Not many films in our time have produced the outraged frenzy of political activists and elected officials alike quite like Kathryn Bigelow’s latest film, “Zero Dark Thirty.” The movie depicts the CIA’s decade-long search for Osama bin Laden and, through the eyes of one CIA officer, shows the various intelligence-gathering techniques used to locate the … Read more
Quentin Tarantino has always been known as the premiere “shock jock” of cinema, and that reputation does not falter in Django Unchained. The slave-era journey of a freeman-turned-hitman (Jamie Foxx as Django) and his white owner/partner (Christoph Waltz) on a mission to save Django’s enslaved wife (Kerri Washington) had about as much blood as it … Read more
Suppose I pitched you a blog called, “The Ugly, Uneducated, and Morally Unsophisticated Women of OKCupid Who Don’t Deserve To Have Sex With Me.” Per the title, I would search OKCupid (a dating site) for women I judged to be insufficiently fit, according to my exacting sexual standards, and then I would post their profile … Read more
On July 9, 1971, a team of American officials stopped for a short rest in a Himalayan hill station. What followed, as then Secretary of State Henry Kissinger recalls, was the most dramatic event of the Nixon presidency. It was the first diplomatic visit between the United States and the People’s Republic of China, and … Read more
As an MSNBC host and editor-at-large of The Nation, Chris Hayes has written extensively on liberalism and labor politics; and as a fellow at Harvard University’s Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics, he has worked on issues of socioeconomic inequality. It is this political and analytic background that Hayes brings to bear upon his … Read more
Walter White (Photo credit: Wikimedia) When life gives you lemons, make meth—at least under Walter White’s (a)moral calculus. Confronted with terminal lung cancer, a teenage son with cystic fibrosis, and an unexpected pregnancy, Walt begins cooking meth to provide for his family. A serial Emmy winner, Breaking Bad chronicles the dark metamorphosis of Mr. White, … Read more
On April 11th, 2012, rapper Brandon “Lil B” McCartney gave a speech to a packed lecture hall at New York University. In his 80-minute, ad-libbed address, Lil B spoke on love, understanding, and his responsibilities as a role model. That same month, Lil B released a song called “MMMMMMMM DAMN,” which features the lyric “Fuck what … Read more
It is something many of us notice: some countries are just better at keeping their people wealthier and happier than others. This, roughly speaking, is what economic development is about: countries making their GDP grow and their citizens wealthy and healthy. Unfortunately, not all countries have the same level of development, nor have they ever. … Read more
The West Nile Virus outbreak this year has been one of the worst on record. As of September 25, there have been 3,545 cases, with almost 40 percent of those in Texas. Recently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported a deceleration in the number of new West Nile Virus cases, which suggests the season … Read more
Now that we’re a few episodes deep into the first season of Aaron Sorkin’s The Newsroom, its similarities with The West Wing are obvious. Unlike its older brother, however, The Newsroom has been derided as “patronizing,” “pretentious,” and, sadly, “naïve.” But why? One would think that the strength of Sorkin’s formula would win out. Like … Read more