Joel's humanistic blog

It has been a while since I last  blogged about writing for Thomas L. Knapp 's William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism , but at long last I've capped off a planned troika of op-ed commentaries started this summer with the Oscar-baiting "The Madness of the Academy."    "Can't Stop the Bookstore"  struck back with my examination of how Amazon's $15 wage may not be the pure concession it has been assumed to be on both sides of the conflict. Along the way, I took a look at the forgotten history of corporate liberalism, explained how a small bookstore has succeeded where Barnes & Noble failed, and found a plotline that The Simpsons  hasn't done yet. The trilogy concludes with  "Protectionist Presidents are the Parents of Our Country's Trusts"  taking on the still-current fallout of Trump's trade policies, uncovering the hidden history of free trade as a progressive cause.

When I posted  last week about my commentary piece "The Madness of the Academy" I didn't know if my take on the Academy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Popular Film would get any attention. After some time circulating through the series of tubes, I dare say that it's more popular than the Oscar itself. It's made its way to the New Haven Register , Citizens Journal , USA Today's The Spectrum , and  Counterpunch  (and, via Counterpunch, to Open Mind News ,  Radio Free  and Bestseller Magazine ). It's even made it to the print-as-in-on-actual-newsprint opinion pages of  The Register Citizen , The Middletown Press , The Daily Lobo  and Salt Lake City Weekly . And no, I'm not Tom Knapp (but then again, that's what I want you to think - have you ever seen us in the same place?), but the words inadvertently credited to the guy who created The William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism , wrote 99% of its content, encouraged t

"The Madness of the Academy" is my take on the Academy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Popular Film, my first commentary piece in a long time for Thomas L. Knapp 's The William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism . I've enjoyed getting back in the op-ed writing game and set to write a couple more in the coming months ... but I'll be able to write more of them if Tom has more money to buy them from me!

What, me patriarch? "Even in Pleasantville, there was more to life than Pleasantville," as Jesse Walker noted, but there was even more among the undead in Mockingbird Heights: "Herman, as head of the house, I think you should get to the bottom of this. Now, you go right on upstairs and have a father-and-son talk with your boy." "Well, gosh, Lily, I'm not very good at that, y'know, dear. You're his mother. Why don't you  go up and have a father-and-son talk with him?" "No! A think like that is up to the father !" Anyone who's watched Father Knows Best  for nine years ought to know that." "All right. But Donna Reed always handles these things on her show, y'know." (Eddie's parents in the Munsters episode "Operation Herman")