The filibuster, a Senate rule requiring 60 votes to begin and end debate, is already on life support. The 2016 election could put the final nails in its coffin. In 2013, Sen. Harry Reid ended the supermajority requirement on judicial nominees (except for the Supreme Court), using a maneuver so controversial it was dubbed the…
In April of 1990, the Cincinnati’s Contemporary Arts Center opened its doors to Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Moment, a retrospective of the famed photographer who just recently died from AIDS. I was 15 and had grown up in the Queen City, as it was called, and Dennis Barrie, the director of the CAC, and his…
Henry Gamble’s Birthday Party is a picture, above all else, about conversions: religious, moral, sexual and familial. Henry, our handsome, young protagonist, is about to spend his 17th birthday with his friends, both religious and secular, his parents and their church friends – the “adults” – at a pool party of his parent’s making. The…
Step through the doors of The Ritual Tavern and you’re transported to a friendly neighborhood pub from another time and place. The hunter green walls, subdued floral print drapes and dark woods glossed with the patina of age imbue the intimate low-ceilinged space with a distinct “Ye Olde” vibe. “Pierce”, wearing a tight T-shirt and…
dvr this HBO, Sunday, 9pm Last year’s season finale of the sword and sorcery epic series Game of Thrones ended with the seeming death of one of the show’s three main characters. People drop dead left and right on that show, but fans all assumed that at least noble warrior Jon Snow (Kit Harrington), Machiavellian-with-a-heart…
dvd of the week The Revenant, a ruthless and bombastic tale of revenge in the cold western American frontier, is focused on a man battling nature, with Leonardo DiCaprio’s Hugh Glass trying to survive alone while severely wounded in the cold, snowy mountains; he dreams and hallucinates memories of his dead Pawnee wife and their…
When asked at the San Diego Republican Party Central Committee if she supported the GOP state party platform that states that marriage is between a man and a woman Republican Congressional candidate Jacquie Atkinson stated that as a state delegate she did support the party platform. Other times she has been asked about marriage equality…
You know your own mind. After thinking things through, you have your opinions and while you’re willing to listen to what others say, you’re also willing to defend what you believe in. And, as in the new book The Firebrand and the First Lady by Patricia Bell-Scott, your friends don’t necessarily have to agree with…
Nothing is more upsetting than receiving a letter with an IRS return address. Nothing except perhaps receiving a phone call from them claiming that a subpoena was about to be delivered if one did not call the following number to discuss an immediate tax payment. This is the call I got at 7:45 yesterday. Again…
The drunk driver who killed hair stylist Oscar Melero was sentenced April 20 to 14 years in state prison after he pleaded guilty to gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated. San Diego Superior Court Judge Charles Rogers ordered Abraham Granados Beltran, 25, to pay $13,400 in restitution for funeral expenses and gave him credit for 488…
