Aug 21, 2013 | Arts and Entertainment, Civil Liberties, mic
Published: mic (August 21, 2013) Last March, the Arkansas State Senate voted 26 to 4 in favor of SB 387, a bill limiting tattoos, piercings, and other forms of body art that it deemed "untraditional." After making several modifications, the State's House of Representatives has started to coalesce behind a compromise measure (which can be seen here) that could, plausibly, be sent to the...
Jun 23, 2013 | Civil Liberties, mic, Military-Industrial Complex/Security State
Published: mic (June 23, 2013) As Edward Snowden continues his flight from the grasping arms of the federal government, President Obama finds himself in the most unenviable position that can face an ostensibly idealistic politician. He looks like a hypocrite. When I made this observation in a panel discussion last week on HuffPost Live, moderator Josh Zepps correctly pointed out that I was in...
Jun 19, 2013 | Civil Liberties, mic, Military-Industrial Complex/Security State
Published: mic (June 19, 2013) Is Edward Snowden a hero? There is an anecdote, perhaps apocryphal, that best answers that question. It comes from the early years of the Franklin Roosevelt administration, back when the newly-elected president was meeting with labor leaders to address their concerns about the plight of the working class. After pleading their case and sensing that their one-man...
Jun 10, 2013 | Civil Liberties, Foreign Policy, Liberalism, mic, Military-Industrial Complex/Security State, Other Media, Political Ideologies, President Obama
Published: mic (June 18, 2013), Live Interview with Huffington Post (June 19, 2013) Our commander-in-chief had a lot to say during Monday night's interview with Charlie Rose, but CNN aptly summed it up in four words: "I'm no Dick Cheney." If I may, Mr. President, I'd like to respond to that claim with a question I bet all of your supporters (many of them now erstwhile supporters) are asking:...
Mar 21, 2013 | Abortion, Civil Liberties, Gay Rights and Other LGBTQIA Issues, Gender and Sexism, Health & Wellness (Physical), mic
Published: mic (March 21, 2013) I was reluctant to use the same Thomas Jefferson quote twice in less than two weeks, but because the governor of Mississippi missed his golden opportunity to mention it, I simply had to post it again: "The error seems not sufficiently eradicated, that the operations of the mind, as well as the acts of the body, are subject to the coercion of the laws. But our...
Sep 25, 2012 | Arts and Entertainment, Civil Liberties, Internet Culture, mic
Published: PolicyMic (September 25, 2012) The events of the past couple days have compelled me to defend the rights of artists. Before I do that, however, I need to provide some background information on the peculiarities of this particular situation, and explain why an internet critic's review of a martial arts cult film indicates that the internet community must start really talking about what...
Aug 1, 2012 | Civil Liberties, Conservativism, Gay Rights and Other LGBTQIA Issues, Political Ideologies, Religion and Religious Issues
Published PolicyMic (August 1, 2012) Did you know that Colonel Sanders, the iconic fast food magnate who founded Kentucky Fried Chicken, helped bankroll the third-party presidential campaign of notorious segregationist George Wallace? Of course, this was hardly well-known during the 1968 election, when it mattered most. Sure, a trio of British reporters later chronicled Sanders's contributions...
Apr 3, 2012 | Civil Liberties, Extremism, Libertarianism, mic, Military-Industrial Complex/Security State, Political Ideologies, Religion and Religious Issues
Published: PolicyMic (April 3, 2012) Nathan Wooten has a portrait of Adolf Hitler hanging in his living room. He named his son after a leader of the German S.S. He regularly posts comments on National Socialist message boards and created a personal profile on a white supremacist social networking site. Beyond any shadow of a doubt, Wooten is a neo-Nazi. Until last month, he was also a sergeant...
Feb 28, 2012 | Abortion, Civil Liberties, Conservativism, Gender and Sexism, mic, Other Media, Pennsylvania, Political Ideologies, Political Parties, Religion and Religious Issues, Republicans
Published: PolicyMic (February 28, 2012), As Quoted in an Obama Presidential Campaign Commercial (April 27, 2012 at the 1:07 mark) A new bill proposed by Pennsylvania Representative Kathy Rapp would require any woman seeking an abortion to first undergo an ultrasound. During this procedure, the doctor would be forced to put the view screen in her field of vision so she could see the fetus and...
Oct 2, 2011 | Civil Liberties, Conservativism, Gay Rights and Other LGBTQIA Issues, Media Issues, mic, Pennsylvania, Political Ideologies, Political Parties, Religion and Religious Issues, Republicans
Published: The Morning Call (October 2, 2011) In a recent interview with Politico, Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum issued a scathing denunciation of Google. "If you're a responsible business," he remarked, "you don't let things like that happen in your business that have an impact on the country." One might expect such strong words to be reserved for the greatest rascals of...