Sal Paradise Was Right — But He Doesn't Have To Be

Nov 23, 2010 No Comments by

“There are nights when I think that Sal Paradise was right / Boys and girls in America have such a sad time together.” — Craig Finn, The Hold Steady

This blog is about important things — or at least I hope it will be.

I am one of those deluded souls who still think politics and public policy matter. I’m not naive. I understand that Washington is broken. I understand that our political conversation has been bankrupted by extremism on the left and right, powered largely by hyper-partisan blowhards on agenda-driven cable “news” networks. I realize why people have so much reason to despair — things are bad, and there’s not always much reason to believe they’ll get better any time soon.

I get all that, but I guess I just disagree. Call me crazy, but I believe that ultimately, even in our darkest hour, cooler heads can and will prevail. We have the ability to come together and solve hard problems — that’s what America has always been about. And sure, the problems we face today are certainly some of the toughest we’ve seen, but they’re also no more difficult than facing down a genocidal maniac hellbent on conquering the world.

We’ve seen worse. We’ve overcome worse.

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POLITICS: Glenn Beck the Prophet

May 26, 2010 No Comments by

Glenn Beck is at it again. Actually, he has been at it for a while now, but his crazy scale sometimes goes so far off the charts that you can only go so long before he says something so absurd it begs to be addressed. On August 28th, Glenn Beck will unveil his plan to [...]

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POLITICS: Bein' a Hater: Glenn Beck, Mormons, and Hate Speech

Apr 05, 2010 No Comments by

Saturday’s On the Media — an NPR news program that discusses media — focused on the rise of hate groups in the United States. It featured Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center, who (about halfway through the discussion) talked about, among many other things, how right-wing media figures and politicians are mainstreaming hate speech [...]

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READING LIST: March 31st

Mar 31, 2010 No Comments

Day two of the revamped Rhombus Reading List and we’re still here. We’re cooking with gas now. 1) POLITICS: An intriguing (if more than a bit wishful) article speculating on favorite Mormon homeboy Mitt Romney’s uncanny fitness to oversee the implementation of President Obama’s new health care reform laws — you know, if he ever [...]

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POLITICS: Glenn Beck, Mormons and Political Correctness

Aug 23, 2009 No Comments

There’s a little too much love for Glenn Beck in Utah. I mean, I get it: He has an endearing story. He has overcome an addiction to alcohol and gone from a small radio program in Kentucky to CNN Headline News to the news source you can always count on, Fox News. He’s also very [...]

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COLUMN: The Further Sins Of Glenn Beck

Jul 09, 2009 No Comments

Rhombus recently took some heat for some rather vitriolic comments I made regarding Glenn Beck in my review of his appearance at this year’s Stadium of Fire event at BYU. I criticized his dress, his demeanor and his very being. I called him “douchey” and a “borderline psycho.” I said that I wanted to punch [...]

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CONCERT REVIEW: Stadium Of Fire

Jul 05, 2009 No Comments

Something I would never have envisioned myself saying: I paid money to spend my 4th of July with the Jonas Brothers and Glenn Beck. Unfortunately, this travesty has now come to pass — and it wasn’t all that bad. The annual Stadium of Fire celebration at BYU is the very definition of harmless, Mormon-approved and, [...]

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WEEKEND UPDATE: Special 4th Of July Edition

Jul 04, 2009 No Comments

Welcome back to the second edition of Rhombus’ Weekend Update. (Much thanks to Lorne Michaels and the folks at SNL for not suing me for copyright infringement yet.) This week we’ll tell you all the do’s and don’ts for your holiday festivities. We’ll tell you the events going down in Utah Valley and you get [...]

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