Published: mic (June 17, 2013)
The slaying of sacred cows is one of the foremost responsibilities of anyone who hopes to shape public opinion in a responsible fashion. That is why most of America’s prominent political groups have received their fair share of ridicule, from The Colbert Report’s shtick parodying conservatives to South Park’s legendary lampoons deflating liberals.
Published: mic (July 11, 2013)
Sometimes it’s necessary to feel ashamed of yourself.
This unpleasant epiphany came to me when I came across a Dustin Hoffman interview in which the Academy Award-winning actor discussed his experience preparing for the 1982 cross-dressing comedy Tootsie. As he described the studio’s attempts to make him look like a convincing woman, he recalled his shock at being told that no matter how realistic they might make him appear, they would never be able to make him look beautiful.
Published: mic (March 4, 2013)
When I think of the cookie-cutter music so often churned out today — the visceral club beats of a Nicki Minaj or Kesha, the vapid tween-targeted sugar pop of Justin Bieber or the Jonas Brothers — I can’t help but remember a quote from Alexis de Tocqueville, back when the legendary French sociologist went on his famous tour of America in the 1830s:
“It would be to waste the time of my readers and my own if I strove to demonstrate how the general mediocrity of fortunes, the absence of superfluous wealth, the universal desire for comfort, and the constant efforts by which everyone attempts to procure it make the taste for the useful predominate over the love of the beautiful in the heart of man.
Published: PolicyMic (November 27, 2012)
This may seem odd coming from the pen of a liberal Democrat (er, keyboard), but here it goes: Gerald Ford is my favorite president of the past forty years.
There are plenty of good reasons for liberals to admire Ford. Foremost among them is the fact that he was the last genuinely moderate Republican to inhabit the White House, with his battle against Ronald Reagan in the 1976 presidential primaries marking the final time a centrist obtained the top slot on the GOP national ticket without making egregious concessions to the party’s fringe elements (ironically, Reagan himself would be considered insufficiently conservative by many Republicans today).
Published: PolicyMic (November 7, 2012)
“When news of the surrender first reached our lines our men commenced firing a salute of a hundred guns in honor of the victory. I at once sent word, however, to have it stopped. The Confederates were now our prisoners, and we did not want to exult over their downfall.”
Published: PolicyMic (July 3, 2012)
The Stephanie Meyers of the world may come and go, but as fans of classic television will happily remind you, only one franchise will ever be truly deserving of the word “Twilight.” I refer, of course, to “The Twilight Zone,” that timeless anthology of the supernatural that premiered in 1959 and remained on the air for five seasons (156 episodes) before CBS unceremoniously yanked the plug.