Browsing PBH By Articles

How Jersey Shore & Barack Obama Can End Racism

President Barack Obama is a liar.

The man entrusted with the ultimate privilege looked the nation in the eye and betrayed each and everyone one of us. In a White House Correspondents’ dinner speech this May, Obama quipped: “[The Jersey Shore-Up provision] reads, ‘The following individuals shall be excluded from the indoor tanning tax within this bill: Snooki, JWOWW, The Situation and House minority leader John Boehner.'”

But fast-forward to this July and the set of “The View”. The hard-hitting tribunal of Joy Behar, Whoopi Goldberg, Elisabeth Hasselbeck & Co. grilled the President on his pop-culture wisdom:

Continue Reading

Why Martin Luther King Jr. Would Have Watched Jersey Shore

We always forget something about the “Jersey Shore”.

Ronnie, J-Wow, Pauly-D — they had to apply for the show. This means MTV had to turn down legions of over-tanned, under-read guidos and guidettes. Surely, there was some girl too Snooki for even Snooki. A bro more vain than even The Situation. The real question, then, is: what are they doing right now? Do they watch Snooki’s censored flips in the club, or Ronnie obliterating another loudmouth on the Boardwalk and shrug: that’s it? What are they planning for this upcoming Friday night?
Continue Reading

Why The Media Shouldn’t Be Blamed For The Arizona Shooting

“Do you see that blue tree over there?” the future gunman asked his friend.

Last week it was the orange sky. Last house-party it was Jared disappearing upstairs to read a dictionary in an empty room. This isn’t normal, Zane Gutierrez thought. This isn’t sane.

Jared Lee Loughner is what happens if you think the movie Inception is real. He thought that this was all a dream. That his dream world was his true reality. The real question, then, was what bed would he really wake up in?

Continue Reading

The Police Are Not Your Friend

You’re face down on the pavement with one guy kneeling on your neck and the other kicking you with his steel toed boots. You wish somebody would call the cops, but what do you do if it’s the cops that are kicking you? An increasing number of Americans are becoming aware of the extent of police brutality and misconduct, but they don’t know what to do about it.

Billy Rork, a criminal defense attorney in Topeka, KS for more than 30 years is fond of saying, “The police are not your friends unless you’re six years old and lost.” It’s even on his business card. Given the events of the last decade, it’s hard to argue against his sentiment. While police brutality has been an issue the entirety of my lifetime, it’s progressed to a frightening level.

Continue Reading

Why I Gave My Dad Geese For Christmas

I thought about giving my dad a water buffalo. Or a pig. But neither smacked of the holidays. A camel was tempting but, at $800, out of my price range. And so I settled on a flock of geese.

I don’t think my dad particularly liked the gift. Especially compared to the iPad from his girlfriend. But, I figured, it would be more creative than the World War II books I usually got him. And besides, my family kind of owed the Animal Kingdom.

After the incident.

Continue Reading