Meet Matt Rozsa: Bibliophile, History Buff & Pundit Of the Week
Published: mic (November 22, 2013) Matthew Rozsa is a Pennsylvania patriot, a self-proclaimed history nerd, and our thoughtful politics pundit of the week. As part of the "pundit of the week" column, we spotlight one PolicyMic-er to share personal experiences with our community, and pose one never-been-asked question to a staff member. Matt asks me to take on his question about what PolicyMic...
Why is This Speech So Famous?
Published: mic (November 19, 2013) On Thursday, the Harrisburg Patriot-News printed a long overdue retraction. How long, you ask? Try about 150 years. Indeed, as the Harrisburg Patriot-News looked back to the days when it was still the Harrisburg Patriot & Union, it recalled how it had panned President Lincoln's legendary Gettysburg Address, dismissing his words as "silly remarks" deserving...
Ron Paul Shamefully Absent in History Book on 2012 Election
Published: mic (November 12, 2013) Double Down, the new book on the 2012 presidential election by John Heilemann and Mark Helperin, falls short in one way that has been overlooked by the media. While it contains nifty insider tidbits about Barack Obama, Mitt Romney, and other major players from that epic political battle, it overlooks one man whose influence may prove as lasting as the others...
Anti-Semitic Bullying Almost Killed Me
Published: mic (November 11, 2013) While I’m no stranger to covering stories involving discrimination, this one was especially personal to me. In the aftermath of a New York Times story on a rash of anti-Semitic incidents in New York’s Pine Bush Central School District, Governor Andrew Cuomo recently announced that he was directing the state police and Division of Human Rights to investigate any...
What ‘Ender’s Game’ Teaches Us About ENDA and Homophobia
Published: mic (November 3, 2013) It is perhaps fortuitous that Ender's Game is being released as the Senate is preparing to vote on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). Not only does this offer me this fantastic opportunity at punny wordplay, but it draws attention to how America's present social debate is severely inhibited by stigmas — both against homosexuals and against those who...
Sick and Tired Of Senator Ted Cruz? This Drinking Game is For You!
Published: mic (October 25, 2013) "The only shame is to have none." –Blaise Pascal While the 17th century French mathematician may not have had Ted Cruz in mind when he penned the aforementioned aphorism, few words are more fitting for the Texas senator and his supporters. Having egged the radical right into a frenzy so fanatical that they shut down the government and drove America to the brink...
Apple, Nokia, and Microsoft Unveil Tablets: Can Humans Keep Their Humanity In the Techno Age?
Published: mic (October 21, 2013) The headline of the new Huffington Post article says it all: "Young People Say Technology Is Often Dehumanizing But Makes Life Easier" As Apple, Nokia, and Microsoft all prepare to unveil new tablets on Tuesday, this succinctly summarizes the root of our generation's dilemma. While we naturally lap up the benefits and conveniences that come with technological...
Halloween 2013: Top 10 Horror Movies For Every Political Junkie
Published: mic (October 28, 2013) Whoever said that horror shouldn't be taken seriously? Well, a lot of people, actually. Although some of the most widely recognized artistic geniuses of our time have dabbled or even specialized in horror, from Edgar Allan Poe and H. P. Lovecraft to Alfred Hitchcock and Stanley Kubrick, the genre still tends to receive less acclaim, at least when compared to...
Inside the Newest Front Lines Of the Gay Marriage Revolution
Published: mic (October 19, 2013) You may not have realized it, but October has been a portentous month in the fight for gay marriage rights. Let's go through the list: -Most pressingly, the Supreme Court of New Jersey rejected Governor Chris Christie's effort to block same-sex marriages, thereby affirming a ruling by a state Superior Court judge last month that declared a civil-union law to be...
Budget, Farm Bill, Immigration Reform: How Republicans Can Save Themselves Post-Shutdown
Published: mic (October 18, 2013) Right now congressional Democrats have an abysmal approval rating of 31%. Not surprisingly, however, their Republican counterparts are doing even worse, polling at only 20%. By comparison, President Obama's approval rating remains in the low 40s, suggesting that if anything, legislative Democrats are being damaged more by their institutional association with...
Obama’s Greatness Demonstrated As He Defused the Republican Nuclear Bomb
Published: mic (October 17, 2013) America, it is time to doff your proverbial hat to President Barack Obama. This is what a leader looks like. It isn't simply that he managed to protect his signature legislative legacy, the Affordable Care Act, from being mutilated and/or defunded by congressional Republicans. While that is quite the accomplishment in its own right (one that will be appreciated...
How the Conservative Way Of Thinking Got America Into a Really Big Mess
Published: mic (October 16, 2013) The Senate has presented its bipartisan bill to end the government shutdown and avert a debt default. With the fate of America's financial future now resting in the hands of right-wing firebrands, it is perhaps appropriate to remember the words of Edmund Burke, the 18th century British statesman widely regarded as one of the great paladins of conservative...
The Disturbing Trend in America We’re Not Talking About — Elder Abuse
Published: mic (October 15, 2013) Co-authored by Ariel Gordon Elder abuse may not be making national headlines, but it ought to be. In Mercer County, Penn., a woman was dropped off starving and emaciated because her grandson spent $86,000 of her money on drugs and personal amenities. Across the country in Oregon, four elderly plaintiffs are in the process of suing a retirement community for...
The Government Shutdown Has Created a New Word: Snollygosters
Published: mic (October 10, 2013) Before you ask, I present the definition of "snollygoster," courtesy of TheFreeDictionary.com: One, especially a politician, who is guided by personal advantage rather than by consistent, respectable principles. While not born of this crisis, snollygoster is an antique in the American political lexicon, tracing as far back as the 1840s and allegedly inspired by...
Memo to Ron Paul and Glenn Beck: America’s Founders Were Not Anti-Government
Originally Published: PolicyMic (March 8, 2012) Republished on PolicyMic (October 2, 2013) as "Government Shutdown Question: Would the Founding Fathers Fight Liberalism?" Editor's Note:Although this article was originally published on March 8, 2012, we felt it would be valuable to offer the perspective of a PhD student in history on the ideological debate accompanying the current government...
Government Shutdown: What Would Lincoln Say?
Published: mic (October 1, 2013) It would be nice if Republicans would occasionally listen to the words of their party's first president. Abraham Lincoln, February 27, 1860: "Under all these circumstances, do you really feel yourselves justified to break up this Government unless such a court decision as yours is, shall be at once submitted to as a conclusive and final rule of political action?...
This Tiny Corner Of America Can Predict If Democrats Will Win In the Next Election
Published: mic (September 30, 2013) While it’s easy enough to talk about politics in terms of any given immediate cycle, Democrats should always try to keep the big picture in mind by asking themselves the most important question: How can we win the next election, the election after that, and other elections into the future? The answer, I believe, can be found in the Lehigh Valley. In my 16...