Dec 11, 2013 | Class Issues, Economic Policy, mic, Religion and Religious Issues
Published: mic (December 11, 2013) Even as Pope Francis is honored as TIME Magazine's Person of the Year on Wednesday, we should remember how conservatives like Rush Limbaugh and Fox News editor Adam Shaw have denounced the perceived liberal love for the new pontiff. While the individual leftists who have praised specific papal policies can speak for themselves, I figured it was time for a much...
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...
Mar 23, 2013 | Extremism, mic, Pennsylvania, Political Ideologies, Race and Racism, Religion and Religious Issues, Terrorism
Published: mic (March 23, 2013), The Express Times (March 23, 2013) From neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan to the Nation of Islam and the Black Panthers, there is nothing more inherently pathetic than a bigot in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. This isn't to say that bigots aren't a pitiful sight as a general rule. As the philosopher Eric Hoffer noted in his classic monograph on mass movements and...
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...
Jul 14, 2012 | Conservativism, Libertarianism, mic, Political Ideologies, Religion and Religious Issues
Published: PolicyMic (July 14, 2012) When I read that a California pastor had declared "God wants Ron Paul to be President," I wasn't particularly surprised. For all of the thoughtful and intellectually engaging Paul supporters out there, batches can always be found who believe that the Texas Congressman's presidential ambitions have been sanctified by an infallible higher doctrine. While the...
Jun 6, 2012 | Conservativism, Elections - Presidential (2012), Gay Rights and Other LGBTQIA Issues, mic, Religion and Religious Issues, Republicans
Published: PolicyMic (June 6, 2012) Back in 1964, a Republican Governor named George Romney performed an act of rare political courage. As party delegates convened in San Francisco to coronate Senator Barry Goldwater as their presidential nominee, Romney noted Goldwater's opposition to civil rights legislation and announced that because "his [Goldwater's] views deviate as indicated from the...
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...
Mar 22, 2012 | Abortion, Conservativism, Elections, Elections - Presidential (2012), Gender and Sexism, mic, Political Ideologies, Political Parties, Religion and Religious Issues, Republicans
Published: PolicyMic (March 22, 2012) Is it fair to claim that the Republican Party is waging a "war on women?" Let's look at the facts. Although the phrase in question only regained its political fashionability within the last few months, the sad truth is that the Republican Party's hostility to women's rights traces back much longer than that. The days when Senator Margaret Chase Smith...
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...