Old Mole Variety Hour

young white men with guns

There have been so many of these incidents that it's useful to have timelines and maps just to keep track of these things. We can certainly see the ironies of the situation. Juan Cole reminds us to consider not just the children killed in Connecticut last week, but also th... Read more

ALEC helps corporations write state laws

Produced for: Old Mole Variety Hour

[For the 21 May 12 Old Mole, posted 5/20/2012] We all know money in politics is a problem. As Marx noted, "The executive of the modern state is but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie." One of the strongest links between capital and the ... Read more

a revolution in happiness?

Audio here The other day, in line at the grocery store, I noticed that the cover of Real Simple magazine's January issue invited me to "be happier this year." I can't tell you about the "9 surprising strategies to get you there," because I was pretty sure that spending $... Read more

Eyjafjallajokull

Produced for: Old Mole Variety Hour

For the Old Mole Variety Hour May 3, 2010 I've been thinking about volcanoes and air travel. Last month, I was scheduled to attend a conference in London, and stopped on the way to visit an old friend now living in Ireland. Of course I never made it to the conference, bec... Read more

against work

The well-read Red has been reading about working and about not working. With unemployment rates in the US hovering around 16 percent, we might take to heart comments from French activists protesting changes in unemployment law some years ago. Taking a page from the Situat... Read more

policing the boundaries of gender

Produced for: Old Mole Variety Hour

for the Old Mole Variety Hour 31 August 2009 Earlier this month, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) announced that they will be verifying the gender of South African runner Caster Semenya, who won the women's 800-meter event at the Berlin Games. ... Read more

reproductive justice

Produced for: Old Mole Variety Hour

for the Old Mole Variety Hour, June 8, 2009 The funeral this weekend of Dr. George Tiller attracted hundreds of mourners, honoring the memory of one of the very small number of doctors providing late term abortions in the US, a man whose clinic motto was "Trust women." Mean... Read more

Memorial Day

Memorial Day is popularly recognized as our national holiday for remembering those who were killed in wars. As Barack Obama said the other day, it's a time to "pay tribute to our fallen heroes; and to remember the servicemen and women who cannot be with us this year bec... Read more

labor day

for the Old Mole, September 1, 2008 Today is Labor Day. Most nations celebrate Labor day on May first, to commemorate the eight hour work day and the Haymarket riot, while we in the US celebrate instead the less radical date associated with outdoor barbecue and the end o... Read more

on the relation between queer and immigrant movements

Produced for: Old Mole Variety Hour

for The Old Mole 9 June 2008 Certainly both groups have faced legislative attacks. Richard Fricker on Consortium News is only one of several recent writers to note what he calls a “surge of theocracy tinged with white racialism,” which he sees in a series of recent measur... Read more