‘Colion Noir’ is the latest weapon to be deployed in The National Rifle Association’s ongoing battle to win over minorities to their maniacal cause. Noir has become a YouTube sensation – and a darling of the NRA – because supposedly he is a young black man who opposes even the most common-sense gun control laws. […]
I never understood the arguments against gay marriage. What’s the big deal? My wife and I will be married thirty-two years in October and we both agree that anyone crazy enough to want to get married in this day and age should be allowed to do so. Why should gays be denied the misery of […]
The Comstock Law, passed in the United States in 1873, was part of an ongoing – to this day! – campaign to legislate public morality in the United States. The Comstock Law was initially meant to stop the trade in “obscene literature” and “immoral articles,” particularly through the mail. It was named after Anthony Comstock, […]
King Henry VIII was the first Monarch to take legal action to control the press in pre-Enlightenment England. His methods were simple enough: he required all printers to pay licensing fees in order to be allowed to print anything. This concept became known as ‘prior restraint’: preventing the distribution of controversial materials before they are even […]
Mad Men is a perfect example of a serialized historical melodrama that permits viewers to re-evaluate the past. The show was created by Matthew Weiner, a co-writer and producer of The Sopranos, in 1999. Mad Men arguably tells us less about the 1960s than it does about the current desire for collective nostalgia for the […]
Effective celebrity activists use their fame and fortune to bring attention to important issues and to give credibility to legitimate representatives of social movements. Internationally-known celebrities can help expose and highlight problems which would normally get little or no news coverage without their involvement. But does celebrity involvement really make any difference in what people […]
Recreational drug use is a part of life. Experimentation with illicit substances can be very enlightening or it can be incredibly destructive, depending on the circumstances – and the individual. Like most things, moderation is a key component to leading a healthy, normal life. Adults should be able to make their own decisions regarding what […]
(Caution: italics ahead!): From the school playground to the presidential election, the art of a truly fine insult is a universally accepted cultural tradition with a long, inglorious history. The most effective insults use irony, metaphor and personification tropes – along with humor – as a way to attack their opponents’ character, and to frame […]
Recent studies confirm that a growing number of college students are losing empathy for their fellow human beings. In a world that clearly needs more compassion, this is a shocking trend. Studies conducted between 1979 and 2009 found that college students have less empathy toward their peers than previous generations. The findings come from the study, Changes […]
My first encounter with social media was probably listening to the car radio as a child while my parents drove around Los Angeles in the mid-1960s. These are some of my earliest memories. A few of the songs I can recall hearing during this time include A Hard Day’s Night by The Beatles, Stop In the […]
Jason Darensburg's Blog-o-rama 