Category Archives: General Culture and News

Anti-Bullying Intent, Anti-Free-Speech Result?

Posted on August 13, 2013 by Tom Garrett

Last week, over at A New Voice, I tackled the inevitable collision of anti-bullying efforts and the free speech rights of students. An expanded version of that piece is below: A broad new social media policy recently implemented by California’s Lodi Unified … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary, General Culture and News | Tagged Bullying, Commentary, Constitutional Law, Education, En Loco Parentis, Free Speech, Freedom of Speech, General Culture and News, Lodi Unified School District, Stockton, The First Amendment, Tinker v. Des Moines | 1 Comment

An Incomplete List of Things That Are Not Bullying

Posted on August 8, 2013 by Tom Garrett

A non-exhaustive recitation of items that aren’t bullying: – Your doctor telling you that you need to lose weight to avoid negative health consequences. – A baseball player who has agreed to abide by union and MLB rules being punished under those … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary, General Culture and News | Tagged Bullying, Commentary, Feelings, General Culture and News, Weight Loss | 8 Comments

A Subtle Lesson of the Woolwich Attack

Posted on May 23, 2013 by Tom Garrett

By now, everyone has likely heard the awful story of the brutal attack perpetrated in the London district of Woolwich yesterday. To recap, two “suspects”[1] attempted to run a man down with their car, then, after crashing their vehicle, attacked the … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary, General Culture and News, Politics | Tagged Commentary, General Culture and News, Islam, London, Politics, Religion, Terrorism, United Kingdom, Woolwich | 4 Comments

Sometimes, I’m a Hero

Posted on May 9, 2013 by Tom Garrett

Posted in General Culture and News, Pictures | Tagged Abercrombie & Fitch, Capitalism, Fat People, General Culture and News, Hitler, Humor, Mike Jeffries, Obesity, Perspective, Self-Congratulation, Silliness | 1 Comment

Imbeciles React to a Story About Swimming

Posted on May 8, 2013 by Tom Garrett

I saw a fairly innocuous local news story come across my Facebook feed today. The piece was the sort of semi-fluff that local stations like to show on their 5 o’clock broadcast. The underlying news item was that data indicates … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary, General Culture and News, Politics | Tagged Commentary, Drowning, Facebook, General Culture and News, Humor, Imbeciles, Politics, Problem-Solving, Racism?, Social Media, Swimming | 2 Comments

The Worst Commercial on Television

Posted on April 25, 2013 by Tom Garrett

I’ve written and spoken often about my concerns regarding the social norms of younger Americans. There’s a fairly stark line of demarcation between those who made it through their formative years without the influence of the internet and social media, … Continue reading →

Posted in General Culture and News, Television | Tagged Advertising, Commercials, Facebook, Facebook Home, General Culture and News, Get Off My Lawn, Millennials, Narcissism, Pessimism, Rants, Television, Young People | 7 Comments

Hey, It’s Not the End of the World

Posted on April 18, 2013 by Tom Garrett

One of the temptations of our disposable and wildly narcissistic modern culture is to presume that whatever is happening now must be more important than anything that has happened previously—not only more important because it’s happening to us, but also objectively more … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary, General Culture and News | Tagged Accidents, Andrew Kehoe, Bath School Disaster, Boston, Boston Marathon, Commentary, General Culture and News, History, Terrorism, Waco, West Texas | Leave a comment

The Fatal Mistake

Posted on April 16, 2013 by Tom Garrett

In the aftermath of the bombing of the Boston Marathon, about which many details are still unknown, several thoughts immediately came to mind as the limited facts trickled in. The first was that it immediately reminded me of the London … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary, General Culture and News, Videos | Tagged Boston, Boston Marathon, Commentary, David Copeland, General News and Culture, Healing, Humor, Old Spice, Sadness, Terrorism, Tony Gwynn, Videos | 1 Comment

Turf War

Posted on March 13, 2013 by Tom Garrett

I don’t know who fired the first salvo in this unfortunate skirmish—does it matter?—but I wish that these two combatants that have meant so much to me over the years could recede to their natural borders and be content not … Continue reading →

Posted in General Culture and News, Pictures | Tagged 1990's, Burger King, Cereal, Cereal Killer, Cinnamon Roll Crunch, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Dan Cortese, Food, General Culture and News, General Mills, Humor, Peanut Butter Crunch, Peanut Butter Toast Crunch, Pictures, Quaker, Tongue-in-Cheek | 2 Comments

About That Onion Tweet

Posted on February 25, 2013 by Tom Garrett

I hadn’t planned on writing about this (I have a couple of podcasts that need editing and that will go up later this week), but two people have already asked me about this story. So, here goes. I don’t think … Continue reading →