Uncategorized
-
To Surge, With Love
“…She swallowed the spider to catch the fly— I don’t know why she swallowed the fly…” When Sen. John McCain shows up in Mississippi tonight, after two solid weeks of Wall Street bailout headlines, he and Sen. Barack Obama will square off in the most anticipated presidential debate in almost 50 years. McCain still believes…
-
A French Kiss for Spike
From skin-privilege arguments, girlfriends greasing dry scalps, 1970s street games and more, race is inarguably the thread connecting all the films in Spike Lee’s 20-year-plus career. This month, the famed Cinémathèque Française is running a Spike Lee retrospective in Paris, topped with Lee’s appearance at a preview screening of his latest, Miracle at St. Anna,…
-
Debate Prep
The first presidential debate scheduled for the University of Mississippi tonight is being held hostage be John McCain’s deep concern for the economy, but plans remain in place for the showdown, which would give Americans the first opportunity for a side-by-side comparison of the two White House hopefuls. A clear win by either side will change…
-
A Whole New Ball Game
From April to September, it is pretty easy to see what creates a good baseball team. While wins and losses fluctuate over the course of the 162-game marathon, teams with good on-base percentages (yes, teams down with OBP) have the best offenses and teams whose pitching staffs minimize walks and home runs have the best…
-
When Tom Met Sally
Once in a dry season I wrote an essay about my experiences with interracial dating that was published in the New York Times. To say the essay generated a little heat would be like saying certain Wall Street types took a little off the top. Although the vast majority of the 300-plus e-mails I received (not…
-
American Democracy, A Cautionary Tale
While the greatness of American democracy is celebrated by Obama and McCain, the rest of the free world is squinting and tilting its head at our version of egalitarianism: staggeringly expensive political campaigns, a questionably representative two-party system, a confusing and misleading electoral college and laws (and tricks) that continue to disenfranchise minorities. It also…
-
How Do Voters Make Sure They Are Ready to Vote?
There are some people who like to make it harder than necessary for others to vote. Voter-caging practices have already taken hold in this election. It was rumored that the Michigan GOP planned to use a list of foreclosed houses to bar those residents from voting. But with the way these things work, the damage…
-
Bailout for Bullies
It has taken a frightening flirtation with global economic collapse, but even George W. Bush seems to have exhausted his blind faith in the almighty market. “I’m sure there are some of my friends out there saying, I thought this guy was a market guy; what happened to him?” the president posited last weekend—while proposing…