Mike Daisey – Derek Hills

OK, so I ignored the headlines the first few days. I mean – really – Lena Dunham the child molester? To a codger like me, she’s practically a child herself. And as a busy IT professional doing the people’s work at US Customs & Border Protection, I don’t have time to follow the daily ebb and flow of rage among boosters and haters in Bloggerland, unless we’re talking Senate Majority Leader-elect Mitch McConnell. (Fear the Turtle, guys.) But with last Tuesday’s bloodbath election behind us and President Obama cowering behind the ramparts at Fort Lame Duck, I was surprised to see that the Dunham’s story was still in the news.

Could she really be a child molester after all? Continue reading “A laggard comment on the Lena Dunham hoo-hah controversy: a storyteller’s view” →

Don’t argue politics and public policy with your parents. Just don’t do it. I don’t care what Chris Keener thinks, his gut-busting film on surviving political chatter and bridging the child/parent, liberal/”conservative” divide notwithstanding. (Click the link, it’s a must-see for those who fear the home-front for purely ideological reasons.) I mean, I appreciate the spirit of the film: who, in a vacuum, doesn’t believe that he can have a reasonable discussion with his family, say, on the proper role of government? Watch as Chris, with calm, unassailable argument, swats away the Fox-y assertions of his entire family (also played by Chris!) while simultaneously preserving amity – comity? – around his Thanksgiving table. It’s a page right out of the Change We Can Believe In handbook, 2008 edition. Continue reading “Who do you trust? Uncle Sam or Wall Street? The Street’s got better leaders, methinks…” →