In Florida, Trayvon Martin, a black teenager, was shot to death by a civilian white man who has admitted to the crime but has not been arrested. Allegations of serious police misconduct have arisen, including the "correction" of a witness who said the boy called for help and not his...

Karl Rove had a visceral reaction to the Clint Eastwood Chrysler commercial during the Super Bowl on Sunday. This led to a great many on air conversations about whether or not the commercial was, in fact, political -- not to mention excuses to run bits...

Bradley Manning is currently imprisoned. He is imprisoned, as you probably know, for providing classified documents to WikiLeaks for global release via the Internet. Some of what he released was embarrassing to the State Department. Some of what he released revealed war crimes committed by...

As promised, here is the second portion of my interview with the lovely and brilliant artivist Jeanmarie Simpson. (If you missed the first part of the interview, click HERE to catch up) In the second portion of the conversation I moved beyond questions of content and inspiration and...

Over the past few years, Jeanmarie Simpson and I have become fans of one another's work. I have read some of her latest work in progress and have had the privilege of introducing her at a performance of her wonderful show Coming in Hot, a one-person play in...

For several years, I have felt under attack from the Christian right. Granted, they don't intend to attack me personally, just every idea, every belief, every principle I hold dear. I was raised to respect others' opinions, to allow others their beliefs regardless of how silly or superstitious I perceived...

In an age of fifteen-minute celebrities and empty entertainments, Lee Camp brings art back to the stand-up stage. His full length CD, Chaos for the Weary, rife with startling juxtapositions and keen cultural insight shines a light on social injustice, economic disparity and rampant consumerism,...

Sometimes, we really should pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. Sometimes, the man behind the curtain gets paraded before us in hopes of distracting us from whatever the hell should be in the glare of the spotlight.

The mainstream media focus* all of our attention...

In Free Range Thinking, Robert Dubac presents wisdom disguised as wit and high art in the guise of mass-appeal entertainment. This is no easy feat. Audiences that grew up on the televised stand-up showcase programs of the eighties and nineties have been systematically conditioned to respond to the most generic...

Christine O'Donnell is not a witch. She's a distraction. Granted, it is very easy to get laughs and gasps pointing out the antics of a trained monkey dressed up as a sexy candidate for public office, but let us not lose track of the fact that she is a fringe...

Last week I had the opportunity to see Jeanmarie Simpson's one-person presentation of Coming in Hot at a live-performance event at the Theater of Arts in Hollywood, CA. In the interest of full disclosure, I should say that I was there as host to introduce the evening's event...

A recent article in The New Yorker revealed that the organization Americans for Prosperity is funded by the billionaire brothers Koch. The organization has provided tee shirts and talking points to Tea Party activists who remain unaware of the wealthy backers of the purportedly grass-roots movement. Surely if...

With "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy falling under the weight of its own unconstitutional construct, it becomes clear that the court system does not recognize the sticking of fingers in one's ears and humming loudly as a valid governmental mandate.

I realize this is not the usual fare...

Idiot Pastor Terry Jones has decided to show his support for the U.S. military's efforts to win hearts and minds by demonstrating that he and his followers have lost their minds and misplaced their hearts. The Muslim world, he believes, will see that Christianity is the proper way to worship...

Terror cannot be defeated with military action, no matter how powerful or how well equipped the military that takes the action. Terror, let us not forget, is a feeling. Terror grips us when fear strikes in such a way that neither fight nor flight is an option. Unable to find...

Last week a Pew Research poll showed that an alarming number of Americans believe President Obama to be a Muslim. An even more alarming number question his Christianity. Now, this commentator finds it offensive that this story is picked up by the mainstream media with no examination at...

Yesterday I heard a person-on-the-street interview on CNN in which the interviewee said that a mosque should not be built near ground zero because she considers that land to be sacred. That's right. She feels that sacred land is no place to put holy ground. Well, not that kind...

With the overturning of California's Proposition 8, the U.S. enters a new era in basic civil rights. As delightful as it has been to see homophobes falling over themselves to find justifications for their political stance that might read as anything other than transparent bigotry, it is even...

This week, the UN declared clean water a fundamental human right. The U.S. did not vote for the passage of this declaration. The reasons are as clear as the water, the rights to which we do not recognize as fundamental.

Firstly, let us remember that our nation, whose self-interest we...

Hey, folks! Thanks for swingin' by my little corner of Blogospheria. I've just gotten back home and man, was this trip ever worth the expense.

I got to spend three full days at Economicon 2010 and all I can say is, "Wow!" From the moment I arrived I...