Category Archives: mainstream media

Porn flick about Comcast would be called ‘Insatiable’


Swamp Rabbit and I were reading that Comcast, the nation’s No. 1 cable services provider, has bought out Time Warner Cable, the No. 2 provider. I wondered aloud what’s become of the Federal Communications Commission, the outfit that is supposed … Continue reading

Posted in campaign finance reform, City Paper, humor, life in the big city, mainstream media, Philadelphia | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Regarding corporate America’s rotgut (Coca-Cola)


I recently discussed with my friend Swamp Rabbit the sappy Coca-Cola commercial that features, as Guardian UK put it, “a multi-lingual rendition of ‘America the Beautiful’ sung by children and illustrated with a diversity of New Americana scenes…” The usual … Continue reading

Posted in arts, campaign finance reform, Congress, down and out, globalization, humor, mainstream media, movies, Occupy Wall Street, plutocracy, The New Depression, world-wide economy | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

Virginia Woolf almost does the Super Bowl


Most years, I persuade a famous novelist to write a 500-word recap of the Super Bowl — Dostoyevski and Faulkner, among others, have donned their sportswriters’ caps to appear in this space — but this year Virginia Woolf phoned at … Continue reading

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‘Ever-so-gentle rabble-rouser’ Pete Seeger dies


I was away from the swamp, stealing potatoes at the local Super Fridge, when I heard about Pete Seeger. This will be a rough day, I thought. Swamp Rabbit is an old leftie with a soft spot for New Deal-influenced … Continue reading

Posted in arts, Great Depression, history, humor, mainstream media, Obama, Occupy Wall Street, pop music, The New Depression | Tagged , , , , , , | 8 Comments

50 years after ‘Strangelove,’ Gen. Jack Ripper on drugs


This January marked the 50th anniversary of the release of Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. From a New Yorker story about the mainstream critics who dismissed the movie’s storyline as implausible: Despite … Continue reading

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Why mainstream media kissed up to Christie


It’s been a long week in the Tinicum swamp. That crack in the roof of my shack that Swamp Rabbit fixed didn’t stay fixed very long, so I stole another bucket of epoxy and put him to work when the … Continue reading

Posted in liar, mainstream media, plutocracy | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Bread and water beats jail food


Pig meat gives me bad dreams; I don’t eat it unless there’s nothing else. Philosopher and Animal Liberation author Peter Singer would tell me there is always something else, that “We are, quite literally, gambling with the future of our … Continue reading

Posted in down and out, economic collapse, food, mainstream media | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Poverty gets more expensive every day


Yesterday at the shack we woke to bone-chilling wind and a blanket of ice. Swamp Rabbit was huddled in a corner with a bottle from the case of Wild Turkey I stole to help him get through his post-holiday funk. … Continue reading

Posted in down and out, economic collapse, food, humor, mainstream media, The New Depression, unemployment | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

The ill logic of the lower classes


It’s the Eighth Day After the Solstice, and I’m back at the shack after checking up on my old house, which stopped feeling homey after a tree fell on it last year. Some of my old neighbors are doing OK, … Continue reading

Posted in Congress, down and out, economic collapse, fiction, globalization, humor, life in the big city, mainstream media, unemployment, Wall Street | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Karl Marx gets a makeover


Just for a laugh, I read aloud from a Guardian UK article in which David Simon expressed qualified approval of some Marxist ideas. Sure enough, my friend Swamp Rabbit called me a commie before I was halfway through the piece. … Continue reading

Posted in down and out, economic collapse, globalization, history, mainstream media, The New Depression, unemployment, world-wide economy | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment