Slavery, it has been properly observed, is America’s original sin. It is our first and foremost crime, the most adjacent cause of our civil war, and the source of the racial poison that continues to choke us today. It is, if this can be said in a way that does …
So, here we are. After years of ambiguity over the direction Barack Obama was taking as president, after months of nausea at the repulsive tactics his Republican opponents and the inexplicable support for Mitt Romney (the most worthless presidential candidate of my lifetime), after weeks of stress headaches whenever there …
Yes, it’s time once again for that all-time family fun game, “What’s This Guy Worth?, or, Exactly How Rich and Out-of-Touch Are the Rich, Out-of-Touch Assholes Who Are Going to Tell Us How to Fix the Economy?”. On our last episode, we examined the occupations and net worth of members …
Barring the promotion of Isaac from a tropical storm to a full-blown hurricane, and presuming it does not alight directly on the Tampa Bay Times Forum and slay all the Grand Old Party luminaries gathered there for the Republican National Convention (an occurrence which would provide, to me at least, the …
The making of best-of lists has been a passion that has consumed music journalists since the days of Edison’s wax cylinders; no sooner had it been released than Oh I’m a-Leapin’ and a-Croonin’ for My Christ Jesus, by the Nine Deaf Mulattoes of Warren County, was voted “Biggest Disappointment of …
With the selection of union-busting oenophile Paul Ryan as Mitt Romney’s vice-presidential candidate, the mystery of which wealthy Caucasian ideologue will stand next to him clapping for the next four months is over, and we can relax and enjoy the two make fools of themselves until whatever ridiculous decision the …
1. Highly controversial choice meant to enrage readers, thus drawing lots of links and hits 2. Conventional but ‘artsy’ choice to prove aesthetic credentials 3. Completely ordinary choice that is actually the thing you like best, but you put it third so as not to seem obvious 4. Another completely …
Also country, dance, and, well, everything that isn’t metal or rap. There’s a lot of ladies on this list, and a lot of stuff from foreign countries, and two records by Texas-based singer-songwriters on MCA’s phonus-bolognus country subsidiary. I realize that my picks this year read like those of a …
People are still making rap music! Can you imagine? Maybe it’s not a trend after all. Foxy grandma even noticed some beats being jacked when she was watching Glee last week. Thank goodness for the internet, where we can keep on arguing about ‘relevance’ and ‘credibility’ until the return of cows. …
If you get paid to write about music, you have to make top ten lists at the end of the year. If you fail to do this Dave Marsh comes to your house and reads you Bruce Springsteen on Tour: 1968-2005 in its entirety. So, here goes, first with my metal …
Dear geeks, Congratulations! It is my understanding that you have taken over mainstream culture recently, and while this has caused consternation in certain quarters, I am the magnanimous sort, and besides, whenever someone says the words “culture war”, my eyes glaze over like a Honey Baked Ham. It has, however, …
It’s not that I feel sorry for Herman Cain. I don’t. He is, after all, a heartless rich asshole who couldn’t care less about people like you an me, an intellectual flea who only has one idea and a bad one at that, and very possibly a serial sexual abuser. …
It’s hard to write anything like this without seeming to endorse a second term for Barack Obama. This is difficult for me to do, since I’ve generally found Obama to be a Clintonian disappointment; he’s squandered one political opportunity after another, bowed down before the G.O.P. with barely a struggle, …
Some of the High Hat gang were updating their 100-best-movies list; I haven’t touched mine since the pre-Netflix days, and I’ve seen more movies in the last five years than I did in the 35 years before that. So I figured it was time I did the same. Alas, I …
So everyone is bitching and moaning that the awesome new debt ceiling deal is going to be bad for the economy. Liberals are all running around saying that Obama went all Cave Carson on the deal, and that all the austerity measures, which are totally necessary because America doesn’t have …
