If Rush Limbaugh never had a popular radio program with millions of viewers, the world would undoubtedly be a happier, sunnier place.  All that he brings into it fosters resentment, regression, confident ignorance, fear, and woe.  So why am I skeptical amid reports that he may be losing his… Read full post »

Republicans stared a hard reality in the face during the 2012 election. Four years of lockstep, highly proliferated, extremely venomous, and nearly apocalyptic rhetoric proved insufficient to win them the Presidency.  Whether Republicans come along for the ride or not, America is younger, more p… Read full post »

I am a very conscientious bicyclist.  I use the sidewalk often because the street is simply far too treacherous, but I watch for pedestrians all the time and, when I see them, slow down significantly, ride in the grass if there’s room, or use the street for as long as it… Read full post »

In January, three off-duty police officers filling in as mall security killed a man for refusing to leave his theater seat.  The fact that the man,… Read full post »

Today, I did something I’m not especially proud of.  I participated, with two flippant comments, in a Facebook debate.  Specifically, it was the comment thread of a photo on the National Association for Gun Rights’ Facebook page with this caption: “Grassroots pressure is t… Read full post »

There is one way in which Alex Jones and Noam Chomsky are alike, despite their difference of ideology and opinion.  Jones is the hysterical raving lunatic who has only in the age of the Internet risen as mainstream, while Chomsky is a studied academic who pays more attention to things like… Read full post »

From the moment I hit the “Back” button, erased my vote for Ralph Nader, and recast it for Barack Obama in 2008, I’ve harbored a guilty conscience.  I lived in Ohio at the time, always a key swing state.  John McCain and Sarah Palin seemed a particularly frightening prospe… Read full post »

Ann Coulter is in trouble again.  This time, it's for calling the president a retard.  But rest assured, because the criticism lobbied at her for that choice of words, including the thoughtful essay by insulted Down syndrome sufferer John Franklin Stephens, is going to give her the perfect… Read full post »

Free speech and the separation of church and state are two of this nation’s most important founding principles.  They are unique in the western world.  Prior to our Constitution, the head of the state was often, traditionally, also the head of the church, and open dissention was intol… Read full post »

Watching a vice presidential debate feels a lot like watching a football game.  I don’t care who wins, I just watch for the social aspect.  A good argument in a debate is a “point” in favor of the candidate making it.  Biden’s silly facial expressions may have l… Read full post »

It’s taken quite a long time, but it looks like art rock may be having its day at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

One of the loudest criticisms of the Hall coming from the rock crowd has been its exclusion of Rush, a band with some… Read full post »

Bullying is not a serious problem.

There, I said it.  Somebody had to.  Because all the rest of you are losing your grip on reality, blaming the problems kids face on… kids.  What a convenient thing for parents to do.

In the wake of a rash of teen suicides… Read full post »

This election is historic.  The decision Americans face at the polls this November is no less consequential than the fate of the entire world, for where America goes, the rest are sure to follow.  Two candidates, each with dramatically different visions for the future, will determine whethe… Read full post »

When Frank Zappa fought in defense of the First Amendment in the 1980s, he did it, partly, so that Blackie Lawless of metal band WASP could appear on album sleeves with a buzz saw separating him down the middle at the crotch.

But what Zappa understood, and what… Read full post »

I stand in favor of the notion that an Australian being charged for treason in the United States is a ridiculous concept.  I stand in favor of a free and independent press that publishes the very worst of our government and corporate malfeasance rather than washing over that unpleasantness so as… Read full post »

Sir,

Congratulations on becoming the most decorated Olympian of all-time.  You’ve worked tremendously hard and attained immortality.  It is a distinction that can never be revoked.  You are now an American hero, sure to be enshrined in our culture for as long as we’ll ha… Read full post »

A joke is a story or a question punctuated or answered by a surprise or an exaggeration.  That’s all it is.  In the recent case of the Daniel Tosh rape joke controversy, it’s important to keep that in perspective.

I’m always eager to rise up in the defense… Read full post »

I’ve been watching the stories of Mitt Romney’s prep school antics with a mix of distaste and sympathy.  The distaste should be obvious, the sympathy maybe not so much, but if I had to atone for every mean thing I did in high school – a time when mean was routine… Read full post »

I had a chance recently to read the Greene County, VA GOP newsletter.  For those who haven’t seen, the final column of the publication calls for an armed revolution should Barack Obama win reelection this fall.  Predictably, cooler heads higher up in the GOP rank-and-file prevailed an… Read full post »

All the cries and denunciations of President Barack Obama as the most left-wing socialistic President in the nation’s history, a true radical cut from the mold of Mao Zedong or Che Guevera rather than Thomas Jefferson, are… well, baffling.  Actually, so tricky and indigestible are t… Read full post »

Unfortunately, in my ardent defense of freedom of speech I’m often forced to align myself with the interests of the lowest form of disreputable cretin this country has ever produced – in this case, cigar-chomping, race-baiting, woman-bashing, overfed toad of a man Rush Limbaugh.  A v… Read full post »

I don’t know how I feel about the whole Whitney Houston tragedy.  And the main reason I don’t know how I feel about it is because I haven’t put too much thought into it, and when I do put thought into it, I realize I really don’t have any feelings to… Read full post »

Of all the important functions intellectuals and critics serve, exposing flagrant falsehoods is only one.  Sometimes, pulling a tiny kernel of worthwhile message out of an astoundingly stupid or immoral philosophy can be an equally vital function.  One of the few good things about Newt Ging… Read full post »