I’m sitting in my living room listening to “The Final Countdown” by Europe on Pandora. It’s 11:42 pm on a Saturday night. This song is incredibly evocative for me. It was released in 1986, when I was twelve years old.… Continue Reading
Adventures in Sushi Land
Gen X Chronicle’s visit to Seattle continued with a trip to Sushi Land, a conveyor belt sushi chain that has locations around the world. Conveyor belt sushi is a unique innovation that started in Japan, and it involves pieces of raw fish whirring around a conveyor belt in front of diners. … Continue Reading
Love and Rebirth in New York: A Story of Calamity, Struggle and Triumph
I wake up on Monday morning, MLK Day 2017 and four days before Trump’s inauguration, and immediately feel a visceral need to leave my home borough of Queens. I grew up in Manhattan – also known as The City – so every few days I need my dose of the bright lights.… Continue Reading
Trump’s Carrier Deal Wrongly Scapegoats Mexican Workers
President-elect Donald J. Trump took a well-documented victory lap last week after negotiating a deal with the Carrier Corporation to keep 1000 jobs in Indiana, reversing the company’s plan to ship the jobs overseas to its Monterrey, Mexico, factory. Trump was effusive on Twitter, crowing: “Big day on Thursday for Indiana and the great workers of that wonderful state.… Continue Reading
Around the World in 5,000 Words
I’ve already written a fair amount about the 2016 presidential race, particularly the Democratic primary. I also imagine that lots of folks are probably exhausted from wall-to-wall Trump coverage. “He’s a demagogue!”; “He’s speaks for a disempowered bloc of struggling white Americans!”… Continue Reading
Obama White House Buries Report on Drone Program Casualties
The Obama Administration has done everything in its power to bury its long-awaited report on civilian casualties from illegal, extrajudicial drone strikes by releasing it on the Friday afternoon of a long holiday weekend.… Continue Reading
Sports Analytics vs. The Eye Test: A Generation X Take on the NBA
THE DEBATE
Back in January, when the football playoffs were in full stride and the NBA was in midseason, I wrote a piece exploring how the recency effect and sports analytics affect assessments of great athletes throughout history. … Continue Reading
Why Polls Undercount Sanders, And Why He Can Win New York
By now it is widely understood among Sanders supporters that the mainstream media has been relentlessly pro-Clinton in its coverage of the Democratic race.… Continue Reading
Do #MuslimLivesMatter? US Officials Dismiss Civilian Toll in Middle East
Michael Hayden, CIA Director from 2006 – 2009, claims in a recent New York Times op-ed that the US drone program is “the most precise and effective application of firepower in the history of armed conflict.” … Continue Reading
Media’s pro-Clinton Bias in Democratic Primary Fails the Public
Noam Chomsky, the world-renowned linguist, intellectual, and political activist, wrote in his seminal book “Manufacturing Consent,” that the mass media “are effective and powerful ideological institutions that carry out a system-supportive propaganda function,… Continue Reading