Month: February 2016

• And the Oscar goes to…Boycott?

  All eyes are on the big name at the Academy Awards tonight: Boycott. Yes, this year, the Oscars are in the spotlight not as much for who’s nominated, but for who’s not. Spike Lee, Will Smith, and Jada Smith are boycotting Hollywood’s big night to protest the conspicuous lack of diversity in the actors and filmmakers the…

  John Kelly

  February 28, 2016

  Uncategorized

• Sloth

  One does not need an excuse to talk about sloths. These slow-moving tree-dwellers wear a goofy smile that says, “Live in the moment.” That or they are silently – joyously – breaking wind. But I do have a reason, this post. My wife and I are jaunting down to Costa Rica. Move aside, quetzal: It’s…

  John Kelly

  February 26, 2016

  Uncategorized

• Tales from the “crypt”

  Apple’s encryption has been at the center of a heated debate over privacy and security these past weeks. A federal judge ordered the company to unlock the iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters last December to aid the FBI’s investigation, but they have not complied: Apple maintains that such decryption would compromise…

  John Kelly

  February 23, 2016

  Uncategorized

• How did “lame duck” take flight?

  Technically, President Barack Obama is not a “lame duck” until after the election in November. But with a gridlocked Congress, an unprecedented presidential campaign, and a sudden Supreme Court vacancy, pundits, the press, and politicos have been already quacking the fowl phrase a few months into the president’s final year. There is even an egregiously false “lame…

  John Kelly

  February 19, 2016

  Uncategorized

• A pre-bork, post-Bork?

  Mere hours after the news broke that Justice Antony Scalia died over the weekend, the political fight over his sudden vacancy already broke out. Senate Republicans argue the next president should nominate his replacement. Meanwhile, Barack Obama, citing constitutional duties, will submit his pick. Everyone from pundits on cable news to scholars of U.S. history are pointing…

  John Kelly

  February 16, 2016

  Uncategorized