Dec 9, 2013 | Conservativism, Foreign Policy, History, mic, Political Ideologies, Race and Racism, Terrorism, World Affairs
Published: mic (December 9, 2013) Back in the 1980s, Ronald Reagan, Dick Cheney, and other paladins of the American right labeled Nelson Mandela a terrorist. While mainstream conservatives tend to renounce this characterization today, it still has currency in more ideologically zealous circles. Indeed, some people on Twitter are already tweeting away reiterations of the infamous "terrorist"...
Dec 2, 2013 | Criminal Justice/Prison-Industrial Complex, mic, Race and Racism
Published: mic (December 2, 2013) We need to keep Kalief Browder in the news. Back in May 2010, Browder was walking home from a party in the Bronx when a strange man suddenly accused him of being a thief. Before he knew it, he was under arrest and facing criminal charges. Because his family couldn't afford his $10,000 bail, Browder was forced to wait in jail until his trial. More than two years...
Aug 20, 2013 | Climate Change and Other Environmental Issues, Economic Policy, History, mic, Race and Racism
Published: mic (August 20, 2013) As liberals prepare to celebrate President Benjamin Harrison's birthday today .... I'm sorry? Most people don't know that August 20 is Harrison's birthday, much less care? Well, that certainly is a pity. After all, if it wasn't for Harrison, many of the policies liberals consider so important today might have never been enacted. Indeed, it was the Harrison...
Jul 19, 2013 | Liberalism, mic, Political Ideologies, President Obama, Race and Racism
Published: mic (July 19, 2013) Liberals ... we have our Obama back. Well, let's not go too far. The president who repeatedly compromised when it wasn't necessary (see the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act), reneged on promises (see Guantanamo Bay), and betrayed his own professed principles (see PRISM) cannot be entirely forgiven for his ideological betrayals simply after one press...
Jul 14, 2013 | Criminal Justice/Prison-Industrial Complex, mic, Race and Racism
Published: mic (July 14, 2013) More than a century ago, the French novelist Emile Zola drew attention to one epidemic of bigotry that was infecting his country. In his classic essay "J'Accuse," he pointed the finger of accusation at anti-Semites throughout the Western world who were celebrating a wrong that had been perpetrated against a Jew, Captain Alfred Dreyfus, because he was a Jew. As I...
Jun 25, 2013 | Arts and Entertainment, Media Issues, mic, Race and Racism, Scandals
Published: mic (June 25, 2013)co-author Tillie Adelson As the culinary world continues to be rocked by the scandal over Paula Deen's racist remarks, the fashion world is being revisited by a similar specter from its past — i.e., the ghost of John Galliano. The ghost has broken his silence. He's been torn down to his simplest form or "Galliano in the Wilderness," as Vanity Fair is choosing to...
Jun 17, 2013 | Elections, Elections - Other, mic, Political Parties, Race and Racism, Republicans
Published: mic (June 17, 2013) First the good news: Champions of civil liberties should celebrate the Supreme Court's ruling Monday overturning an Arizona law requiring proof of citizenship to vote. By empowering county registrars to "reject any application for registration that is not accompanied by satisfactory evidence of United States citizenship," the "proof of citizenship" provision of...
May 27, 2013 | Criminal Justice/Prison-Industrial Complex, mic, Race and Racism
Published: mic (May 27, 2013) After facing a wave of controversy for their decision to release Trayvon Martin's private cell phone records to the public, George Zimmerman's attorneys are defending themselves by claiming they merely wish to demonstrate that Martin was "hostile." In their own words, their sole goal is to "assist the jury in understanding why Trayvon Martin chose to hide then...
May 23, 2013 | Class Issues, Democrats, Economic Policy, Liberalism, mic, Political Ideologies, Political Parties, Race and Racism
Published: mic (May 23, 2013) There are days that call for history lessons, and while most liberals don't realize it, we should definitely insist on May 22 being one of them. After all, it was 49 years ago yesterday that President Lyndon Baines Johnson intoned these words at a speech delivered to a graduating class at the University of Michigan: "For a century we labored to settle and to subdue...
Mar 31, 2013 | Class Issues, Conspiracy Theories, Immigration, Internet Culture, mic, Race and Racism, Religion and Religious Issues
Published: mic (March 31, 2013) The Internet is aroar right now. Why? Because even though it's Easter, Google decided to honor Cesar Chavez instead of Jesus Christ in its banner today. A quote from Henry Cabot Lodge comes to mind: "The facility of saying something is counterbalanced by the difficulty of saying anything worth hearing." Unfortunately, we live in an era in which the trivial...