These days, numerous indie rock bands and musicians seem to have an ear for progressive politics. Indie bands are constantly showing up on lefty compilation albums and on lineups for music festivals and concerts that promote progressive causes.

They speak out against Bush, they want you to vote, they think we should get out of Iraq, and they want to help fight global warming. You might even see them playing campaign events in the coming presidential election.

Few musicians, though, actually incorporate explicit political commentary into their music in a concrete way.

This is exactly what The Thermals have done with their latest album, The Body, The Blood, and The Machine.   more »

The corporate giant AT&T is reaping huge financial benefits through ownership of its cable network AT&T Broadband, which shows explicit porn on channels such as the Hot Network. General Motors, which owns Direct-TV, receives big profits every time an adult movie is purchased by viewers across America.

Now, it seems, there are infinitely more ways to sell a dirty picture, and pornography has become associated with some big American brand names. Hotel chains are part of the association, too.

As an amenity in large hotel chains, pay-per-view adult films are made available by one of two major distribution companies—Lodgenet or On-Command Video.

Even internet companies such as Yahoo!, a search engine used in millions of American households, make money by selling ads and links to porn websites.   more »

Heck, if you asked Paris Hilton, I'm sure even her trenchant social analysis would be that we pay too much attention to celebrity. At least, she would admit we pay too much attention to Lindsay Lohan.

They're having babies, they're adopting babies, they're abusing babies. They're getting married, getting divorced and being "just friends."

They drink and drive, wreck cars, pick up hookers and cuss out cops. They are racists or are in therapy for it. They're having work done or denying it.

They eat too much or not enough. They kill their wives and ex-wives. They sing songs about global warming or genocide, front foundations to help the helpless. And, finally, they visit Oprah for absolution.   more »

Remember good old doubt? When a capacity for self-doubt was a prerequisite for self-knowledge and a hallmark of maturity? Doubt is a virtue, JFK said 45 years ago. Without it we have the tragic bluster and empty optimism of political culture today.

Our generation has erected a culture that confuses happiness with a lack of discomfort, and leadership with an almost psychotic form of false optimism.

We have ingeniously insulated ourselves from self-scrutiny and fear. We tuck ourselves away in gated communities, hibernate in food courts, or sleep in front of televisions.

Swathed in layer upon layer of soft and soporific comfort to protect ourselves from the bracing draft of doubt. We can barely feel our own culture anymore.   more »

The American system cannot work if most of the populace is lazy, barely educated, incurious and bored by everything but entertainment.

You want to know why China and India are building their economies while ours is shrinking? Why most Americans welcomed tax cuts and the invasion of Iraq? How George W. Bush got elected? Because we're not thinking.

At this point, our national slide into dopiness may be irreversible, and it could be that mindlessness is just part of our final approach to the far limits of decadence and the end of empire.   more »