Dec 26, 2015 | Climate Change and Other Environmental Issues, mic, Science and Technology
Published: The Good Men Project (December 26, 2015) I've lived in Pennsylvania for 18 years and, despite the state's frosty winter reputation, this is the first time I've ever witnessed a snowless December. My personal observations aside, this has been a big month for global warming. On December 12, nearly two hundred countries signed an agreement in Paris that will help bring global warming...
Dec 24, 2015 | Elections - Presidential (2016), mic, Republicans
Published: Salon (December 24, 2015), The Good Men Project (December 22, 2015) A brief but telling statement about Donald Trump's early years, courtesy of a former high school classmate: "He didn’t mingle with the rest of the corps who were not as high ranked. He lived in a different set of barracks." I'm drawing attention to this quote because it highlights my main observation about Trump's...
Dec 22, 2015 | Civil Liberties, mic, Religion and Religious Issues, Terrorism
Published: The Daily Dot (December 22, 2015) Forget about the terrorists. At his rate it seems like we’re determined through our own fear to allow the terrorists to win. Allow me to explain. Let’s start with the rash of school closings that have occurred over terrorist threats. The first (and without question most patently absurd) was the “clock boy” incident from earlier this year, when a...
Dec 20, 2015 | Democrats, Elections, Elections - Presidential (2016), Immigration, mic, Political Parties, Race and Racism, Religion and Religious Issues
Published: MSNBC (December 20, 2015) Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley were unified on one topic during the last Democratic presidential debate of the year Saturday night: The toxicity of Donald Trump’s proposed temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States. Each candidate seized on the opportunity to decry racial and religious bigotry — and encouraged the rest of America...
Dec 15, 2015 | Elections - Presidential (2016), Extremism, mic, Political Ideologies, Political Parties, Race and Racism, Republicans
Published: The Good Men Project (December 15, 2015) During a Donald Trump rally in Las Vegas earlier today, a Trump supporter shouted "Sieg heil!" as a black protester was physically ejected from a room where the candidate was speaking. Unsurprisingly, this incident has taken social media by storm, if for no other reason than it reinforces the widespread belief that Trump is a latter-day Nazi....
Dec 14, 2015 | Elections - Presidential (2016), mic, Republicans
Published: The Daily Dot (December 14, 2015) As the candidates prepare for the eighth Republican presidential debate in Las Vegas on Tuesday night, there are a few things we know for sure. As usual, there will be two debates - an undercard debate at 6 p.m. featuring candidates who currently aren’t polling well (former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, former...
Dec 13, 2015 | Arts and Entertainment, mic, Race and Racism
Published: Salon (December 13, 2015) As I watched “The Ridiculous Six,” my mind kept returning to an old episode from the popular Web series “Half in the Bag.” While reviewing the comedy “Jack and Jill,” critic Jay Bauman came up with a list of stale tropes that predictably appear in all of Adam Sandler’s movies. Nestled between entries like “general whorish product placement” and “scenes of...
Dec 5, 2015 | Elections, Elections - Presidential (2016), History, mic
Published: The Good Men Project (December 5, 2015) The last president to be elected without winning his home state was James Polk in 1844. The last one to be re-elected without conquering his own political stomping grounds was Woodrow Wilson in 1916. These data points become a bit more interesting when you look at the current field of Republican presidential candidates. The frontrunner, Donald...
Dec 2, 2015 | Civil Liberties, mic, Military-Industrial Complex/Security State, Terrorism
Published: The Daily Dot (December 2, 2015) It’s official: The NSA was legally required to terminate its bulk phone record collection program this week. That may not provide much comfort if you happen to use the Internet (and particularly if you communicate using social media)—but it's a major win worth acknowledging. If you’re wondering why the government can still monitor what you do online...
Dec 1, 2015 | Arts and Entertainment, Elections - Presidential (2016), mic
Published: The Good Men Project (December 1, 2015) When future cultural historians look back on the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I suspect they will find the character arcs of Iron Man (aka Tony Stark) and Captain America (aka Steve Rogers) to be particularly fascinating. Whether intentionally or otherwise, each superhero has wound up embodying distinct aspects of our contemporary political...