Ronald Reagan. Just look at some of these quotes from the Conservative Political Action Conference last week: "Once again, the GOP is where the action is, just as it was in Jack Kemp's day at the beginning of the Reagan Revolution." - Congressman Paul Ryan (WI) "It's time for the...
Obama’s FunnyOrDie Sketch Proves There Are Other Ways To Push Ideas In Beyond Fear And Anger
Published: mic (March 11, 2014) If you haven't seen President Obama's appearance on "Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis," stop everything you're doing and watch it now. There is a lesson to be learned from this video: Fear and anger aren't the only effective methods for spreading a political message. Obama's right-wing opponents have spent the bulk of his presidency trying to destroy him...
Rand Paul and Libertarians Are Looking More and More Like the Future Of the Republican Party
Published: mic (March 9, 2014) The annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) has held its annual straw poll. For the second year in a row, the winner was Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky. What does his victory mean? What does it tell us about the future of the Republican Party? Here are the four things you need to know: 1. This is a great day for Rand Paul. This is the fourth year out...
There Are 939 Active Hate Groups in the United States. Here’s Where They Live.
Published: mic (March 7, 2014) You don't have to go far to find racism. It turns out President Obama's election was a boon to bigots, as can be seen on the Southern Poverty Law Center's recently-released "Hate Map." In the year before Obama was elected, there were only 888 organized hate groups on record. Although the total number dropped from 1,007 in 2012 to 939 in 2013, that is still a...
How Well Do You Know U.S. History? Take the Quiz
Published: mic (March 3, 2014) The philosopher George Santayana famously wrote, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Put another way, some moments in American history are just too seminal not to have stored upstairs. Here are 10 trivia questions covering major moments in American history. How well do you know our fabled past? Hint: copy and paste your answers into a...
NFL Players Getting Fined for Racial Slurs Exposes a Massive Oversight
Published: mic (February 28, 2014) It's the NFL off-season and while players are on vacation and there's no good excuse to get debauched on a Sunday any longer, something else is afoot — NFL rule changes. On Feb. 22, news broke that the NFL's Competition Committee is considering an automatic 15-yard penalty for use of the "n-word" on the field and presumably other racial slurs. This opens up a...
What The Research Really Says About Gay Parents and Kids
Published: mic (February 25, 2014) To determine the fate of Michigan's constitutional ban on gay marriage, a federal court in Detroit is holding hearings on whether having same-sex parents is harmful to children. It's a tricky question (for some), but here's the truth. The Heritage Foundation held meetings to discuss "the need for new studies and research to back up claims that same-sex marriage...
The Pentagon Just Announced Something No Millennial Has Ever Experienced
Published: mic (February 24, 2014), Appearance on Channel 69 - WFMZ (February 25, 2014) The news: Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel plans to announce billions of dollars in military spending cuts, reducing our armed forces to troop levels unseen since 1940— before America entered World War II. In addition to reducing the size of our standing army, he will also propose limiting pay raises,...
What the 20-Something Nostalgia Obsession Means About Growing Up
Published: mic (February 21, 2014) Jean-Luc Godard once said that the best way to criticize a movie is to make another one. But our generation has put a strange twist on his aphorism: Even when we make new movies, we only seem to do so as a way of seeing old ones again. Don't believe me? Just look at the top box office hits of the past 14 years. With the exception of Avatar, every film was an...
Rand Paul’s Republican Revolution Should Be a Wake-Up Call For Democrats
Published: mic (February 19, 2014) The news. In a recent interview with Politico, Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) discussed how the Republican Party could attract minority voters by focusing on a new slate of issues. These included reforming the war on drugs, opposing indefinite detention of detainees at military bases, and shifting the immigration debate away from border security and toward...