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Opinion: Which is More Important — Free Speech or Stopping Fascism?

By Jef Rouner

May 3, 2022

With Elon Musk poised to own Twitter, many on the right are heralding it as the dawn of absolute free speech. The fact that Musk is apparently upset that former President Donald Trump remains banned from the site after the Twitter board found Trump had helped instigate the violent insurrection...

Opinion: Morbius is an AIDS Revenge Story

By Jef Rouner

Mar 31, 2022

When I was a teenager in the ‘90s, I watched a man slowly die of AIDS. He was a friend of my theater teacher; someone she had worked with back when her focus was on acting instead of instruction. I don’t remember why she took me to see him one...

Bill Maher has a TV show, standup tour, podcast, and new HBO special coming out.

Bill Maher Has a Lot to Say about Trump, Ted Cruz, Wokeness, Millennials & More

By Bob Ruggiero

Mar 31, 2022

For one hour each week (and a little extra online), Bill Maher addresses, dissects, skewers, pontificates and debates with guests the social and political topics of the day on his long-running HBO series Real Time with Bill Maher. But given just how batshit crazy things are going these days in...

A great web series got killed for very mediocre Hollywood bunk.

Even With Christina Ricci, Wednesday Feels Like a Ripoff

By Jef Rouner

Mar 24, 2022

Earlier this week, Deadline announce that Christina Ricci would be joining the Netflix series Wednesday, a show about a high school age Wednesday Addams from the Addams Family cartoons being helmed by Tim Burton. Ricci played Wednesday in the 1991 film adaptation directed by Barry Sonnenfeld and its sequel. Though...

An anti-racism protest outside the White House in 2017.

Houston Hit With Another Round of Racist Flyers, This Time With a Bonus: Hitler's Picture

By Jef Rouner

Mar 23, 2022

White supremacists have been at it again in Houston, this time hitting multiple neighborhoods around the city with racist flyers. This weekend, the Heights was hit with a round of leaflets featuring the face of Adolf Hitler and the phrase “white lives matter.” According to the Houston Chronicle, previous neighborhoods...

Literature just became a lot more interesting.

Opinion: Hardy And Nance Studios' Banned Proves Reading Is Fundamental

By Sam Byrd

Mar 18, 2022

On Saturday from 5 - 9 p.m., Hardy & Nance Studios will present Banned: Art Inspired by Banned Books. In it, more than 30 artists will display their works that draw inspiration from across the boards for illicit literature.

Too many people think life is like a video game where it's all winners and losers.

Opinion: How “Git Gud” Is Ruining the Country

By Jef Rouner

Mar 4, 2022

The latest From Software title, Elden Ring, is out now. The developer is famous for its incredibly punishing difficulty in their games, and every new release comes with a very tired argument about whether there should be an easy mode. On one side are gamers who would like to experience...

The author (center) looking like a young Republican in The Black Math Experiment.

Opinion: Why Are So Many Musicians Right-Wing Conspiracy Theorists?

By Jef Rouner

Feb 24, 2022

There are definitely patterns when it comes to arguing with people on Facebook who believe various right-wing conspiracy theories. Profile pics where people are holding fish comes up a lot, as do sports logos, but the thing I run into a surprising amount is various musicians. It’s made me wonder...

Superintendent Millard House III has some big plans for HISD.

Opinion: Our House Wants a Very, Very, Very Fine (School) House. Can HISD Afford It?

By Margaret Downing

Feb 21, 2022

For years during her turn as a Houston ISD school board member, Jolanda Jones regularly railed against “inequities” — the unequal offerings at the district’s schools – paying particular attention to the lack of libraries at many HISD schools, usually in poorer neighborhoods. For a school district constantly falling behind...

Candace Owens and Houston U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw at a 2018 Turning Point USA event in Palm Beach, Florida.

Opinion: Greatest Hits of Candace Owens, Ted Cruz’s SCOTUS Hopeful

By Jef Rouner

Feb 4, 2022

When Justice Stephen Breyer announced his retirement, President Joe Biden vowed to fulfill a campaign promise to fill the vacancy with the Supreme Court’s first Black woman. Republicans, who prefer all nominations be picked by the Federalist Society, promptly freaked out. Our own Sen. Ted Cruz waded into the fray...

Danny Harrison is opposed to mandates, but spends no time promoting vaccination as a choice.

Opinion: Danny Harrison’s “Pro-Choice” Stance is Anti-Vax

By Jef Rouner

Feb 1, 2022

On the surface, Danny Harrison looks like he might be a more palatable Republican choice for Texas governor. Right now, Governor Greg Abbott, former head of the Texas GOP Allen West, and former Texas State Sen. Don Huffines are in a three-way battle for the nomination to see who can...

Pictured: the neoliberal technocracy in action, apparently.

Opinion: The Disturbing Face of Left-Wing Anti-Vaccination Adherents

By Jef Rouner

Jan 27, 2022

It’s an inarguable fact that the majority of American anti-vaccination sentiments during the age of COVID tend to fall along the right wing of the political spectrum. Red states have fewer vaccinated people than blue states, prominent right wing media figures like Joe Rogan and Tucker Carlson are responsible for...

It's not a long or particularly difficult book to understand, but conservatives get it wrong anyway.

Things Conservatives Get Wrong About 1984

By Jef Rouner

Jan 26, 2022

Conservatives love to miss the point of popular literature. I’ve lost count of the number of conservatives who didn’t get that the bad guys in Atlas Shrugged were crony capitalists, not the mean old government, and let’s not even get into the ones who think Jesus wanted people to be...

It still mostly looks like this, but there is a lot more diversity in American fascism than their used to be.

Opinion: How American Fascism Got So Diverse

By Jef Rouner

Jan 21, 2022

It was very weird to watch Tim Scott, the first Black senator from South Carolina, downplay the nationwide, conservative-led movement to disenfranchise voters in the recent, doomed effort to pass voter protections in the U.S. Senate. Republican legislatures across the country, including in Texas, have sought to institute massive restrictions...

Opinion: Things NOT to do on Valentine’s Day

By Jef Rouner

Jan 21, 2022

Valentine’s Day is one of those holidays that always has an enormous amount of pressure on it. Chalk to up to decades of pop culture and advertising messages if you want to, but that societal background radiation is still a hell of a drug. We often get so caught up...

Opinion: Fear of a Unionized Starbucks

By Jef Rouner

Jan 14, 2022

The coffee giant Starbucks has been in the news a lot lately as more and more of its stores unionize. Employees are walking out in an organized fashion and are starting to demand safe conditions and fair pay. Naturally, conservatives tend to teabag the comment sections of these stories with...

Some Missouri City Residents Hilariously Upset About the New Cindie’s

By Jef Rouner

Jan 6, 2022

It’s 2022, and you would think that the days of being up in arms over a shop that sells vibrators, lube, and lingerie would be behind up. Not to judge by the conversation (since removed) that was happening on Next Door in Missouri City over the erection of a new...

Patton Oswalt defends his friendship with Dave Chappelle despite the latter's transphobia.

Opinion: No One Cares About Your Friendship With a Bigot

By Jef Rouner

Jan 3, 2022

Over New Year’s Eve, comedian Patton Oswalt got himself sent to Cancelvania because he agreed to come perform a guest spot with Dave Chappelle. The two have been friends for decades, and it was Oswalt’s first chance to do an arena gig. Later, he posted a photo of him and...

Believing something doesn't make it a valid argument.

No, It’s Not Your Opinion. You’re Just Wrong, Version 2.0

By Jef Rouner

Dec 29, 2021

I have had so many conversations or email exchanges with students in the last few years wherein I anger them by indicating that simply saying, "This is my opinion" does not preclude a connected statement from being dead wrong. It still baffles me that some feel those four words somehow...

Christmas Colors Are Red and Green But Christmas 2021 Was a Bit Blue

By Margaret Downing

Dec 28, 2021

Last week, the night before two Texas friends of mine were all set to fly out to the Pacific Northwest visit their children and grandchildren for Christmas, they got the dreaded call. Despite being fully vaccinated, a son-in-law and grandson had just tested positive for COVID. The next day their...

Opinion

Opinion: Rudz to Host Another Transphobic Comedy Trashfire

Opinion: Roe Is Only the Beginning

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