Last week I briefly mentioned that in the ongoing debate about trimming the deficit the one sacred cow the Republican Party seems resistant to cut is the defense budget. This week, I’d like to talk about it a lot more than briefly. Ever since the height of the Cold War, America has become the exact…
Petty Issues Week 2
Joe Biden is the Fredo Corleone of Vice Presidents. If Obama doesn’t ditch him and trade up (I’m looking at the lady who should have been offered the job in 2012, Hillary Clinton) we can look forward to the Dumb and Dumber Presidency of Mike Huckabee and Sarah Palin. God I hope The Social Network…
Now What? (Life Post-Grad): Network Connectivity Problems, What to do When You Don’t Know Anyone Useful
Last week we talked about how brutal the job market can be without experience. This week we should talk about how brutal it can be if you don’t know anyone. Generation Z or Generation Next or Generation Wireless or whatever the hell our generation of socially retarded, 30 year old brats surfing facebook 4 hours…
The Fast Food Critic: Today’s Review is The McRib
If there is such a thing as snooty fast food, it would be the McRib. The legendarily elusive McDonald’s sandwich is never available in all stores nationwide, it is never available at a single store year round, and pops up across the country at random stores with no rhyme, reason, or release pattern. It doesn’t…
Working Class Economist: If a Bank Doesn’t Know Your Name, Bank Somewhere Else
Last week I encouraged people to ditch their credit card for anything but the most extreme of situations—and there aren’t many—in order to avoid the cancer sweeping the nation: credit card debt. This week I’m asking you to ditch your bank. Not any bank you might have, but a very specific variety: the one that…
Red State Vs. Blue State: The Two Beer Debate
After approximately thirty seconds of soul searching (and not a moment longer) on why last week’s debate might have went south—Alabama pun, get it—I decided it must have been because I knew the person I was debating, so I set out to debate a complete stranger this week. At first, I was unsure of where…
Down & Out in Bumblefuck: The Rural News
It’s no big news to anyone that U.S. soldiers are disproportionately from rural areas, and more are from the Southeast than any other region of the country. What isn’t widely known is that 2010 had the highest suicide rate of returning veterans in U.S. history. This Friday I’ll hope to ask an Afghanistan veteran why…
Finally in Bumblefuck Part Two: Blue Valentine is Greeted with a Shoulder Shrug in Alabama
As I identified last week in my review of 127 Hours, some movies in limited release take a while to get to Alabama. Some movies never come, and some wish they never had. Blue Valentine might be an example of the latter. I’ll start by saying I like this prickly, difficult film about a young…
No Strings Attached Vs. Season of the Witch: When a Sincere Dud is Judged More Harshly Than an Ironic One
First off let me acknowledge that I am waaay behind the eight ball in reviewing these films about a month after their release. I saw both of them before the blog was started and I figured, hell, if I had to sit through both of these movies the least I could do is write a…
Seth Rogen: The Godfather of fat, charmless sidekick roles becomes an action hero. And Doesn’t Change All That Much to Do It
In The Green Hornet Seth Rogen plays a fat, hard partying loud mouth who stumbles into being an action hero. The role is a huge departure for Rogen who has played a fatter, pothead loud mouth who stumbles into being a porn star in Zach & Miri Make a Porno, a fugitive in Pineapple Express,…
TV Review of Big Love: Is HBO Still Worth It?
We all know HBO’s legendary roster of some of the greatest shows ever made (The Wire, The Sopranos, Rome, Deadwood, The Larry Sanders Show, and countless others) but taking a look at its schedule you can’t wonder if HBO’s best days are behind it. The Sopranos—its last unqualified hit with both audiences and Emmy voters—is…
Mom Jokes, resending the best joke my mom emailed me last week:
A woman walks into a used pet store and notices a beautiful parrot is only 20 dollars. Shocked, the woman asks, “Why is that bird so cheap?” The pet store owner explains that the bird used to belong to a whorehouse and the bird had picked up a lot of bad language and remembered a…
The Black Elephant in the Room and the White Lion on the Rooftop: Why People Won’t Say They Hate Obama Because He’s Black but Will Say They Hate Him Because of His “Religion”
“I am uncomfortable with a black President.” You won’t ever hear these seven, direct words uttered out loud about Obama, but you will hear people say everything except it. I have heard people hate him. I have heard he’s not really black (although he’s black enough for the same white people to never let him…