Perpetual Damage Control

Politics, Social Issues
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 As Maddow aptly concludes, this conversation will be closely studied in the present and future, if not directly shown to journalism students. I really think this is one of the most important dialogues between the US left and right since The Great Divide, we’ll call it, aka. The 2016 Election. If Republicans were thinking […]

The Sea of Red: The Future of the Democratic Party

Politics, Social Issues

The 2016 Presidential Election was an unpleasantly shocking experience. For those of us on the left, this has been a stark reminder of the George W Bush days when we marked a reputation for ourselves that has left an everlasting stain on the world’s conscience, and now we seem to have re-initiated such a dark […]

Getting at what Matters

Human Behavior, Politics, Social Issues

The tragic death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri should never be forgotten, especially the circumstances leading up to it. Although it has been said before, there was much more than race involved in that terrible event. These problems strike at the heart of what it is to be human. In such moments, the darkness […]

Thoughtful Dissent in Obergefell v. Hodges

Politics
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Like all Supreme Court opinions, the Obergefell v. Hodges case is a required romp. Like the Windsor case, I gather that Kennedy was the author in order to give the decision a more neutral voice, and the majority opinion was intentionally much shorter than the dissent following. I think it was a good call to […]

Where did cable TV come from?

Literature, Politics
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The ABC vs. Aereo Supreme Court case opinion was a very intriguing read. Breyer, J. recounts the history of cable television, CATV. I have vague recollections of community access television, but it turns out that they started as giant antennas that picked up other public channels from very far away, and eventually from very very […]

American History: Anita Hill

Politics, Social Issues
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I have absolutely no idea where I was when this scandal broke. I did not even know it existed until about five or so years ago, when Anita Hill was making yet another comeback after Clarence Thomas’s wife, Virginia, called Ms. Hill out of the blue and asked her to apologize, subsequently apologizing herself for […]