The bad economy is hitting all parts of the country hard and in many different ways. One example concerns public schools and the moneys allocated to them. In Miami, Florida, the county’s school budget is based on a combination of state funding and local property taxes. When property values in Miami-Dade County began to decline three years ago, [...]
What’s Really Happening in Afghanistan
As you read this, the House of Representatives are gearing up to vote on spending another $34 Billion to fund the war on Afghanistan. Call your Representative NOW to stop funding this war, at 1-888-493-5443 (a special number set up by the Friends Committee on National Legislation to keep track of the number of calls made) and tell them to stop sending your tax money on war.
The Haitian Earthquake Six Months Later: One Woman’s Struggle to Save Her Homeland
When a 7.2-magnitude earthquake shook Haiti on January 12, 2010, the country not only experienced a devastating transformation of the physical landscape, but the widespread destruction would beckon the reunification of a commitment to a country that many had left or forgotten.
Mad Men, “Public Relations”: The Rebranding of Don Draper
Last night’s Mad Men episode, which kicked off the show’s fourth season, starts with a question: “Who is Don Draper?” Isn’t that what the show’s been exploring for the past three seasons? Mad Men has always been about identity, especially from a marketing and advertising perspective, as characters struggle to shape and manipulate the way [...]
Inception: A Thriller For Your Brain
Inception has saved the summer. No matter what happens the rest of the summer, with each film release from now until Labor Day, rest assured as moviegoers because one breathtakingly brilliant film has reached our cinemas. Some years are not treated to a film as good as Christopher Nolan’s masterpiece, a film wound so intricately [...]
Twilight of the Gods: Metropolis Redux
Of all the great silent films, few approach the curiously hip appeal of Metropolis, director Fritz Lang’s 1927 futuristic German classic. It was the Cleopatra or Heaven’s Gate of its day, nearly bankrupting the studio—Ufa—that produced it. Yet its influence, principally in Lang’s extraordinary visual design, has been monumental. More than 80 years after its [...]
Say Goodnight, Leo: A Review of Inception
Even before the summer started, perhaps no other major Hollywood release created more anticipation than Inception, a potential sci-fi blockbuster about a team of cerebral thieves who break into people’s dreams and steal their deepest, most lucrative secrets. With Leonardo DiCaprio on board and writer and director Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight) at the helm, [...]
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Mind & Body
Paths of Truth and Progress Part I: Two Ailing and Discordant Worldviews
Is humankind in the midst of a radical and unprecedented transmutation of its collective society? On the surface, we can witness well-known changes. These can be labeled beneficial, such as in radical advances in computer and medical technology. Or changing circumstances exist as challenges, such as in debilitating disparity between rich and poor, globalized economic insecurity, [...]
Environment
Styrofoam Spill
I’m facing a moral and environmental dilemma and I’m not sure what to do. Earlier today I was ready to march up to my landlord’s door, (let’s call him Russell) and um, and, yes I would…well, and my plan got stuck there at inception because what would I do? Berate him for cutting squares of [...]
Mind & Body
Not Just for Toddlers Anymore: Why You Should Be Taking the Time to Nap
When I became a freelance writer, I had a pretty good idea that it was going to happen. I tried to avoid it by making appointments in the afternoon, I told myself that my willpower was strong enough to prevent it, but, deep down, I knew it was unavoidable: I would become a napper.
Current Events, Politics & Economy
Are Violent Video Games Free Speech?
The Supreme Court is considering legislation barring minors from purchasing M-rated, so-called violent video games. What the California legislation being considered by the Supreme Court really gets at is the idea of legislating content that we might find objectionable – even if there is no material basis to do so on the behalf of the public good.
Creating Solutions
Major Issues Facing America: The Obesity Crisis
This article is the first of 12 articles in a series that will explore some major issues facing America and what can be done about them. The first issue on the agenda is the obesity crisis. Other issues I plan to address are immigration, health care, terrorism, LGBT rights, the economy and education etc. If [...]
Culture & History
Former Black Panther Kathleen Cleaver’s Fights For Land and Justice
A large piece of land on the coast of Georgia is the center of a battle over rights and ownership. Kathleen Cleaver, former Black Panther, Civil Rights activist and co-director of the Human Rights Research Fund, has joined efforts with the Harris Neck Land Trust. Today I wish to share my interview with Cleaver. [...]
Literature, Media & Entertainment
The End of the Replacement Era
This article is part two of a series outlining the current state of the music industry, and how we got here. For those of you who are unaware, the record industry has seen a steady decline in record sales since the year 2000. As discussed in my previous article, Illegal Downloading, record sales in the [...]
Gender & Feminism
That’s Amore: A Review of I Am Love
When people talk about our so-called postmodern era, one presumption is that creative artists have somehow absorbed the modernist triumphs and now borrow from them in all sorts of self-conscious ways that range from clever pastiche to flagrant piracy. That may have been true in the heady sixties and seventies, but the creative arts today [...]
Current Events, Politics & Economy
Stanley McChrystal The Great Red Herring
You know, it’s a shame that Stanley McChrystal had terrible things to say about the people he worked with, and now the media airwaves are saturated with ridiculous back and forth analysis of what happened. In case you missed it, the General has been fired due to comments he made to Rolling Stone–and now there’s [...]
Literature, Media & Entertainment
4 Reasons the Recording Industry is Hurting: Illegal Downloading
It’s no secret that the Recording Industry has hit a rough patch over the last decade. In order to better explain the situation, I will present four of the key reasons that this has happened. Today, I will delve into the most obvious reason for the free fall. Why save the most obvious for last, [...]
Culture & History
McChrystal is not MacArthur!
Upon hearing about Rolling Stone’s article involving General Stanley McChrystal and the unprofessional remarks he had made concerning President Obama and members of his security team, I could not help but think back to another, more infamous general in American history that had openly badmouthed the Commander-in-Chief and threatened to usurp his power in the [...]
English
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