Author Archives: oddmanout215

Obama’s Penny pal (the rich take care of their own)

Posted on May 18, 2013 by oddmanout215

It’s no secret that six members of the Walton gang — the Walmart Waltons — have more wealth that the bottom 40 percent of American households. This is up from the 30 percent more they enjoyed in 2007, before the … Continue reading →

Posted in Great Recession, history, mainstream media, The New Depression, unemployment, Wall Street | Tagged Barack Obama, Bruce Springsteen, Cornel West, Penny Pritzker, Richard Rubin, The Grapes of Wrath, Walmart, Waltons | Leave a comment

Hitler’s food taster tells all

Posted on April 28, 2013 by oddmanout215

Margot Woelk, 95, recently confessed to having worked as a food taster for Adolph Hitler in his war headquarters, Wolf’s Lair, in what used to be East Prussia. She told the Associated Press that her job, like most jobs, had … Continue reading →

Posted in cruel and unusual Texas, history, humor, Iraq war, mainstream media | Tagged Adolph Hitler, George W. Bush, Hitler's barber, Hitler's food taster, Hogan's Heroes, I know nothing, Margot Woelk, mission accomplished, Sergeant Schultz, Wolf's Lair, Woody Allen, World War II | 1 Comment

American exceptionalism, in a nutshell

Posted on April 27, 2013 by oddmanout215

Spokespersons for the U.S. military often refer to anti-American combatants as “bad guys,” as if opposition to U.S. foreign policy is the same as immorality. As if killing on behalf of the U.S. government makes you exempt from bad-guy status. … Continue reading →

Posted in Iraq war, life in the big city, mainstream media, Obama, terrorism | Tagged American exceptionalism, bad guys, Boston Marathon, Chechnya, John Prine, Seymour Martin Lipset | 2 Comments

NY Times to Denmark: Work harder, for less

Posted on April 24, 2013 by oddmanout215

From a weirdly negative front-page story about Denmark in the Sunday New York Times. In 2012, a little over 2.6 million people between the ages of 15 and 64 were working in Denmark, 47 percent of the total population and … Continue reading →

Posted in Great Recession, humor, mainstream media, unemployment | Tagged Dean Baker, Denmark, minimum wage, New York Times, social democracy, welfare state | 2 Comments

Ding dong! Maggie’s dirty deeds live on

Posted on April 13, 2013 by oddmanout215

From a 2004 column in Daily Mail on what happened to the working class in Britain after Margaret Thatcher’s successful crusade to kill the miners’ union: … What the [coal miners’] strike represented to us was a set of values … Continue reading →

Posted in economic collapse, history, humor, mainstream media, pop music, The New Depression, unemployment, world-wide economy | Tagged coal miners' union, David Cameron, Ding Dong the Witch Is Dead, Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan | 3 Comments

When life feels like ‘Groundhog Day’

Posted on April 7, 2013 by oddmanout215

I was biking through a school-free drug zone, on my way to a temp job, cultivating bad habits. Not overtly bad habits — Marlboros and meth, and so on — but rather those drab little habits meant to ensure the … Continue reading →

Posted in economic collapse, humor, Iraq war, life in the big city, mainstream media, movies, Philadelphia, pop music | Tagged As Good As It Gets, bad habits, Bill Murray, Groundhog Day, I Got You Babe, Jack Nicholson, obsessive-compulsive, Roger Ebert | Leave a comment

Easter story, updated

Posted on March 31, 2013 by oddmanout215

And they said among themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulcher? — Mark 16:3 My friend Jesus the taqueria owner was whacked on Friday by demented jerks with nail guns. It wasn’t pretty. … Continue reading →

Posted in fiction, history, humor | Tagged Easter, Jesus, Mott the Hoople, Roll Away the Stone | Leave a comment

‘The Next Day’ a surprise gift to Bowie fans

Posted on March 31, 2013 by oddmanout215

David Bowie’s low visibility in recent years led to rumors he might be dying, or simply too bored to record again. At some point, he got over his ennui, if that’s what it was, and began working on The Next … Continue reading →

Posted in arts, humor, mainstream media, pop music, unemployment | Tagged Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Heathen, I'd Rather Be High, Lumineers, The Next Day, The Stars (Are Out Tonight), Ziggy Stardust | 1 Comment

Cruising mean streets in the popemobile

Posted on March 23, 2013 by oddmanout215

The mainstream media love big, easy stories — natural disasters, inaugurations, papal elections. The election by the College of Cardinals of Jorge Bergoglio was a softball lobbed right over the plate, and the media knocked it out of the park. … Continue reading →

Posted in fiction, mainstream media, movies | Tagged Argentina, College of Cardinals, death squads, dirty war, Graham Greene, Harvey Keitel, Jorge Bergoglio, m, Mean streets, Pope Francis I, The Power and the Glory | 2 Comments

Are perfect storms the wave of the future?

Posted on March 17, 2013 by oddmanout215

The Day After Tomorrow (2004) has a cheesy script, but the spectacle of New York City immersed except for the upper floors of its tallest buildings is worth the DVD rental fee and doesn’t seem silly in our post-Hurricane Sandy … Continue reading →

Posted in climate change, environmentalism, humor, life in the big city | Tagged Arctic sea ice, global warming, polar bears, Superstorm Sandy, The Day After Tomorrow | Leave a comment