Recent Columns

Pregnant PopTarts

By Jessica Hodges

This celebrity baby boom, as some are calling it, as well as the showing off of bumps by said celebs, has truly put a new glimmer on motherhood.

(more Pop Tart)

A Case for Legalizing Some Crime

By Sam Vaknin

Millions of professionals . . . derive their livelihood, parasitically, from crime.

(more Artificial Intelligence)

Johnny Clegg:  A South African Story

By Robyn Sassen

He was the first vocal artist to use Nelson Mandela's name in lyrics, but South Africans only got to hear them after the new democracy had come about.

(more Just Another Day in Africa)

Post-Ellen Blues: (Or Lack of?)

By Stephen Tropiano

From a creative, social, and political standpoint, are there any major differences between dramas on commercial/pay cable channels and the networks?

(more The Prime Time Closet)

Superman Said Suicide Is a Shame

By Ben Peek

Every child knows that monsters will not appear in Sydney, as they crawl into Tokyo's harbour; that asteroids only plummet on American cities; that aliens visit small towns around the world 'except' Australian ones . . .

(more Sydney Before 2AM)

Rock Writing and Sports Writing: Aesthetics vs. Athletics

By Simon Warner

(Richard Williams) felt, when he hung up his pop pen, that he'd almost run out of words to meaningfully apply to music.

(more Anglo Visions)

Cher Was No Gypsy

By Robert R. Thompson

So those stories about gypsies were true: they were thieves and beggars, always ready to assault, possibly even kill, and quickly move on.

(more Politics and Culture/East and West)

Toward a Critical Nationalism

By Stefán Snaevarr

A critical nationalist emphasizes the limitations of nationalism; she thinks that the rights of nations are usually overridden by the rights of individuals and universal human rights.

(more A Viking View)

Appetite: Pop Culture’s Urge to Purge

By Margaret Schwartz

(more Anecdotal Evidence)

Ethical Relativism and Absolute Taboos

By Sam Vaknin

(Taboos) disappear or are transformed when no longer useful.

(more Artificial Intelligence)

Hello Cruel World: Blogs and Tunes One Year Later

By Mark Desrosiers

. . . (S)houldn't we be celebrating our collective vain, ironical stupidity just to bug that humorless sobersides Osama bin Laden and his fellow fanatics?

(more Pomo Audit)

Cosby Redux

By Mark Anthony Neal

The root of hip-hop generation displeasure with The Cosby Show was not simply that the show wasn't 'political', but rather the show did in fact serve the political function of diverting attention away from the harsh realities of Reagan-era social policies.

(more Critical Noire)

No Smoke Without Fear

By Simon Warner

I hope, John, they do have celestial ashtrays in the next place.

(more Anglo Visions)

The 2002-2003 Season Part 1: Same Old, Same Old

By Stephen Tropiano

Reliving the '80s is perhaps the perfect metaphor for what the networks have in store for us this season.

(more The Prime Time Closet)

The Schizophrenic Collide-a-Scope

By tjmHolden

Commercials not only serve as the sort of national archives for domestic events and values -- the town crier, if you will -- but advertising is one of the ways that popular culture actually manages to persist.

(more ReDotPop)

Prague: A Dual Heritage of Beauty and Sacrifice

By Robert R. Thompson

Prague shows the world that sacrifice is not futile, that evil can be fought and ultimately, defeated.

(more Politics and Culture/East and West)

Admit You’re Happy, Dammit

By Tara Taghizadeh

Receiving several queries from members who felt that they had been discriminated at their workplace for being 'too happy' (one can only imagine what happy feats incurred the wrath of their employers), Johnson also contacted the ACLU in efforts to curb happiness discrimination.

(more Global Graffiti)

Glastonbury Blues

By Jessica Hodges

I purchased a tent, a sleeping bag, a packet of baby wipes, three packets of cigarettes and a bottle of vodka.

(more Pop Tart)

Racing Down: Eugenics and the Future of the Human Species

By Sam Vaknin

If society is to bear the costs of over-population -- social welfare, medical care, daycare centers -- then society has the right to regulate procreation.

(more Artificial Intelligence)

Titanic Efforts, But UK Acts Fail to Bridge Great Divide

By Simon Warner

Once our groups struck the Union Jack at the summit; now they stumble among the loose scree of the lower slopes.

(more Anglo Visions)