Politics

Defending Jim Daly

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Via The Field Museum Library

Shame on you Daily Kos. And shame on you Kaili Joy Gray. I never thought in a million years that I’d be in a position where I felt the need to defend Jim Daly of Focus On the Family, but here we are. Daly has stuck his neck out — distanced himself (even if it was just a little) from Focus’ official policy of homophobia and bigotry — and you guys have unceremoniously chopped off his head. Here’s what happened. Continue reading →

Let’s Please Politicize Tragedy

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At least twice, now, in 2012, we in the United States have been subjected to two mass shootings in a two-week span. The first was mere days ago, when 22-year-old Jacob Tyler Roberts donned a hockey mask and an assault rifle, and began firing into a crowd at a Portland, Oregon shopping mall. By some small mercy, he killed only two. But somehow, I can see no comfort in that fact. And then there was yesterday in Connecticut. Yesterday, armed Continue reading →

Mitch McConnell, Fair-Weather Patriot

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KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

On the day that fair-weather patriotism was redefined, we all looked on at the Republican leadership, mouths collectively agape, too flabbergasted to respond. I should (dear readers!) be hard at work on my end-of-semester grading. But when this piece from Talking Points Memo came across my Reader feed this morning, it stopped me dead in my tracks. Apparently — and you can’t make this stuff up — filibuster reform with a simple fifty-one vote majority is a bridge too far Continue reading →

The Day After: What Now?

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The Day After

David Gay is an independent scholar in Folklore and Medieval Studies who writes about folktales, romances, and the historical ethnography of Europe, in addition to political and economic issues. I am a Quaker and a socialist. The two are very much intertwined in my mind, because they show me both how to move through this divided and violent world and that peaceful and just ways of acting and thinking are not only possible, they are necessary. Being a pacifist is Continue reading →

Go Vote!

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Go Vote!

Go vote! Seriously. If you’re in the United States, and you haven’t already, today is your day. Carry out your civic duty. Get one of those nifty stickers. Show it off to your friends, your family, your co-workers. And tell them to get up, get energized, and go vote too! I just talked to the handyman who works for my landlords.  As I do to everyone on voting day, I exhorted him to get to the polls.  I’ve already been, Continue reading →

The Coveted Twice-Cooked Endorsement

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The Coveted Twice Cooked Endorsement

All you Twice Cooked readers out there in the United States: Tuesday is election day. So go vote. If you are a citizen of the United States, voting is neither just your right, nor just your privilege — it is your patriotic duty. Voting in elections is not the only way that we Americans express devotion to our country, but it is the key way. All that other stuff we do in the name of patriotism — national service, paying Continue reading →

What the Presidential Candidates Aren’t Talking About

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What the Presidential Candidates Aren't Talking About

Right then, here’s how it goes: we’re now officially three quarters of the way through debate season. We’re less than three weeks away from the November 6th election. And team Obama, and team Romney, are talking up a storm. With — lets say — varying levels of specificity, both candidates have been eager to talk about jobs and growth and the economy; they’ve been on and on about taxes and debt and who exactly is responsible for the looming fiscal Continue reading →

A Point of Clarification about Todd Akin

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I have not, you’ll notice, written anything here yet about Missouri Senate candidate and giant Daniel Tosh fan (I can only assume) Todd Akin — mostly because I find myself so viscerally repulsed by this story. I don’t want to reproduce the vileness that rocketed his campaign against Claire McCaskill from obscure-national-joke status to object of massive outrage — even in the interest of picking it apart. And including a link, and letting some other web site explain it, feels Continue reading →

Mass Shootings and Politicizing Tragedy

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I hate to say it, but I’ve been thinking a lot about Sarah Palin in the past couple of weeks. Why? Well, not because of what(ever) she’s doing these days. But rather, because of something she did last year. Last year — January 8, 2011 — Jared Loughner walked into a crowd at an event being held by Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords, and shot almost two dozen people. The media, in a sensationalist (though not necessarily inaccurate) frenzy, pointed to Continue reading →

Supporting the Creative Commons

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A couple of months ago, I diverged a bit from the light chatter you’ve come to expect here at Twice Cooked to promote a cause — Kiva.org. I contended, as I recall, that as long as I have this tiny soapbox of a web site, and as long as I have (at least some) regular visitors, I might as well use that meager position to do something good. And Kiva — and microlending — are certainly that. Well, today I Continue reading →