6 Things That Are Harder to Get Than a Gun

lunapic_136657095322986_2As we all know by now, last week the U.S. Senate, in spectacular, lily-livered fashion, caved to the NRA, voting down even the weakest, most watered down version of a gun control bill. After the massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, which so many people claimed “changed everything”, nothing, in fact, has changed at all. Forget an assault weapons ban, forget bans on high capacity magazines; we can’t even ask gun buyers to submit to a simple background check at a gun show. And, since, according to Mother Jones, “around 40% of all legal gun sales involve private sellers and don’t require background checks” that’s a lot of buyers and a lot of guns. Continue reading →

Mad Men Post Mortem: To Have and to Hold

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Welcome to this week’s post-mortem. Unlike my first assignment with the series premiere, I felt like this episode was filled with a lot of “wows.” We’ll talk about those in a second, but first:

Warning: This post will contain spoilers. If you haven’t watched this week’s episode and don’t want to be spoiled, then don’t come in here.

Continue reading →

Dispatches from Ponyville: One Man’s Journey Into the World of Bronies

poniesRecently, adult male fans of Hasbro’s “My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic”, (MLP:FIM) colloquially referred to as “Bronies”, and their female equivalents, known as “Pegasisters”, have garnered the interest and attention of the media, or at the very least the internet. As I was reading the various articles about the phenomenon, I found myself fascinated at how the residents of 4Chan, generally agreed upon as the worst people on the internet, had become enthralled by a cartoon about ponies aimed at pre-teen girls.

Several months ago, I set out to answer that question. These are my dispatches from Ponyville. Continue reading →

Mad Men Open Thread: Season 6, Episode 4

Mad_Men_Season_6,_Promotional_PosterAnother Sunday another new episode of Mad Men. Yippee! This week’s episode is called “To Have and to Hold.” I wonder who’s having and who’s holding. Check out AMC’s sneak peak of this week’s episode before tonight’s show to take a guess.

See you in the comments!

WARNING: THIS POST WILL BE FULL OF SPOILERY.  Continue reading →

Recipe Sunday: Cheddar and Broccoli Rabe Soup

finished broc rabe cheddar crass crop2To put it politely, this week was bad. And since today is the last day of the week, I sincerely believe that we could use some comfort food. Much the way that we enjoy one last big heavy winter meal in anticipation of the lighter fare of spring – I hope the next time I do a Recipe Sunday it’s after a week of unicorns snuggling with bunnies. Continue reading →