Category Archives: movies

Stranger than Strangelove

Posted on September 22, 2013 by oddmanout215

I was back at the shack, beside myself with angst, reading to Swamp Rabbit about a catastrophe that almost happened a half-century ago: A secret document, published in declassified form for the first time by the Guardian today, reveals that … Continue reading →

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J.D. Salinger groupie tells all — again!

Posted on September 16, 2013 by oddmanout215

My friend Swamp Rabbit, an autodidact who tries to hide his deep knowledge of American literature, was surprised and appalled by a recent piece in The New York Times by the writer Joyce Maynard. It began: In the 50 years … Continue reading →

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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 →

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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 →

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Throwing truth to the lions

Posted on February 26, 2013 by oddmanout215

There’s no such thing as the simple truth. The goodness of the good guys is always exaggerated by the media. History is written by the victors. From Laura’s Miller’s review of The Myth of Persecution: How Early Christians Invented a … Continue reading →

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Bits and pieces, Oscar night

Posted on February 25, 2013 by oddmanout215

We all know the Academy Awards are more about commerce than art, that the best picture award rarely goes to the film that deserves it. But how is it that a film can win for best picture but not best … Continue reading →

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In guns we trust

Posted on December 20, 2012 by oddmanout215

Frank Rich says America’s love affair with guns is something that will have to be chipped away at; that guns… …have always been intrinsic to the very idea of America and “freedom” – enshrined in our Constitution’s Second Amendment (however … Continue reading →

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‘Get a job’ easy to say if you’ve got one

Posted on May 13, 2012 by oddmanout215

Paul Krugman recently noted a close resemblance between Ben Bernanke’s famously lame prediction about the economy — “I think as those green shoots begin to appear in different markets and as some confidence begins to come back that will begin … Continue reading →

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Attention, Marxists

Posted on April 27, 2012 by oddmanout215

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Zizek on OWS: Where to next?

Posted on April 26, 2012 by oddmanout215

Bill O’Reilly recently denounced liberal economist Robert Reich as a communist, and Reich responded to this absurd charge by challenging O’Reilly to debate him. The debate I’d like to see, which will never take place, would be between O’Reilly and … Continue reading →

Posted in economic collapse, globalization, Great Recession, history, humor, movies, Occupy Wall Street, unemployment, world-wide economy | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments