Archives for October 2013

On October 1, 2013, Congress failed to pass a continuing resolution which allocated most government agencies funds for the next fiscal year. As government agencies ranging from national parks to the IRS shut down, Republicans in Congress proclaimed that the Democrats had failed to come to the table to negotiate over funding for Obamacare. Obamacare deserved to be defunded—the … [Read more...] about One Nation Under Who?: You Caused the Government Shutdown

When I heard that Miley Cyrus was hosting “Saturday Night Live” last weekend, I was skeptical about how the night would progress in terms of her performance. I was one of the many frustrated by the over-analysis of her performance at the VMAs. I was just as shocked and confused as many other viewers, but felt that Miley’s “twerking” did not need so much publicity. I tried to … [Read more...] about Girls on Film: SNL’s Spotlight on Miley

Perhaps you’re a new student of international relations or just a passerby who’s been hearing stuff about shaky American hegemony and caught the terms “system maintainer” or “transformer” tossed around, wondering what they meant. They’re not about IT guys who maintain your servers or sweet Camaros that transform into awesome robots. They are worldviews of international … [Read more...] about Mickey D’s and WMDs: Three worldviews walk into a bar

When I was 15 years old, I moved from Brazil to the United States and studied 11th and 12th grades at a New York public high school. I remember that the amount of time spent at school, pressure to succeed in standardized tests and available resources were some of the aspects of the system that struck me the most, for better and for worse. These same aspects strike Finnish … [Read more...] about The Book Is on the Table: Lessons from Finland

I'm not a diehard Pokemon fan. Honestly, at this point, I'm gonna go on a limb and say that I'm more of a Digimon fan, and if anyone wants to fight me about it, bring it on. But that doesn't mean that my childhood wasn't filled with the adventures of Ash and Pikachu, and I'll be damned if Nintendo isn't upping the nostalgia ante even more in advance of their Pokemon X and Y … [Read more...] about Chasing the Unicorn: Gotta Catch Em All