Carbondale
Before Dark
Prequel to
Carbondale
After Dark'
The stump
of an oak tree in a parking lot on the
campus of Southern Illinois University
in Carbondale, Illinois, is the last
vestige of the front yard of the home I
grew up in from 1952, when I was in
diapers, to 1964, when I was entering
puberty. |
Racial Baggage
Prequel
to
'Blackspanic College'
Like a lot
of people, I lug around a certain amount
of racial baggage as a result of my
previous interactions with people of
other ethnic groups.
|
Pot Initiative
The fear isn't that marijuana
is a gateway drug to harder stuff, but
that it's a gateway to hippiedom.
|
Victory
Mosque
A multicultural coalition
should rise up in support of the Islamic
Center in New York City. There ought to
be a million Muslim march, with everyone
wearing ribbons saying, 'we are all
Muslims.'
|
Non-Starters
What is
common to America's healthcare crisis
and the crisis in the Middle East is
that the most elegant solutions are
considered "non-starters."
|
Revolution Iran
Redux
It's
possible Iranians will get their
revolution right this time. But with
half the population under 30, let's hope
they don't get fooled again.
|
Honkeyphobia
A stupid
encounter between a black Harvard
professor and a white Cambridge police
sergeant may have shined a light on
a common but rarely discussed
phenomenon -- honkeyphobia. |
Afrophobia
Let's
not beat around the bush. We are
talking about white people who have
an irrational fear of black people. |
Oybama
Dear Mom
and Dad, I really wouldn't vote for
Hitler, as you suggested, when I
suggested you cut Barack Obama some
slack for the comments his pastor made,
and for Obama's subsequent speech on
race. |
Spunky Sarah
One thing
that cannot be said about Sarah Palin is
that she lacks spunk, although people
who love to hate her might turn that
statement into a sleazy punchline.
|
Hangin' with the
Dormies
If it
weren't for young people willing to be
called traitors and hippie scum for
standing up for their beliefs, we might
still be in Vietnam. |
Have a Kosher
Christmas
How did it come to pass that
instead of putting Christ back into
Christmas, they put in Jews? |
Bob Dylan
& Paul Simon:
Slip
Slidin' Away
Thirty-two
years after the "Summer of Love," the
two greatest folk rock composers of the
1960s, Bob Dylan and Paul Simon, teamed
up for a concert tour. Attention must be
paid. |
Eminem: Menace
or Minstrel?
Fans
and non-fans alike tuned in Grammy night
2002 to watch the much-hyped duet
between gay icon Elton John and gay
basher Eminem. |
Frank Sinatra
Online
Before
punching out paparazzi became
fashionable, there was Frank Sinatra.
The Chairman of the Board died May 14,
1998, but his pugnacious spirit lives
online. |
Stick Figure
Snuff Flicks
No
plot, no moral, no redeeming social
value. Just pure, unadulterated
violence... |
Fanfic
Online
With
Congress wanting to stomp out sex and
violence in Hollywood, what are those
who want MORE sex and violence to do?
|
Snacks
Online
Why do
snack crackers and potato chips come in
as many flavors as mutual funds? For
snackaholics who think salt is a sugar
substitute, inquiring minds want to
know. |
Strange
Museums Online
People
will collect anything. Anything. Beer
cans, sugar packs, navel lint... |
Useless
Information Superhighway
The
Internet is called the information
superhighway. But there's also a lot of
useless information online. And proud of
it! |
Tonya
Harding Online
Harding's
virtual
life is as checkered as her real one.
Scores of websites have stills from her
infamous wedding night video, along with
fake Harding porn photos.
|
Wen Ho Lee
Online
The Wen
Ho Lee spy caper has been compared to
McCarthyism, the Dreyfus affair and
Richard Jewell, but it’s also a little
like Monicagate. |
Pot Online
Potheads
are euphoric over a new federal study
that finds marijuana may have medical
benefits. Read all about it and the
movement to reform marijuana laws. |
Hypocrisy
Online
I
started out to write this rant defending
the compassionate conservative governor
of Texas, George W. Bush, saying he
shouldn't have to answer whether he ever
did cocaine... |
Globaphobia
When
did I get so out of touch with the
revolution that I don't know the
difference between the World Bank and
the World Trade Organization, much less
the groups that make up the
anti-globalization movement? |
Cyber
Kosovo
While the
media obsessed over Monicagate, the
Yugoslav province of Kosovo became the
latest Balkan entity to undergo a form
of genocide peculiar to Eastern Europe
known as ethnic cleansing. |
Kurds Online
Sometimes
history reads like an endless game of
musical chairs in which those who don't
get a seat use terrorism to unseat those
who do, and those with the chairs
threaten to exterminate those without
unless they give up their culture,
language and/or religion. |
Politics
Online
As a
lefty used to voting for the lesser of
two evils, which usually means Democrats
like Al Gore, if the election were held
today, I'd have to vote for Republican
George W. Bush. |
Black
Power Online
Stokely
Carmichael was bad. Along with H. Rap
Brown, he led the militant "black
power" wing of the 60's civil rights
movement, scaring the bejesus out of
white folks and making the Rev. Martin
Luther King Jr. seem moderate.
|
Gnutella
An epic
battle is brewing in cyberspace. David
versus Goliath. E-commerce versus
free-commerce. And giant industries
versus precocious geeks from Generation
Next. |
Stanley
Kubrick Online
To state
that Stanley Kubrick's final film, "Eyes
Wide Shut," was controversial, would
merely be redundant. Over 40 years and
13 films, "Kubrick movie" became
synonymous with controversy. |
Starship Titanic
"I'd
rather sleep between the cheeks of a
yak's buttocks." So saith Marsinta
Drewbish, the cheeky DeskBot on the
"Starship Titanic," a stylish CD-ROM
game by "Hitchhiker's Guide to the
Galaxy" author Douglas Adams. |
Godzilla
Online
India set
off five atom bomb tests in 1998, just
as Sony's movie about a monster spawned
by nuclear fallout was coming to a
theater near you. |
'You've
Got Spam'
The Tom
Hanks-Meg Ryan 1998 romantic comedy
'You've Got Mail' is not exactly your
typical cyber affair. Here's a reality
check. |
'Big
Brother' Online
Recently I got addicted to the
live 24/7 Webcast of the TV show 'Big
Brother.' I wouldn't have gotten hooked
except for Brittany, the Monica Lewinsky
of cyberspace. |
Big
Brother: George, Brittany, and the
Sex Police
Dear
Rockford, Illinois: On behalf of
Recovering Voyeurs Anonymous, thank you
for delivering us from Brittany, the
Monica Lewinsky of cyberspace. |
Reality
Olympics
What if
the media packaged the Olympics like a
reality TV show. One Olympic village,
thousands of athletes, no privacy and
daily challenges in which everyone but
the top three got banished... |
PCTV
Seeking to
protect your family from the corrupting
influence of the boob tube? "The
"Parents Television Council" wants to
help you practice safe TV viewing. |
Digital
Books
There's
good news for trees. While the music
industry tries to block the digitization
of music, the publishing industry is
quietly gearing up for paperless digital
books. |
Cosmetics
Online
Going to
cosmetic counters and applying colors
and scents is to a certain retro femdom
what going to a sports bar and watching
football is to a lot of men. |
Internet
World 2000
As the
stock market did a dot-com death spiral,
geeks were partying in Tinsel Town
during the Spring Internet World 2000
trade show. |
Google
As the
World Wide Haystack grows from millions
to billions of Web sites, different
search portals find wildly different
needles. I could split more metaphors,
but to cut to the bottom line, there are
search engines and then there's Google. |
Napster,
Part 1
The
music industry, as we know it, is dead.
For I have seen the future and it is
Napster, the first killer computer
application of the new millennium. |
Napster,
Part 2
The
more I probed Napster, the more amazed I
became by the quality and diversity of
ripped recordings already available in
MP3, and not just '60s rock and heavy
metal. |
Napster-BMG
As
Napster makes its way into a market
economy, music lovers and the music
business alike are in for some shock
therapy. |
Cookiegate!
Privacy
advocates asked Congress to investigate
a "cookie" found on a Web site funded by
the White House Office of National Drug
Control Policy. Here's why.
|
Cookie
Monster
Children
shouldn't
accept candy from strangers. So why let
your computer accept "cookies" from
strangers when you're online? |
Anarchy Online
The
mayor of Los Angeles has declared war on
international anarchy. |
