Today’s post comes to you on what is perhaps one of my most favorite days of the year: May Day.
No, not that one-
There we go.
That’s right comrades, pinkos, and fellow travelers! Today’s post marks not only the celebration of revolution and the working class across the globe but further touches off the first annual month-of-May celebration of all things leftist! Continue reading
Posted in Africa, Asia, Europe, Fame Day, government, money, morality, news, politics, Youth
Tagged 4th of July, ankara, athens, birthday, bombing, Christmas, class war, colombus day, drone, holiday, independence day, jakarta, lagos, loyalty day, May Day, Obama, paris, Protest, rights, socialism, socialist, solidarity, strike, Thanksgiving, wedding
In the final hours of September 21, 2011, the State of Georgia executed an innocent man. Troy Davis, born 1968, had been wrongfully convicted and subsequently murdered after spending nearly two decades in prison. In spite of cries of protest from former presidents, the director of the FBI, the pope and countless activists, Davis was killed for a crime he did not commit.
Such is our thirst for blood- and it is blood that we’re after.
Mel Gibson’s a racist lunatic, but this was a pretty dang cool movie…
We might dress it up as “justice” or a “deterrent” or any number of grotesque charades, but make no mistake, it is an emotional drive for vengeance that is overwhelmingly behind this. Christopher Hitchens, complicated man that he was, got it right when he called the death penalty “Human Sacrifice” in his 1997 debate on the subject.
We seem to have, as a society, a twisted sense of justice. We’re happy to serve up a person- any person- for slaughter to convince ourselves that justice as been done. Someone‘s got to pay when a crime is committed, whether or not that person actually did it seems of little consequence to us, as evidenced by the long and still-growing list of innocent men, women, and yes, even children who we’ve sacrificed for our appetites.
For this reason, today we’re going to be addressing the foundations of the arguments in favor of the death penalty. Continue reading
Posted in America, crime, government, history, morality, politics
Tagged America, arendt, capital punishment, christopher hitchens, crime, criminals, death penalty, debate, deter, detterant, eichmann, guilty, hang, hanging, horse thief, innocent, justice, lethal injection, parole, prison, society, solitary confinement, torture, Troy Davis
This week was the one year anniversary of the Bangladesh tragedy. According to CBC News:
“More than 1,100 workers died and about 2,500 were injured on April 24, 2013, when the dangerously built eight-storey Dhaka-area building collapsed, the worst garment industry accident in history.”
This past Thursday, thousands of protestors returned to the site:
“The demonstrators – who included injured survivors and the families of the deceased – marched to the ruins of the nine-storey building carrying flowers and chanting slogans including “We want compensation!” and “Death to Sohel Rana!”, the owner of the building.”
Posted in Asia, money, morality, politics
Tagged American Government, Bangladesh factory, Canadian Government, Canadian Mines in Latin America, clothing, companies, compensation, death, documentary, fair trade, fashion, government, Hanes, injustice, local, manipulation, mining, Naomi Klein, No Logo, outsourcing, petition, protestors, Rana Plaza, second-hand, The Corporation, tragedy, Wikileaks
To begin with, I’m not the most unbiased person to be writing about this. “Sk8ter Boi” came out when I was attending a Canadian public school for the first time, and it had a fairly indelible effect on me. My being a fan of Avril Lavigne extended out into high school, and I can still remembering a friend getting me Let Go for my fourteenth birthday. As far as I’m concerned, some of her stuff continues to hold up.
Like most people I liked Under My Skin a fair amount, but wasn’t a huge fan of The Best Damn Thing. Watching the punk-pop star cavort around to the infectious beat felt wrong, like this was some sort of betrayal of who she started as. Of course, people change, and I eventually came around to tracks like “Hot” and “What the Hell”.
Years passed, and eventually she fell off my radar. I noted when she and Deryck Whibley of Sum 41 got a divorce and gawked at her marriage to the widely reviled Chad Kroeger of Nickelback. They recorded a song together and I thought not much of it.
Then I woke up one morning and signed online to a barrage of accusations leveled against her with “racist!” being the common denominator among them. Being fairly invested in this entire thing [as a lapsed Avril Lavigne fan and a person in staunch opposition to racism in any form] I of course had to check out the “Hello Kitty” music video post-haste. I do want to inform you all that I’ve had to watch it several times for the writing of this post and have not enjoyed it once.
Posted in Asia, bizarreness, celebrity, design, fashion, internet, morality, music, race
Tagged 2Yoon, appropriation, arigato, audience, Avril Lavigne, Canadian, context, cultural appropriation, fanbase, Japan, Japanese, kawaii, minna saikou, music video, racism, racist, representative, stereotype
We deal with a lot of complicated issues here at Culture War Reporters, with subjects ranging from war to feminism to internet shows about gigantic hamburgers. Every once in a while, it’s nice to return to cover a simple and straightforward subject.
The sky is blue.
Birds go chirp.
Michelle Malkin is an evil, evil person.
I mean seriously. We’re talking about a woman who has written a book defending- I kid you not- the internment of Japanese-Americans during WWII.
Posted in America, Asia, history, Islam, morality, politics, race, religion, Shame Day
Tagged 14th ammendment, America, American, anchor baby, Arab, bigot, citizen, Dunkin Donuts, Executive Order 9066, in defense of internment: the case for 'racial profiling' in world war ii and the war on terror, internment, Japan, Japanese, Japanese Americans, jihad, keffiyah, manzanar, michelle malkin, Muslim, palestine, palestinian, prejudice, President Roosevelt, Rachael Ray, racial profiling, racism, racist, roosevelt, scarf, terrorist, US, WWII
GORDON: Up there! In the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s…! It’s…!
It’s a cheesy rehash of the same joke we closed out on last time!
EVAN: How dare you, sir.
GORDON: Citizens, today our topic of discussion is Superman, and to a lesser extent, superheroes in general- though you could hardly go wrong to kick off a discussion on the subject by starting with the Big Blue Boy Scout.
Who, for the record, I despise. Continue reading
Posted in comics, crime, Culture War Correspondence, government, morality
Tagged Batman, comic books, crime, Culture War Correspondence, DC, duty, Green Lantern, Last Son of Krypton, Marvel, might is right, morality, obligation, power, Reed Richards, Reed Richards Is Useless, responsibility, rights, Superman, with great power comes great responsibility
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