politics Tag

The 2016 presidential elections will be fierce. With no eligible incumbent, the nation is braced for the political season that has already begun – its starting gun signified by the media peeping at prospective nominees viable to survive what promises to be an attritional war of primaries and the always fierce and final push toward the general election. Like any show dog or pageant contestant trying to win over the hearts of an American electorate, the political parties are grooming and prodding their candidates to form an ideal appeal. DamningRead More

  I’ve been thinking a lot about feminism lately, particularly in light of the #YesAllWomen campaign. I’ve come to the conclusion that we’re in trouble. All of us. We’ve become complacent.  And that sucks. I suddenly hang out with a lot of women in their early 20s. They are smart, sharp and afraid. They tell me that they can’t walk the streets alone during the day without being harassed. When they go to college they are given classes instructing them on how not to be raped.  That they can’t walkRead More

The @SafeAmericaAct #SAA Part 1 of a 6-Part Series on the need for Emergency Legislation and Societal Action to Curb Gun Violence and Mass-Shootings   We all remember the names.  They elicit a visceral reaction from the depths of our humanity. Columbine. The seemingly benign names become infamous overnight. Aurora. As the names, places, and horrific scenes play out in front of our television screens we wonder…Why us? Virginia Tech. What is it about us, the United States, the “land of the free and the home of the brave.” Sandy Hook.Read More

“Being a patriot doesn’t mean prioritizing service to government above all else. Being a patriot means knowing when to protect your country, knowing when to protect your Constitution, knowing when to protect your countrymen, from the violations of and encroachments of adversaries. And those adversaries don’t have to be foreign countries.” – Edward Snowden     All of Snowden’s actions, up to this point, indicate that he is one of the few people who knows what our government is capable of, and has our best interests in mind. There areRead More

So, lets talk about this Bowe Bergdahl business. Or rather, I’m going to tell you why you should be mad about it. You don’t have to agree; in fact, if you have a dissenting opinion, please share it below. But in my opinion, this is the situation as it stands.   Our President, Barack Obama, released five high-risk Guantanamo Bay Prisoners in exchange for one American Soldier. At first, that doesn’t look so terrible. So our price is 5:1. That doesn’t mean much if it means that one of ourRead More

In yet another shocking, yet not-at-all-surprising move, our good ol’ pal and perfectly sane Führer, Vladimir Putin, has decided to take his totalitarian deathgrip on the Russian subcontinent one large squeeze further. Mulling it over for a solid couple minutes and passing it to a vote in the Russian Congress, if you can even call it that, made up of Czar Putin I, His Highness Putin, Vlad The Putin, and Vladimir Putin, Putin decided that the whole gay hate thing was simply not enough for him – hatred unless theyRead More

After 10 long years of silence, Monica Lewinsky is BACK and discussing in Vanity Fair magazine how she deeply regrets her fling with President Clinton. She claims she was taken advantage of and preyed on. However, she does still stand by her original words that it was a consensual relationship.  Lewinsky says she will be focusing her life on helping victims of harassment and humiliation. Oh Monica. That’s great you want to help out others but I love that you’re playing the victim after all these years. You knew exactlyRead More

Please note: It is highly recommended that you step off your Pussy Riot pedestal prior to reading this article. Now, ladies: We do not shed all responsibility for our actions the moment we start drinking. Responsible adults are able to make responsible decisions. “I was SO drunk” is not an excuse. You do not become a victim the moment you suck down your first vodka tonic. Women love to blame men for just about everything that happens during a night out, but let’s be honest—you know your limit and ifRead More

The TV Series, “Cosmos,” has shown a new generation of viewers what Carl Sagan did for an earlier one.  New Host, Neil deGrasse Tyson, has shown over the last few weeks how amazing and inspiring our “Cosmos” can be.  However, that sense of wonder and awe is not reflected in the way the United States government views the agency most responsible for this, NASA. The funding for NASA has steadily lost priority in the eyes of the budget makers in Washington.  We are currently at our lowest rate since theRead More

It seems the internet isn’t serving its function unless there’s something that everyone is foaming at the mouth about. Case and point: the recent upheaval surrounding a certain Duke underclassman that has sparked the largest feminist discussion this side of a Women’s Studies class. If for some reason you don’t know what I’m talking about, perhaps this will refresh your memory: This little story sent the blogs, forums, online publications and YouTube channels into a tailspin over the past week. It seems everyone from Huffington Post to The Daily BeastRead More

Last week, Duke University’s student-run newspaper, The Chronicle, reported a story that has since become a viral phenomenon: a freshman girl at the university, referred to only as “Lauren,”  is working as a porn “star” to help pay for her tuition (not sure why every porn actress is referred to as a “star,” but that is a discussion for another time). Predictably, this discussion has led to an all-out shitstorm in our society, which seems to be more accepting of alternative lifestyles by the day – for better and for worse. In noRead More

Before you have a rage stroke, that’s not just another clickbait headline. It’s true and I’ll tell you why. First, let’s back up and take a moment to bask in the majesty of the Internet. In terms of sheer size, scope, and overall effect on humanity, it’s a pretty sweet invention–maybe even one of the most important inventions of all human history. (Obviously, the #1 most important will always be melted cheese.) Almost everything in the developed world has been revolutionized by and now depends on the internet: shopping, universityRead More