My father said he wanted a boy. I remember hearing this when I was young—maybe six years old—standing in the Grill Room at the country club. I was most likely wearing Bermuda shorts, a cotton collared shirt, and sandals in a “Kennedy-esque” style, which was my mother’s preference.
I was not a boy.
McCulloch is incorrect. The biggest challenge the case faced is not any form of media. The biggest challenge the case faced is that Darren Wilson shot an unarmed black man. Had this not occurred then there would’ve been no problems to begin with. The fact that such a shooting did occur begs the attention of the nation.
If you aren’t the sort of person who is immersed in the world of video games, you could be forgiven for being unaware of GamerGate. While initially used to name the controversy that sparked it, “GamerGate” has come to be associated with proponents who claim they are concerned about issues of ethical integrity in video game journalism. Despite this premise, the movement has largely focused on harassing and threatening women in order to drive them from the gaming industry.
While initially used to name the controversy that sparked it, “GamerGate” has come to be associated with proponents who claim they are concerned about issues of ethical integrity in video game journalism. Despite this premise, the movement has largely focused on harassing and threatening women in order to drive them from the gaming industry. It is a response by a minority of gamers to the growing inclusivity of video games in terms of who is making them and for whom they are being made. In many ways, it represents a turning point in the history of video gaming as an element of our popular culture. To understand why, we must visit the history.
The presidency of Bill Clinton was not a disaster on the scale of George. W. Bush or Ronald Reagan, but it was far from a productive one. Clinton’s first hundred days in office were wasted by his arguments over homosexuals in the military, not because it was an unworthy fight, but because the eventual solution, “Don’t Ask; Don’t Tell,” was such an obvious punt. At the same time, Clinton’s proposal for a new health care system crashed and burned. Clinton, along with Hillary Clinton, attempted to push for a radical reform that would mandate employers cover their employees’ health insurance. The movement failed thanks to Republicans—and some moderate Democrats—throwing a temper tantrum (sound familiar?), and by 1994 the issue was dead in the water.
If you have any friends on Facebook who’ve ever read a book, then you’ve probably seen the little book challenge floating around. The gist of it is this: post 10 books that have “stuck with you” or “changed the way you think” and tag a few friends.
You’re too deep into it now, and Brooklyn is imploding on the life you thought you wanted. I’m thinking “yes.” I’m thinking “no.” I’m thinking, “I don’t know. Maybe I don’t want to know. Maybe it’s ok to not know.” Maybe it’s just hormones or my terrible job or this winter that keeps dancing with this indecision. But everything that happens is just so tragically because of something else. Maybe we’re not all meant to be the lovers we wanted to be.
The last time I was in Chicago for more than a day, I didn’t want to waste my time on the bullshit that tourists tend to waste their time on. To be fair, I was in love, so that’s where a lot of my attention was going. I was seventeen. The fact that I was going to Chicago at all didn’t really interest me.
I am a whore, a prostitute, a holler-for-a-dollar lowlife scum. I lied to the Girl Scouts of America. I have lied to the American Cancer Society, The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, Lutheran Adoption Services, Catholic Charities, even a community program that helps at risk youth. I lied. I will continue to lie until someone believes my lies and gives me a job.
There are everyday liars and pathological liars, and then there is Dick Cheney, a man formed solely out of lies and self-delusion. If he were your co-worker, he’d be an annoyance, but one that you could learn to ignore. Unfortunately, though, Cheney squirmed his way into politics and became more than a simple annoyance—he became responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of people. Those deaths are not limited to the Iraq War, his most famous catastrophe. He has on his conscience (what little of it there is): the continuance of apartheid in South Africa, the invasion of Panama, the Persian Gulf War, the torture of prisoners, the botched occupation of Afghanistan, and, of course, the failure that was the Iraq War.
