los angeles

Detained Immigrants in California Need Lawyers

Photo by Samantha Sais/Reuters
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– California and its cities and counties are purported to be ‘sanctuaries’ for immigrants, but they aren’t. – While many local police forces do refuse to check the status of their detainees or hold prisoners on ICE’s behalf, many cases have shown that local law enforcement, municipalities and the state prison system are more than willing to cooperate with Homeland Security and other federal agencies to remove parents, students and workers from their peaceful, everyday lives to throw them into jail and and legal limbo.  Once detained, their families are destroyed, […]

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people

We Did This

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When I was a young boy, whenever I went to a public library, I would always search for books on two subjects: Nazis, and nuclear weapons. I think this was because the biggest myths of my young life were told by Steven Spielberg. Reading about the realities of those two ideas: German fascism – its roots in Enlightenment philosophies, populist politics and art – and the successful construction of a machine so powerful it could incinerate an entire city, and destroy the planet, those seemed like the most important things to […]

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people

R.I.P Harris Wittels

Fancy Pants 2002
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  He was a rockstar at Emerson and apparently super nice.  I was in the audience at the Cabaret when Fancy Pants debuted.  I still remember a sketch (from their second show?) about going to work inside a living bear as the funniest fucking thing…     This is 2003 and they are like 19 years old.  This is from before almost everything it reminds you of. They were a million times funnier and more original than the other comedy groups on campus.  They seemed cool. I have no doubt that the three or […]

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people

R.I.P. The Last Revolutionary Hero

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‘Out of the night that covers me, Black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul. In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of chance My head is bloody, but unbowed. Beyond this place of wrath and tears Looms but the Horror of the shade, And yet the menace of the years Finds and shall find me unafraid. It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I […]

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atheism

Tearing Down the House

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Imagine that you owned a house, and you discovered what might be a serious problem with its construction.  This is a problem that you yourself are not qualified to deal with – let’s say that it’s some combination of engineering and local construction code which only someone with intense training and experience could competently solve.  You call a contractor, or an engineer, someone who professes and certifies their expertise in exactly this sort of matter.  You pay this person to inspect the damage and give their honest opinion, and recommend […]

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los angeles

#OccupyLA: Eviction and the Detention of Tyson Heder

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  I drove myself down to City Hall on Tuesday night to take part in what would probably be the most important political event in our city for a long time.  I live tweeted as much as I could – right up until my Android phone ran out of batteries.  For those of you who thought I may have been arrested or hurt – do not fret.  Yours truly stayed well out of the way of both protesters and the police, I didn’t even yell and scream.  I just wanted […]

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cuisine

Richard Blais is Top Chef *phew*

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After what might now be the 2nd best season of Top Chef (Season 6 is the best, sorry ya’ll), former choke artist and current self-depricating genius Richard Blais took the title of best reality TV chef on Bravo.  As he was a favorite son of this writer’s TV-watching household, I am very glad that the forces of redemption, braised meats, and network expectations came together to give Blais his day in the sun.

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