L'America: What About the Supreme Court?
Today, liberals are up in arms all across America: in two opinions, the Supreme Court of the United States has established that (most) corporations can disregard the law for religious reasons; it also found against mandating agency fees to unions by non-unionized members. Really, liberals have been up in arms against the current Supreme Court for a while. President Obama denounced several Supreme Court opinions, in particular Citizens United (on campaign finance). Continue readingL'America: What's So Great About America?
When I moved to America, back in the ancient days, my friends tried to dissuade me. “Don’t move!” they’d say, “You won’t like it!” I asked why, and the replies were scattered. There was a cluster of “Americans are so shallow!” in the mix, but mostly it was about trivialities like, “Their bread is terrible,” or “You can’t ride your bike anywhere.” My friends clearly had no idea of what life in America is like. Continue readingL'America: Poker Face Cool
The YouTube player can not be loaded with disabled JavaScript. The following video is embedded here: https://youtube.com/watch?v=bESGLojNYSo Before moving to America, I always wondered why poker is such a popular game over here. I mean, we used to play it back in Europe, and of all the card games, it seemed the singularly stupidest. You look at your cards, you try your luck, then you see who’s got the best deal. Continue reading
L'America: The 411 on Thanksgiving
With the holiday behind us, I got my usual load of questions about Thanksgiving. What is it, why is it such a big deal, and what does it look like? To give you an idea of what it feels like to an outsider, I’ll tell you the story of my first Thanksgiving after moving to America. There was one before that, but it was a coincidental Thanksgiving while vacationing in Hawaii, so that doesn’t really count. Continue readingL'America: What's the Nuclear Option in the Senate
If you are confused about the changes to the filibuster rules in the United States Senate, read on!Hooray! There is something new to explain! You have all heard about this Nuclear Option that Senate Majority Leader (Democratic) Harry Reid pushed through, and you don’t understand what it’s about, what’s going on, and why it’s a big deal. I am not a Constitutional expert by any means, but I’ve been following this for a long time and here is my (potentially totally misleading and confusing) recap: Continue readingL'America: Wireless Service
*Note: I should be writing about the mess in Washington with the Continuing Resolution and the Debt Ceiling, since that’s what you readers keep asking about. Maybe later, but right now I have Washington Dysfunction Fatigue Syndrome*There I am, in 2013, and I need new cell service. It’s mostly a work thing: I need a newer Android device with Bluetooth 4.0, and that means a new contract of sorts. Which gets me to explaining the weird way the American wireless carrier system works. Continue reading