Author Archives: Brooklyn Culture Jammers
Christmas in the trenches–John McCutcheon
This is a song (written by John McCutcheon) that’s been around since 1989, and you pretty much have to be a pacifist to have heard it. On Christmas Eve 1914, British and German soldiers crossed the trenches into No Man’s Land and had a truce for several hours. They even had a soccer game. Soldiers […]
Feminism, income and the two-job family (a continuation of a ‘debate’ on WBCR)
On WBCR’s Sex and Politics this evening (12/13) Mike Hovell read an essay about feminism and women holding jobs. In this video from 2006, Harvard professor (and now Massachusetts Senator-elect) Elizabeth Warren talks about her research into the financial pressures on the family since the 1970’s. She makes the point that incomes stagnated while most […]
Entitlement cuts and other con games
So thanks to reporting in Politico (dissected nicely here), we now know that ‘serious people’ in DC are talking about entitlement cuts as the only way to stabilize the US Federal budget going forward. This is (unsurprisingly) a coterie of the 1% who will never depend on Social Security to keep the lights on and […]
WBCR this week: Sandy relief and the Shock Doctrine
This week on Sex and Politics, I’ll be talking about Occupy Sandy Relief and the growing frustration in the areas hardest hit by the storm at the glacial pace of government response. Six weeks after the storm, thousands of NY residents are still living in homes that don’t have electricity or heat and are suffering […]
‘The Best Illegal Bike ride in NYC’– RIP
(I had written this several years ago. Starting in 2006 and every year after, I made this bike ride sometime around November or December. It hadn’t occurred to me until I looked at the calendar that it was time to go–and most of the things I talk about here are gone as a result of […]
Papa Johns reputation takes a hit over Obamacare
Per this article in Huffington Post, the Papa Johns Pizza franchises are taking a big hit in public approval over CEO John Schnatter’s public comments about how he planned to circumvent Obamacare mandates. This follows the walkback Denny’s CEO did after John Metz, a franchise owner in Florida, went ballistic over covering his employees for healthcare […]
The Shale oil boom takes a hit
This started out as a short post, just to make sure you were paying attention. I have written a couple of times here about both Fracking and the shale oil/shale gas plays being touted as our energy future. The meme we as a society have seemed to buy into is that there’s no shortage of […]
Did the Romneys order Turkey Day from Boston Market?
So there’s a somber story being touted by Huffington Post about Willard Romney post-election. Apparently, Mr. Romney is so upset about his defeat, he’s at loose ends. He’s been seen pumping his own gas and even riding a roller coaster with his grandchildren. And according to the Washington Post, he’s been extremely closed up. according […]
Merry Xmas, Peace activists. Now go to jail
Last night Brian Terrell, an activist who protested against the use of pilotless raptor drones in an assassination program championed by both the former and current occupant of the White House, began serving a six month sentence. His crime was going to the front gate of Whiteman AFB and asking how he and his friends […]
Random musings for a Friday
First, we had a great discussion last night on Sex And Politics on WBCR about the Occupy Movement‘s ‘Strike the Debt’ initiative. For those of you who don’t know about this, it’s a campaign called Rolling Jubilee–the activist group is able to buy up debt for pennies on the dollar and once purchased, it liquidates the […]
The Brooklyn Culture Jam 