In Praise of Folly

A look at the absurd world in which we live, through the lenses of popular culture, sports and politics.

Sunday, January 31, 2010

Congressional Success?

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An interesting article in the Washington Post today argues that this congress has actually been the most successful since the Great Society ...
Tuesday, January 26, 2010

From Bad to Worse

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This has been a bad couple of weeks for Democrats. If we add the election in November, things have been going downhill for a few months now,...
Monday, January 25, 2010

Limited Liability Personhood

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Now that the Supreme Court has further expanded the rights of corporations as individuals, I think it’s time to contemplate the issue from t...
Sunday, January 24, 2010

The Truman Show (1998)

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Is Truman Burbank the embodiment of us all? The character, played by Jim Carrey in The Truman Show (1998), won him a Golden Globe for Best A...
Saturday, January 23, 2010

Nobody Listens to What They Want

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Why do we smile when lost in sadness we lay? Why do we laugh when tears right the way? Why do we hate when we’d rather create? Stay in a ...
Thursday, January 21, 2010

Wish You Were Here

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The Supreme Court decision today is a smack in the face to democracy. Coupled with the result Tuesday, the hope the Obama presidency gave us...
Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Massachusetts Massacre

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I haven't heard anyone mention the irony that MA happens to be the first state in the country to dabble in socialized medicine, when Duk...
Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Lessons for Iran?

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I occasionally read Esquire for pleasure, usually while taking care of some daily business. There was an interesting quote from Mohamed ElBa...
Monday, January 18, 2010

Still Dominating the Debate II

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The Post continues its discussion of the Obama presidency today, with E. J. Dionne offering his analysis of the current Conservative backlas...
Sunday, January 17, 2010

Still Dominating the Debate

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Obama won a sizable election a little over a year ago. He came into office with high popularity ratings and a desire by the country for chan...
Saturday, January 16, 2010

On a Magic Ghetto Bus Ride . . .

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What do you get for someone who has everything? A private jet, a limited edition Porsche, maybe a small island in the South Pacific? Well fo...
Friday, January 15, 2010

Foreclosures, Bonuses and the STREET Goes On

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A number of articles today bring together an underlying theme of this blog. The first is from USA Today, detailing an unexpected rise in for...
Thursday, January 14, 2010

The Party that Loves to Hate

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So as Haitians are literally dying in the streets ( www.nytimes.com/2010/01/14/world/americas/14haiti.html?th&emc=th) , you assume all w...
Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Lobbying and Democracy II

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An interesting article in the National Journal yesterday ( http://undertheinfluence.nationaljournal.com/2010/01/health-insurers-funded-chamb...
Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Lobbying and Democracy

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Some facts from Harper's Index this month: # of registered drug-company lobbyists in DC for every member of Congress: 2 Average amoun...
Monday, January 11, 2010

GOP: “Jump!” --> Media: “How High?”

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Item 1: The mainstream media in America has grown increasingly absurd in their obsequious acquiescence to any subject Republicans claim as i...
Saturday, January 09, 2010

Bud Lite Blows

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Or at least one wonders if the bottle does, given their latest commercial. In it a young woman is asking her date/boyfriend about who he wou...
Thursday, January 07, 2010

Art as Propaganda

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Mark Laita is a New York/Los Angeles artist who has just released a new book, "Created Equal." In the book he juxtaposes images of...
Tuesday, January 05, 2010

The Lunatic Fringe Goes Mainstream

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Just whenI thought the tea baggers and Sarah Palin were the far right of the party, I learned crackpot ideas are back in the mainstream of t...
Sunday, January 03, 2010

The Party of No: Part II

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There is a good article in the Washington Post today, detailing the quandary of California and how it may foreshadow a continuation and ampl...

Top Ten Films of 2009

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Here is my list of the best films I have seen this year. I have missed some critically acclaimed films (including Hurt Locker, Capitalism: A...
Saturday, January 02, 2010

The Party of No

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Republicans have shown an adroit tendency to enact the material instantiation of postmodern ideas in the past decade. First was the recount ...
Friday, January 01, 2010

Movie Review: Up in the Air (2009)

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Up in the Air is receiving rave reviews. George Clooney is winning renewed accolades as the cynical corporate traveler Ryan Bingham, Vera F...
Thursday, December 31, 2009

Movie Review: Avatar

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I had very little interest in seeing this film, based largely on commercials that made it appear as a B-movie blockbuster wannabe epic and t...

Hypocrisy 101

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Sometimes Republican hypocrisy is cute, sometimes it is funny and sometimes it is downright despicable. The latest terrorist attempt has all...
Saturday, December 26, 2009

New York, New York

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So when one thinks of unhappy places to live, New Jersey and Connecticut come directly to mind. Maybe also Louisiana post-Katrina or the omi...
Monday, November 16, 2009

Unfriend Joins the Lexicon

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Drumroll please . . . the word of the year, according to The New Oxford Dictionary, is unfriend: http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/20...
Friday, November 13, 2009

NFL/NCAA: No Fun for Anyone!

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A few weeks ago, a series of penalties in a big college football game helped to decide the outcome (as I don't really care about college...
Thursday, November 12, 2009

Gossip Girl Talent Just Too Big to Contain on TV Screen Alone

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Remember when bands struggled through years of poverty and degradation to get a shot at success. Thankfully we have all but eliminated this ...
Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Healthcare Reform or Conservative Revanchism?

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The healthcare debate has, in many ways, taken on a relatively surreal tone in the past few months (Obama as a socialist, fascist Hitler-lik...
Monday, November 09, 2009

Teabaggers Go Trolling

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I’m going to let the words of the Teabaggers largely speak for themselves this week: http://www.americablog.com/2009/11/teabaggers-attack-ho...
Sunday, November 08, 2009

The Next Better Thing

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I have always been interested in the ways that culture influences our beliefs, values and attitudes. I am particularly interested in the inf...
Saturday, November 07, 2009

GDP and Quality of Life

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A report out yesterday showed the unemployment rate above 10% and the unemployment and underemployment number at over 17% ( www.nytimes.com/...

Reinventing the Wheel?

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For years I have been listening to people warn me against “reinventing the wheel.” It makes sense and though I cringe every time I hear it (...
Wednesday, November 04, 2009

The Land of the Free . . . For Some

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The results of the same sex marriage ban in Maine are somewhat disheartening to those attempting to end one of the last forms of government ...
Tuesday, November 03, 2009

Terminate the Terminator Franchise

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Terminator Salvation, the fourth installation in the Terminator series, is a major disappointing, putting the latest Star Trek triumph into ...

Election Results

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Interesting results in the election tonight. It is clearly a good night for Republicans, but some interesting results could bode well for De...
Sunday, November 01, 2009

Movie Review: Couples Retreat

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A friend dragged me to see Couples Retreat on Friday night. Even with a $70 million budget, $87 million in gross domestic sales, Vince Vahn ...
Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Fatcat Republicans . . . or not

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I haven't been posting as much because of a busy semester and now three in one day. I couldn't help myself. So John Corzine is runni...

Business Seeks to Bottleneck Reform

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The very group that helped get us into our current financial collapse wants to make sure the status quo is maintained: http://dyn.politico.c...

Cut-service Tax Cuts

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In recent years, any economic expansion is met by calls for tax cuts. Bush used that long lost surplus of 2000 to, what else, cut taxes. Sta...
Tuesday, October 06, 2009

University Inc. - The Corporatization of American Higher Education

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A new book has just come out, Wannabe U: Inside the Corporate University (University of Chicago Press): www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/10/...
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