NPR 4 THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t

RADIO TIMES As the arguments come to a close in Department of Health and Human Services v. Florida, the challenge to President Barack Obama’s health care reform being heard by the U.S. Supreme Court, we pick the brains of three smart analysts whose fields will be prominently affected by the ruling. Dr. DAVID NASH is the Founding Dean and the Dr. Raymond C. and Doris N. Grandon Professor of Health Policy at the Jefferson School of Population Health of Thomas Jefferson University. TED RUGER is a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School who specializes in American constitutional […]

THIS JUST IN: The Wilco Is Coming

July 21st at the Susquehanna Bank Center with the Avett Brothers and Dr. Dog, as part of the XPoNential Festival. MORE so much depends upon a red wheel barrow glazed with rain water beside the white chickens. That was written by William Carlos Williams, an American poet. Best I can tell, he was talking about the significance of insignificance, that little things truly do mean a lot—like if you could surf the past in a time machine and you did something as small as, say, kicking a stone in the Stone Age, it could send a ripple through the entire […]

HATERS GONNA HATE: Why The Boss Blows

PW: Bruce Springsteen. The Boss. Blue Collar Rock King. He’s just a Jersey boy done good after years of working on the docks to make ends meet, just a common man breaking his ass to get by, who struck it lucky singing about his girl, his hometown and his Glory Days. My floppy, white ass. I’ve been fuming over the popularity of this faux working-class bozo for the better part of the last decade, and now, in what has to be the peak of the mountain of his current resurgence, I bring my unpopular opinion to you. As someone who […]

WHY WE FIGHT: Afghan Girls Forced Into Boyhood

BBC: When Azita Rafhat, a former member of the Afghan parliament, gets her daughters ready for school, she dresses one of the girls differently. Three of her daughters are clothed in white garments and their heads covered with white scarves, but a fourth girl, Mehrnoush, is dressed in a suit and tie. When they get outside, Mehrnoush is no longer a girl but a boy named Mehran. Azita Rafhat didn’t have a son, and to fill the gap and avoid people’s taunts for not having a son, she opted for this radical decision. It was very simple, thanks to a […]

EXCERPT: The King James Version

  BY JONATHAN VALANIA James Mercer’s Rosebud is a beat-to-shit acoustic guitar he bought 10 years ago in a thrift store for the princely sum of $3. When he got it home he took out a Sharpie and scrawled the words YOU WILL BE DEAD across the top a la that iconic photo of Woodie Guthrie holding up guitar with the words THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS written on it. Like all good Rosebuds, it’s hard to find. To get to it you have to go to his home, located in a secure undisclosed location in Portland, unlock the high fence […]

NPR 4 THE DEF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t

FRESH AIR For much of the past decade, journalist Rachel Maddow has hosted her own radio and TV shows. And for much of that time, the popular MSNBC host has been thinking about how the United States uses military force — and how it starts and end wars. Maddow’s new book Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power traces how U.S. national intelligence agencies have taken over duties that were once assigned to the military, and how this shift has increased the public disconnect from the consequences of war. “Politically, secrecy is a great excuse,” Maddow tells Fresh Air‘s Terry […]

MEDIA: Rich Get Richer, The Middle Class Gets Fired & Journalism In This Town Gets F*cked

DAILY NEWS: Managers of the company, which owns the Daily News, Inquirer, philly.com and SportsWeek, have proposed cutting 35 jobs within the next six months – on top of layoffs and buyouts that eliminated 45 jobs earlier this month. The potential new round of cuts was detailed in a document, obtained yesterday by the Daily News, that outlined the terms of a potential sale of PMN by its current hedge-fund owners to an investor group now led by local businessmen Lewis Katz and George Norcross. The letter of intent, dated March 20, from Katz and Norcross to Evercore Partners, which […]

WORTH REPEATING: In Some London Attic There Is A Painting Of Madonna Getting Older By The Day

DAN DELUCA: First, there’s that $120 million, 10-year contract she signed with concert promoter Live Nation in 2007. It makes it imperative that she turn back the years and keep producing aerobically up-to-the-minute dance-floor pop suitable for playing in packed arenas and stadiums around the globe this year and in years to come. Second, there’s that rat Guy Ritchie to deal with. Madonna and her British ex-husband, with whom she had one son and adopted another, were divorced in 2008. The director of Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels and Sherlock Holmes reportedly walked away with a great deal of […]

CRAZY TRAIN: How To Confuse And Scare Busloads Of Bitter Old White People About A Law That Insures 16 Million More While Having Zero Effect On Them

NEWS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Monday, March 26, 2012  CONTACT: Jennifer Stefano at (610) 207-7901 or jstefano@afphq.org Tomorrow: Pennsylvania Buses Headed to Major DC Rally Massive rally will feature powerhouse lineup of speakers, large coalition WASHINGTON – Americans for Prosperity-Pennsylvania, a leading grassroots organization with over 110,000 members opposed to Obama’s health care takeover, is proud to be part of the “Hands Off My Healthcare Rally” in Washington, D.C. tomorrow. AFP-Pennsylvania has hundreds of activists heading down to the Capitol Tuesday morning. 16 buses will be leaving from the following locations: Lebanon, Lancaster, York, Harrisburg, Camp Hill, Gettysburg, Butler, Allegeny/Pittsburgh, Monroeville, […]

RASHOMON-ING* THE NEWS: ‘Horrific’ Hate Crime Turns Out To Be A Lot Of Hot Air And Smack

On January 30th, the Daily News’ Stephanie Farr trumpeted the brutal details of this disturbing story: IN A HORRIFIC assault in Center City on Saturday night, three teenagers who were spouting racial slurs pulled a man out of a cab to beat him. And when the cabdriver intervened to stop the assault, the teens turned their rage on him, police said yesterday. About 8:25 p.m., a cab was stopped at a red light at 15th and Chestnut streets when two 17-year-old boys and a 15-year-old boy approached and started calling the male passenger in the back seat racially derogatory names, […]

CONTEST: Win Tix To See Swervedriver @UT

Kids, come gather round I’m going to tell you the complete history of early 90’s hair-wagging, peddle-hopping shoegazers like My Bloody Valentine, Ride, The Swirlies, The Lilys, Curve, A.R. Kane, Lush, Catherine Wheel, Pale Saints, Velocity Girl and Swervedriver. NOT! What am I the goddamned Shell Answer Man? Google it, you little shits. Repeat after me: I am not your mother, your mother is at home smoking a doobie as big as a baby’s arm and trancing out to Mezcal Head. Anyway, here’s pretty much everything you need to know about Swervedriver who play Late Night With Jimmy Fallon tonight […]

NPR FOR THE DEF: We Hear It Even When U Can’t

FRESH AIR The fourth season of the AMC drama Mad Men ended in a dramatically big way. Protagonist Don Draper, played by Jon Hamm, seemed happy. So happy, in fact, that he surprised his secretary, Megan, with an engagement ring on a Disneyland vacation with his children. The last shot of the episode showed Megan happily asleep in bed with Don, as he remained awake, staring up at the ceiling, before turning his head and staring out the window. What did it mean? On Monday’s Fresh Air, series creator Matthew Weiner details his storytelling process. He also talks in depth […]