Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton were a picture-perfect couple as they campaigned together recently.

Between political remarks they held hands, hugged and exchanged intimate whispers. And yet even some supporters were surely wondering: how on earth can they still be married?

Hillary Clinton's legendary endurance of her husband's extramarital trysts haunts her candidacy for president. But then, there's no shortage of adultery hovering over this election:

Rudy Giuliani's awkward transition into his third marriage; John McCain's overlapping relationships with his first and second wives; and Newt Gingrich's "periods of weakness".   more »

In the world of the postmodernists, which may or may not be the same thing as the postmodern world, the scope of the spectacle seems utterly without limits.

Everything has become spectacle, reality is spectacle and the spectacle is reality. There is thus no longer anything external to the spectacle, no uncontaminated standpoint outside the spectacle from which we could call it into question.

This ubiquitous spread of the spectacle means that analysis of culture can only be imminent, taking place from within, and that the cultural critic is at best like a participant observer in a madhouse, or (as Nietzsche put it), a cultural physician treating an illness from which he or she suffers as well.

In this Baudrillardian postmodern world every relationship--whether a relationship to self or to other--every relationship has entered into the orbit of spectacle and spectator, the spectacular orbit of image and gaze.   more »

It is quite strange to me how in this country, Republicans have always been considered to be the party of "family values" and "morality."

Republicans want to end social welfare programs, criminalize homosexuality and institute a system of forced-childbirth for our nation's women. This has never struck me as particularly moral.

Liberals, meanwhile, care about combating the spread of global poverty, ending climate change and raising the minimum wage. These are true moral concerns.

A recent controversy underscores the hypocrisy in the Republican position. The first debate concerns the new HPV vaccine.   more »

We wander around dressed from head to toe in logo wear and merchandising – walking corporate advertisements, imitating a fifteen second television spot or a half-page magazine spread, silently pledging allegiance to one brand or another.

We must ask ourselves, what is being branded – the product or the person?
Image has replaced value. Convenience has replaced quality. Entertainment has replaced imagination. And everything is entertainment.

In North America, advertising spending has skyrocketed tenfold over the last 25 years; the average person is 10 per cent heavier than in 1970; airplane seats are getting wider; SUVs are getting bigger; children are less active; we watch more TV.

Industries like beauty, tobacco, pharmaceutical, diamond, oil and gas, and processed foods begin to whittle into our psyche at an early age.   more »

Father figures dominate Christian culture. Starting with God and ending with Bush. Figures of authority, control and discipline. America is one mother-fucking patriarchal society.

Like the Puritans of old and subsequent evangelicals, Bush seems to take literally the notion of original sin, in which the most intimate human relation is contaminated, forever scarring all subsequent generations.

His sexuality seems to be one of prohibition, a sexuality infused with a shame of the physical body and its wilder passions.

One can only suspect that this repression is rooted in a deep, personal knowledge--and fear--of the excesses of self-indulgence, an outgrowth of W's equally threatening excesses of alcohol and cocaine.   more »

Has bin Laden had a makeover?

His beard is much darker

He doesn't look as haggard as he did

in his last appearance three years ago,

but this could be the wonders of makeup

or his attempt to disguise himself

and to sort of camouflage himself

and not appear as we last saw him

   more »

Keywords: bin, laden, tape, marxism