Violence, resistance and protest
I'm thinking about violence a lot lately. It seems appropriate, now, to write about it, as we just saw actions around the U.S. to commemorate the anniversary of nonviolent activist Martin Luther...
Category: North America
Gadhafi and the West: Two Sides of the Same Coin
Philosophers and scientists have long proposed theories in which duality is the propelling force of movement and progress - the philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel's dialectic offered a process...
The Flawed Religion of Anti-Choice and Anti-Contraception Politics
Every sperm is sacred, goes the old Monty Python song, but it might well be the new motto of the Republican Party in 2011. Since their victory in 2010 midterms, Republican politicians (with a few...
Are Women A Class? Wal-Mart’s Gender Discrimination Lawsuit
The gender discrimination lawsuit against Wal-Mart is over ten years old. It began in 2000, with a woman named Betty Dukes, who had then been employed as a greeter for nearly six years. She alleged...
Review – Brokering Belonging: Chinese in Canada’s Exclusion Era
Lisa Rose Mar, Brokering Belonging: Chinese in Canada's Exclusion Era 1885-1945 (Oxford University Press, 201o). In Brokering Belonging, Lisa Rose Mar brings a fresh perspective to Chinese-Canadian...
It’s Now or Never for Wisconsin Workers
After more than three weeks of protest, Wisconsin Republicans finally found a way to push through their draconian labor bill stripping public workers of collective bargaining rights. Governor Scott...
Secret Millionaire: The Fairy Godmother Fantasies of the Ruling Class
The promotionals for ABC's version of Secret Millionaire, yet another UK show being remade in the United States (as well as Australia), promise viewers a series where people with pots of money will...
Comic Masculinity: The Three Faces of Charlie Sheen
Charlie Sheen has three faces. Not a day goes by without the publication of several new articles analyzing Sheen's increasingly bizarre exploits (including, of course, this one) but, strangely, they...
TV’s Castle gets serious… and loses its way
ABC's Castle wrapped up March sweeps with a two-parter episode to lure viewers in, perhaps with the goal of combating a ratings slip. It seemed to work; 8.99 million viewers tuned in for 'Setup' and...
A Conversation with Oscar-nominated “Gasland” Director Josh Fox
I tend to prefer reviewing documentary features to fiction, not because of any affinity for reality over fantasy, but because a bad doc just tends to be less painful to sit through than a mediocre...