Opinion

"In politics stupidity is not a handicap."--Napoleon Bonaparte

Are we really any different than ancient Rome?

You know what the hell I'm talking about so let's cut the bullshit.

We have entered Juggalo political hell, where the Screech Owl on the Left doesn't need Juggalo face paint and Daddy's Little Juggalo on the Right scares even Pittsburgh's evilest bad clowns. I went to the RNC last week. Talked to a lotta people left, right and center and not a single one of 'em isn't in a grim place about this election in this time in America.

Let it be said Thursday night, Public Square in Cleveland, anticipated epicenter of Protest, USA, was one of the most relaxed, mellow even joyful scenes of Americans not particularly angry with each other. Political opposites were actuallytalking to each other.

Festiveness reigned, silly signs of protest were carried straight-faced ("Cargo shorts are sinful"). Free hugs were plentiful. Maybe one anti-Trump guy went Juggalo Detroit. But a free hugger calmed him down. Nice.

To be honest, I don’t think I can write about this year’s Ghostbusters reboot with any objectivity. But let’s just admit up front that objectivity in media reviews isn’t even a thing that exists, despite what Gamergate seems to think. You would think they would understand, since what I will generously call The MRA Community flooded the internet with negative reviews before the movie even opened.

They hated it for daring to have an all-woman cast—actress Melissa McCarthy and SNL cast members Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones. They hated that these women showed up in publicity photos not in clothes that came from bags labeled “Sexy Ghost Hunter” from a Halloween store but in frumpy jumpsuits. They hated that they were expected to relate to these new Ghostbusters not as sexy lamps but as people.

They hated it because it wasn’tfor them.

And that’s why I loved it so much that objectivity isn’t even on the table.

Ain't No Love In The Heart is back for some election commentary, because you can take the boy out of the swing state... This piece was written before the DNC. We'll get to Hil-dawg next month.

Alana’s, located in the north campus area on High Street, has a delightfully comprehensive dining experience for the socially-just diner. You can start with a crisp, tasty greens salad with quinoa and citrus overtones that can be veganized, and if you like beets, you can choose a colorful, cold, savory beet soup with lavender and chives.
 

As the 1960s gave way to the 1970s, TV newscasts were dominated by the Vietnam War and other controversies that were tearing American society apart. Meanwhile, TV’s fictional offerings stuck to relatively benign topics such as Sister Bertrille (Sally Field) and her amazing ability to defy gravity in The Flying Nun.

Then, on Jan. 12, 1971, everything changed. That’s when an outspoken bigot named Archie Bunker first saw the light of day in the debut of All in the Family.

The singular individual who brought Archie to life is the subject of the new documentary Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You. Co-directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady (Freakonomics), it gives us some insight into a man whose refusal to play it safe allowed him to dominate network television until the day when he suddenly walked away from it all.

Ohio Governor John Kasich is suspected of giving Dayton and Ohio a black eye by pulling the plug on the presidential debate.

And once again, the “poodles” in the Ohio press corps could not bring themselves to hold Kasich accountable. The “reporters,” who have let Kasich skate on spending Ohio tax dollars on his failed presidential campaign, merely recited the story line given to them by officials at Wright State University instead of holding the governor accountable.

The September 26 debate was to be the first of three featuring Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. The smackdown was likely to set audience records, not just in the United States but around the world, and have great impact on the election outcome.

But no more. It was moved to Hofstra University in New York in a surprise announcement by WSU President David Hopkins on July 19.

hat’s the money quote that was widely reported as what Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump said that day about Russia and Hillary Clinton’s emails. It is hard to read those sentences as anything but cynical joking, but most of the media, the empty-headed commentariat, and Democratic shills all made a fundamentally bad-faith effort to inflate the joke into something sinister to serve their various agendas.

Jason Bourne is the fifth installment in the Bourne film franchise derived from Robert Ludlum’s espionage novels that began with 2002’s The Bourne Identity. Ludlum’s original Bourne trilogy began in 1980 but didn’t reach the big screen until shortly after 9/11, when the CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies turned to what author Jane Mayer called The Dark Side. The latest sequel continues the Bourne formula of nonstop action combined with criticism of the Central Intelligence Agency and is the fourth movie starring Matt Damon as the title character and the series’ third feature helmed by British director Paul Greengrass, starting with 2004’s The Bourne Supremacy.

Jonathan Beard is the energy and inspiration behind Issue 1, the vote to end the at-large city council which has been in-place for over a century. Beard is the president and CEO of the Columbus Compact Corporation. He’s co-chair of Represent Columbus, the grass-roots group behind Issue 1. In his own words Issue 1 is the “citizen-initiated proposed Columbus Charter Amendment to change our city council to a form that better represents the interests of the people of all Columbus.” A summer of violence in a long-neglected east side neighborhood, he says, is when and where Issue 1 was born.   

I personally became involved to initiate Issue 1 when Columbus City Council would not act to support 22 neighborhood groups – two area commissions, plus umpteen civic associations, business associations and block watches – during a summer of horrific drug-related gun violence on E. Main Street where all the violence was caught on video and shared with city council.