“Competitiveness” is the new “proactive” – the word, to paraphrase The Simpsons, that dumb people are using to sound important. Or, more precisely, it’s the word that ostensibly smart people are using to try to cover up really dumb thinking.
Susan McWilliams
For all the unpredictability of her outfits, there is one thing that has been quite predictable about her work: Gaga’s constant equation of love with violence and humiliation.
In today’s Los Angeles Times, Neil Gabler has an insightful piece on the way in which the “gang of friends” has become the dominant social group on American television.
Claremont, CA…. ABC’s hit series “Modern Family” has returned to the air for its second season.
It’s the “modern” elements of the “Modern Family” that you’re supposed to notice right away. The family patriarch, Jay, has divorced his children’s
In many ways, the Los Angeles County Fair is not so different from county fairs all over the country … except for its agricultural exhibit.
How do we explain a culture that tells children that sex doesn’t matter much, that “girls can do anything boys can do,” and at the same moment is treating the sex of infants in the womb as a critical, determining fact?
Why is it taking so long for Americans to become “real” grown-ups?
I people really want to see the current state of the union, they need to take a look at my favorite part of Liberty State Park, which is the fact that it recently has been bisected – rent in two – by the Liberty National Golf Course.
Claremont, CA.… On Tuesday, the residents of this fair state voted to “open” the California primaries. From now on, every voter in the state will receive the same ballot in a primary election. In each race, voters can choose among
Jersey Shore teaches us something about the tragic dimensions of the culture in which we live, and in which we raise young people.
Hooking up is almost bound to emerge as a norm among young adults in a large-scale society where mobility is highly prized and cultivated.
Whatever else you make of Facebook friendship, it underscores the great and significant discrepancy between: 1) the scale of contemporary life, and 2) the scale of friendship.
It may be the great sentiment of this American moment: “I want to build something of my own. How do you not understand that?”
Here’s a sign of the times: if you’re worried about what all these digital and internet technologies are going to do to books, you can join a movement to signal your support of books (and other pen-and-inked things).
Here’s what really makes that a sign of the times: the movement is online.
Obama is suffering because whether or not it is true, he seems not to understand what is going on around the country. Whether or not it is true, he seems uninterested in making his proposals understood. As a result, he seems distant – the kind of guy who doesn’t really get you as a person – and the first thing that he must use to bridge that seeming distance is speech.
Claremont, CA…. They call it the “Superman Syndrome.” People who use methamphetamine often believe that they are capable of doing impossible things. Like flying. Or walking through walls. Or earning a living as a meatpacker in the era of
