Essential Video: Jeremy Scahill on Reason TV
by J. Andrew Zalucky
“If McCain had been elected, Liberals would be crying impeachment over some of the things Obama’s done.”
No More Excuses, This is Serious
by J. Andrew Zalucky
So, just to wrap up the events of the last few days, we’ve seen some pretty stunning revelations come out of The Guardian newspaper: the NSA collection of phone records of millions of Americans, of the top-secret PRISM program, and the NSA’s tool to track global surveillance data.
Yeesh. With actual news like this, who needs conspiracy theories?
Star Trek Into Darkness: Getting Us Past 9/11
by Andrew Parker
[This article contains spoilers to the film. That said, what are you doing?! Go see it!]
by J. Andrew Zalucky
A couple months ago, I was pumped to see one of my favorite bands, Protest the Hero successfully crowd-fund the production of their new album. Anyone who would like to see the details can check out the Indiegogo page and can check out the video too:
Broadening Our Horizons: A Note to Our Readers
by J. Andrew Zalucky
(Photo: h.koppdelaney)
2 years ago, my friend Andrew Parker and I founded this website with one mission: to express our political opinions, and take it from there. In the past, I had started out with a blog called The Pandora’s Box, where I basically wrote about…well, everything I was interested in. But this created a problem: while multiple topics can make for a diverse readership, it can also alienate part of that same audience when you focus on one thing more than another. If you write 3 articles in a row about music, you might drive away people who want to read about history or politics, and so on. So with that, I split my writing into focusing on just Politics here and Metal over at Metal Injection. For a couple years, this has worked out nicely and allowed for the writers here to focus on delivering some sharp political analysis and commentary.
Raging Bull: A Snapshot of Spain in Crisis
by J. Andrew Zalucky
Spain has gone through a tough few years. A financial crisis spreading across the globe, followed by the sovereign debt crisis in the Eurozone have left the country with a massive unemployment rate and seemingly little hope for the future. Though you wouldn’t necessarily be able to tell when you visit one of its greatest cities: Barcelona.
The Shame of Mass Incarceration in America
by Blayne Sapelli
The United States today is in a real crisis. Over the past 40 years, the US prison population has exploded into the largest system of mass incarceration in the world. We imprison a higher percentage of our population than Russia, China, Iran, and many other nations, with the possible exception of North Korea, but even this embarrassing comparison is not totally certain.
Perhaps to some, this is a point of pride, or American exceptionalism. Maybe this is what “We’re number one!” is really all about. The imprisonment of a full 1% of our adult population.
Many of us do have a certain instinct which says: these people committed crimes, and a crime warrants a punishment.
But that impulsive response only begs the question: what is a crime?
by J. Andrew Zalucky
Of course, right when I go leave for a two-week vacation to Europe, three massive scandals involving the President decide to blow wide open. Gee thanks events, you couldn’t wait to turn before I got back!? Actually it doesn’t matter so much, perhaps my time away allowed me to better collect my thoughts on each of these issues.
The one crucial point with the Benghazi, the Associated Press, and the IRS scandals is this: don’t lose the wider narrative at play here, don’t lose sight of the bigger picture.
Eric Harroun, Jabhat al-Nusra, and the Right to Fight
[photo from Eric Harroun's Facebook]
by Andrew Parker
I was deeply disappointed to hear that Eric Harroun, an American citizen who fought against the Assad regime in Syria, has been charged for his actions there in federal court.
Politics in Music: All Along the Red, White, and Blue
by J. Andrew Zalucky
After a taking a short break from the series, let’s dive back into our exploration of the fusion between music and politics and look to another icon of the 1960′s: Jimi Hendrix.
Jimi Hendrix embodies everything that was great about classic rock. His songs were able to explore and yet maintain a catchy sensibility that easily resonates with the listener. As a frontman, he brought together one of the greatest ensembles rock music has ever known, and his singing was nothing to sneer at either. And of course, he showed so much brilliance and vision with his guitar playing, that his songs still sound fresh and exciting today. In other words, if you find yourself being forced to listen to classic rock radio, Hendrix is one of the few artists the stations haven’t managed to kill off- because it’s almost impossible to do so.
