Author: Marc Jampole

This past week I have encountered more proof that anti-unionism is now part of the arsenal of ideological assumptions that the mass media makes on our behalf. I saw two examples of an anti-union subtext in articles by two writers whose work I generally admire: James Surowieki, who writes The New Yorker’s “Financial Page, and […]

Read More… from Mainstream media make anti-union ideology an accepted premise in many stories

The Obama Administration is once again displaying its conservative feathers as proudly as any peacock might.  The same group of pseudo-progressives who overruled distribution of Plan B birth control without an I.D. and executed an about-face to gut proposed higher pollution emission standards now plans to make another assault on freedom of speech. Obama’s Federal […]

Read More… from FCC plan to ease media ownership rules will further limit the type of news and opinions that Americans get

House Republicans persist in stonewalling an agreement to extend and expand the temporary cut in Social Security and Medicare taxes (AKA payroll taxes). After holding the U.S. economy hostage time and again to maintain temporary tax cuts for the wealthy and paying for them by gutting programs for everyone else, the Republicans are now opposing […]

Read More… from In class war, House Republicans must think they’re the 300 Spartans dying politically so wealth inequality can survive

A number of times over the past few years I have made derogatory references to video or electronic games, always as substantiation of my theory that our mass culture encourages adults to hold onto childish entertainments and habits. But I was only partially right about computer games.  As it turns out, only certain types of […]

Read More… from Many electronic games are leading to the infantilization of American adults, but not all of them

The best advertising attempts to evoke an emotion in the viewer or listener and then link that emotion to the product or service for sale.  Budweiser has a series of ads meant to make you feel patriotic that it runs on July 4. McDonald’s ads for its coffee drinks are meant to make the viewer […]

Read More… from Target misses the target completely with ads that turn Christmas into nothing more than a chore

Tim Tebow has every right to do his little public prayer at football games. His drop to one knee is protected speech under the Constitution of the United States. And I have every right to tell the world how much I despise everything that tebowing represents to me and many others. Let’s start with the […]

Read More… from Tebow has right to pray in public and others have the right to find it obnoxious

I imagine that virtually no OpEdge reader could beat Kobe Bryant at one-on-one basketball. And none of you could outrun Usain Bolt, current world record holder in the 100 meter dash. You couldn’t sneak a fast ball by Alex Rodriguez. Women’s golf champ Yanni Tseng would give you 5 strokes and still beat you. Hikaru […]

Read More… from Best Buy’s “Game-on Santa” makes shopping a competitive sport and the be-all and end-all of existence

I’m betting that Mitt Romney gave his campaign for the Republican nomination a deadly wound in last night’s umpteenth debate between the Republican candidates to face President Obama in November 2012. It doesn’t matter if Mitt or Texas Rick was right in their latest little spat over facts. What matters is that by so smugly […]

Read More… from Romney’s $10,000 bet will define him, just as his father was defined by his “brainwashed” comment

Just before and during the 1960 presidential election cycle, there appeared an epidemic of media stories that posed the question, “Can a Catholic be president?”  The answer in most cases was why not, assuming that he (since the thought of a female president in those days would have been considered science fiction) follows the constitution […]

Read More… from Religious political ads beg question: do we want a president who will trample the Constitution for religion?