On Tuesday, I told you about ReaganBook, the new social network for conservatives. ReaganBook’s biggest selling point was that it could be a home for conservatives who have been flagged for hate speech after posting anti-gay tirades on Facebook. “They kick people off for having an unpopular belief like being in favor of [straight] marriage,” […]
Paul Constant
Posted inTech
One Laptop Per Child Is Not a Solution for Education Woes
For years now, politicians as diverse as Newt Gingrich and Angus King have proposed giving laptops to every single public school student. At WNYC, Jill Barshay reports on a free laptop program at Hoboken Junior Senior High School. Spoiler alert: Five years later, the program is ending. By the time Jerry Crocamo, a computer network […]
Posted inTech
I Joined ReaganBook, a Facebook for Bigots
Get a load of these white-hairs laughing at Facebook marching in a Pride parade at the ReaganBook announcement: ReaganBook is “a Facebook for patriots,” but it really ought to be called “a Facebook for bigots,” since one of the main selling points for ReaganBook is that it will allow you to spread hate speech. (They […]
Posted inComic Books
Now That Nerds Run Everything, San Diego Comic-Con Has Become Irrelevant
I guess I don’t understand the point of San Diego Comic-Con anymore. It used to be the event where the comic book industry revealed their most exciting plans for the year ahead, but now those announcements are spread around to all the various conventions, especially New York Comic Con and Chicago Comic Con. For a […]
Posted inNews
NYPD Allegedly Continues to Use Chokeholds in Wildly Inappropriate Situations
When a New York City police officer put Eric Garner in a chokehold that resulted in Garner’s death last week, we were told that the NYPD banned chokeholds well before the incident. Garner was being arrested under suspicion of selling loose cigarettes. Gawker just reported that the NYPD’s violent war on nuisance laws continues: The […]
Posted inBooks
In His Final Book, Harvey Pekar Explains Israel to You
When Harvey Pekar died in 2010, he left behind a book-length collaboration with illustrator JT Waldman called Not the Israel My Parents Promised Me. Israel, which was in process at the time of Pekar’s death, is a rarity in Pekar’s body of work, which is mostly interested in anecdotes and the quotidian details of his […]
Posted inBikes
Washington Post Columnist Calls Bicyclists “Bullies,” Makes Joke About Hitting Them with Cars
Take heed, automobile enthusiasts! Car drivers in other parts of the country are being crushed beneath the bootheels of bicyclists in a terrifying War on Cars, too. In a piece headlined “Bicyclist bullies try to rule the road in D.C.,” Washington Post columnist Courtland Milloy delineated the lengths to which those bicycle bullies will go […]
Posted inCourts
Courts Do Battle Over Typo in Obamacare
If, like me, you woke up this morning to the alarming news that a couple of activist judges basically curb-stomped Obamacare to death, you might want to read this ThinkProgress post, which explains the thinking behind the ruling: The two Republicans’ decision rests on a glorified typo in the Affordable Care Act itself. Obamacare gives […]
Posted inPolitics
Rick Perry Is About to Send the Texas National Guard to the US Border
Right about now, Rick Perry is hosting a press conference. What’s he going to announce? Is he launching his bid for the 2016 Republican presidential campaign? Well, kind of. The Washington Post reports: Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) reportedly plans to dispatch the Texas National Guard to the U.S. border with Mexico, according to news […]
Posted inTransportation
Obama Wants Private Business to Invest in Public Infrastructure
David Ludwig’s story at The Atlantic Wire about a new federal initiative makes me feel bad: The Build America Investment Initiative will establish a committee to look for ways private businesses can more easily invest in American infrastructure projects. A new center at the Department of Transportation will be tasked with the initiative. Secretary of […]
Posted inPolitics
Anti-Immigration Candidate for AZ Governor Says He “Stood Up to the Gay Lobby”
I like to imagine the Gay Lobby as being represented by an attractive man in a seersucker suit. He arrives in Andrew Thomas’s office holding two large cloth bags with “$$$” printed on the front. He sets the bags down on Thomas’s desk, sits in the chair facing Thomas, and smirks, “Looks like Arizona is […]
Posted inTV
Tommy Wiseau Has a New Sitcom and It Looks Like the Wrong Kind of Terrible
In the aftermath of The Room‘s comedic success, Tommy Wiseau is now doing an online “sitcom” called Neighbors. Here’s a minute-long video from it: My mind is reeling with metaphors through which to interpret this video: A toddler who just learned the word “poop,” the man who killed the goose that laid the golden eggs, […]