Much has been written about the appalling, depressing and infuriating case concerning Brock Turner and his unnamed victim. I won’t rehearse the case, nor the dialectic it has sparked between those sympathetic to the victim and those outraged that sympathy can ever be extended to crime perpetrators, especially when such perpetrators are member of a hyper-privileged class such as that to which Turner belongs.
Not many understand Open Mike Eagle’s humor on its face. The rapper says as much on the opener to his 2014 album, Dark Comedy, rapping that he needs to “Add a lol cause nobody seems to know when I’m joking.” Indeed, Eagle’s deadpan style, as well as the density of cultural references and wordplay in his work, can make parsing out a verse’s punchline an exercise in literary interpretation upon first listen.
Continue reading “Open Mike Eagle, Race and Getting the Joke”
Most Republicans don’t want Donald Trump as the nominee. Most Republicans didn’t want Trump during the primaries. He benefited from a crowded field of traditional candidates in the early primaries. The preferences of voters who voted for the third place candidates and beyond were simply lost. They had no say between the first and second place candidates.
Continue reading “Why The U.S. Should Embrace Instant Runoff Voting”
Never in recent memory have the bounds of human impact on the world felt so wide. At a time when researchers are finding cans of soda at the bottom of the Marianas Trench, and scientists are grappling with the possibility of creating human-animal “chimera” tissues for study, our ability to influence the world around us seems practically unparalleled. And when it comes to dealing with a public health crisis brought on by one of nature’s most annoying pests, it would seem that these limits may soon expand once again.