- What the Hell Happened to James Brown? (12/26/2006) - David McReynolds laments the now-obvious gap in his record collection, and asks where is a good place to start with James Brown. And, since he also laments the lack of consideration of arts and culture in our little corner of the the movement, and I need an excuse to get my nose out of health care policy textbooks, I'm wrtiting to recommend "JB40." Ordinarily, I agree with that old "Kids in the Hall" joke that… …
- The Land Where It’s Never Christmas (12/24/2006) - The Guardian of London has a heart-warming seasonal story about a small town called North Pole in Alaska, where it's Christmas 365 days a year and all the town's residents (including the school children) answer "letters to Santa" that come in from around the world. Last spring, a group of about a dozen of North Pole's sixth graders were caught "making a list and checking it twice." Their Columbine-style massacre plot was narrowly thwarted. Perhaps… …
- Cults Bands of the “80’s-90’s” (12/24/2006) - The other day I was debating who might be the "most influential bands of the 90's," which is a more polite way of saying "whose fault are the 00's (uh-oh's)," which is awfully unfair to a host of excellent bands. It's not their fault that popular music fractured into a multitude of sub-genres, or that mass media melted down into niches like blogs and podcasts. It's certainly not their fault that rock and roll is… …
- Hershey’s Corporate Kiss-Off (12/23/2006) - This article was originally published in the January-February 2003 issue of "The Socialist." The recent announcement by the trust that operates the Hershey Industrial School that it was considering selling a large stake in the Hershey Foods Corporation set off waves of protest in the town of Hershey, PA, that eventually sunk the proposal. What kind of company town has effective veto power over its corporate benefactor's business plans? Clearly, Hershey is a company town… …
- We Are Improving to Serve You Better (12/22/2006) - I'm in the process of switching the blarg from Blosxom software to WordPress, which might involve a radical overhaul of the ancient content on the dot org. To prepare, just in case, I'm posting some older writing on the blarg, so that it can be archived here, instead of as dusty old html. First up is my oft-reproduced Marxist analysis of the film "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory." The article began life as a… …
- Health Care’s “Death Spiral” (12/10/2006) - In "Uninsured in America," Susan Starr Sered and Rushika Fernandopulle attempt to find out "where the bodies are buried" in our health care system where over 45 million people have no insurance. The book is a patchwork of profiles of people who got sick at times when they lacked insurance and the often devastating effects this had on their lives. The authors, who describe this phenomenon as the "death spiral," don't find so many bodies… …
- Why No National Health Care? (12/3/2006) - The United States has the best health care that money can buy, provided one has the money to buy it. Jill Quadagno's "One Nation Uninsured" answers the question "Why the U.S. has no national health insurance." It's a brisk, engaging read that neatly summarizes how 90 years of failed reform efforts have entrenched the powerful interests that profit from the system. The most prominent early opponents of a national health service were the doctors themselves.… …
- New (To Me) Record Round-Up (11/16/2006) - "Enemies Like This." Radio 4. I root for Radio 4 like I root for the Mets. They're the home team (if you can call Williamsburg anyone's home) and they deserve to win. I'm not sure that this is the record that will make them stars, however. The propulsive poly-percussion and Gang of Four-style slashing guitars are still there, but after the first four tracks it all starts to lose steam. "Big Star, Small World." Various.… …
- The Elusive Third Party of the People (11/12/2006) - The Green Party failed to regain ballot status in New York on Tuesday. With its superior budget and no threat to the two-party system, the Working Families Party easily retained its ballot line. We have a new, independent socialist Senator in Vermont, although his Progressive Party studiously avoided incurring the wrath of the Democrats by not contesting any major elections. This is a disappointing time for supporters of an independent people's party. The Green Party… …
- Cultural Learnings of America (11/11/2006) - Your honor, it was the beer talking. Not me. It's a lame excuse coming from Mel Gibson when he's caught being himself (a sexist, anti-Semite yob), but even lamer when coming from drunken frat boys being drunken frat boys, on camera no less! The unnamed frat boys in question were the ignominious stars of "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan." I don't need to tell you that Borat is… …