- Five and a Half Dollar Movie Round-up (5/5/2005) - "Palindromes" is unremittingly bleak and cynical. Todd Solondz' latest begins with the funeral of Dawn Weiner, the heroine of his earlier, funnier "Welcome to the Dollhouse." The alluded-to date rape and suicide of his beloved character signals the film's non-stop assault on hopefulness. His next victim is a cousin of Dawn's, 13-year-old Aviva, who wants nothing more than to have "lots and lots of babies." That innocent desire takes her from dispassionate, cringe-inducing underage sex… …
- A Socialist In the Senate? (5/4/2005) - Come 2006, the state of Vermont may be represented by an independent socialist in the U.S. Senate. Jim Jeffords, the former Republican Senator who went independent in protest of the Bush agenda, announced last month that he will not seek re-election. Bernie Sanders, Vermont's sole representative in the House and an independent as well, quickly announced his intention to run for Jeffords' seat. Sanders has long served in public office as an independent, beginning with… …
- Expanding My Media Empire (5/3/2005) - In my continuing effort to expand my media empire, the Blarg is now syndicated on LiveJournal. If you have an LJ account, you can add my Blarg to your "friends" list by going here. I'm trying to solve the mystery of why all posts are given the same date and time as the last article posted. I'm running Blosxom. If you can provide any help, I'd greatly appreciate it. Otherwise, I'm going to keep tinkering… …
- Get Back In Line (5/1/2005) - Today is May Day, the international holiday of the working class, a celebration of our labor unions and our rich history of struggle. I marched, along with 40,000 comrades, past the United Nations, across 42nd street and back up 6th avenue to Central Park for nuclear abolition and an end to the war in Iraq. Back home, spinning a Kinks CD, I am inexplicably drawn to an anti-union song, "Get Back In Line." Ray Davies,… …
- Florida Creates Poster Child for Reproductive Rights (4/30/2005) - Florida, America's Wang, has been the most shameless corner of the vast right-wing conspiracy for years now. A phenomenon recently lampooned by Tom Tomorrow, policy makers in Florida pick the most ridiculous fights to stoke the flames of their supporters' torch-and-pitchfork ensembles, even if the fights are completely contradictory to their own rhetoric. Now comes the latest, a judge has ruled that a 13-year-old girl cannot decide for herself to have an abortion. Judge Ronald… …
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- The Torch, Rekindled (4/26/2005) - The blue-line proofs of the new issue of "The Torch" came back from the printer today. Perhaps it was the contact high from the weird blue ink they use, but I'm really excited with the way it turned out. The Torch is the Journal of the Young People's Socialist League. It's my first issue as editor in five years. I am a little long in the tooth for any kind of young people's league, but,… …
- Wal-Mart, Wal-Mart, Wal-Mart (4/25/2005) - A new-to-me website called Wal-Mart Watch is countering Wal-Mart's "Made in America" rhetoric with details on Wal-Mart's sweatshop factories in China. More good ammo as you take on Wal-Mart. They ask people with websites to link to them using the word Wal-Mart. See, Google and other search engines base their result, at least partly, on how many instances a certain term is linked to a certain URL. Websites that expose the true costs of Wal-Mart's… …
- Shaun Needs a Friend (4/24/2005) - It's become pretty obvious that I am in desperate need of a new friend; the kind whose friendship and loyalty are entirely dependent on my paying for dinner and providing a place to spend the night, the kind who'll tear up my papers, scratch my furniture and get hair everywhere. Enough pulling dying cats out of the gutter, it's time to adopt a pet. I've been thinking for awhile about getting a cat. They seemed… …
- What’s the Frequency, Leslie? (4/22/2005) - The Writers Guild of America, East, has been without a contract with the major networks since the first of April. The networks are demanding concessions in wages and work rules. The union will be staging a lunchtime rally in front of the CBS Broadcast Center (located at 524 West 57th Street) next Wednesday, the 27th of April, from 1:00 until 2:00. If you are free, you should go, not only because you support union workers… …
- Beer: The Cause of, and Solution to, All of Life’s Problems (4/21/2005) - It turns out I have at least two things in common with Warren Buffett, the shrewd billionaire. We've both disliked Bush for some time, and now it seems that we've both been investing in beer in this lousy economy. Of course, my investment has been a pint at a time, while Buffett "has become a significant shareholder" in Anheuser-Busch. In my role as a trustee for the American Socialist Foundation, I've recently been focusing a… …
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