I don’t think I’m going out on a limb here to say that 2011 will likely go down as the most significant Year in Politics in my lifetime. Time magazine named “The Protester” as the 2011 Person of the Year. It was an interesting selection, since Time couldn’t actually photograph The Protester for their cover….
Read MoreGeorge Clooney’s 2011 political film The Ides of March is based on Beau Willimon‘s 2008 play “Farragut North,” which is itself based on the 2004 Democratic primary campaign of Howard Dean. That is to say, The Ides of March is a political drama situated squarely in the “now.” It’s story is post-9/11, post-Iraq and -Afghanistan…
Read MoreOh what a difference a year makes! After the mostly feel-good festival that was the 2010 Year in Sports, I regret to report that much of Sportsdom– athletes, coaches, owners AND fans– found their way onto Team FUBAR in 2011. Sure, there were some Good moments, but they were so overshadowed by the Bad and…
Read MoreIt’s that time again, readers! Time for Dr. J’s retrospective wrap-ups and utterly unscientific evaluations of the year that was 2011. In 2010, I decided to split my year-end lists up into categories– see the 2010 Year in Music, or the 2010 Year in Sports or (my personal favorite) the 2010 Year in Pop Culture—…
Read MoreGOP Presidential candidate and Texas Governor Rick Perry has released a campaign ad called “Strong,” in which he bemoans the fact that “gays can serve openly in the military but our kids can’t openly celebrate Christmas or pray in schools.” (For the record, kids can pray in schools. They can even do so “openly.” It’s…
Read MoreRecently, I saw that a philosopher friend of mine (Jeffrey Bernstein) posted the following as his status update on Facebook: “For an explanation of (1) why Occupy Wall Street doesn’t need a positive political program and (2) why the Occupy Movement exceeds the designations of Democrats and Republicans, read the first paragraph of Aristotle’s Metaphysics.”…
Read MoreWe barely had a moment to digest the horror of the incident at UC-Davis, where police pepper-sprayed nonviolent student protesters associated with the Occupy Movement, before the image of the offending policeman (Lt. John Pike) was transformed into an internet meme. Pike’s image was photoshopped into some of the great works of Western art, including…
Read MoreAs I reported in my previous post, students at my college organized an event last Monday night, the Rhodes Solidarity Vigil, which was meant to demonstrate solidarity with the nonviolent student protesters at UC-Davis (and elsewhere) who were brutalized by police while peacefully exercising their right to assemble. This is why I stood with the…
Read MoreThis past Monday, November 21, students at Rhodes College organized a candlelight vigil to show their solidarity with the student protesters at UC-Davis who were assaulted by police while nonviolently protesting on November 18. Rhodes’ event was an answer to the call sent out by Occupy Colleges, the student wing of the Occupy Movement, asking…
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