Last Friday, Obama pardoned nine felons, wiping their records clean. Was this a just and thoughtful gesture, or is the president manipulating an anachronistic, ultimately harmful loophole?
About Jacob Burke
Jacob Burke is a freelance writer living in Greater Boston. He graduated from Boston College with a degree in English and Sociology. He can be accosted by email.
The Other Kind of Fantasy Sports: Jeter, Ali, and the 19-0 Patriots
December 1, 2010 By 5 Comments
An hour or so on Photoshop and some Post intern redefined “fantasy sports” for millions. And this isn’t the first time technology and sports have met in dreamland.
The Anthropology of ‘Call of Duty: Black Ops’ Fandom
November 10, 2010 By Leave a Comment
This post was intended to report and analyze yesterday’s release of Treyarch’s Call of Duty: Black Ops. But I have failed miserably. You see, Call of Duty is this video game franchise that produces extremely successful, if controversial, war games. Last year’s Modern Warfare 2 was the biggest entertainment launch in history—“entertainment” herein referring to [...]
Ich Bin Ein McRibber
November 5, 2010 By 6 Comments
There’s one event in my personal history so outstanding that it compels listeners to inch forward in their chairs; one coalescence of fate, discovery, and happenstance that has left choruses of “no-fuckin-way” in its glorious wake.
Why Do We Vote on Such a Random Day?
November 2, 2010 By 1 Comment
Do you ever wonder why we vote on Tuesday? Or, more specifically, why we vote the day after the first Monday in November?
Are You a New Elite?
October 28, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Do you watch Mad Men? How about The Sopranos? Who replaced Bob Barker on The Price is Right? Do you watch Oprah?
Al-Qaeda Has a Magazine, and It’s Horrifying
October 14, 2010 By 9 Comments
What we find in the pages of Inspire is a streamlined set of essays, interviews, and features that, in concise and lucid English, synthesize a one-stop-shopping McJihad for Anglophone Muslims.
New Search Engine Can Search the Future
October 12, 2010 By 1 Comment
When your investors include Google and The CIA, what you’re doing is probably important.
Man of the Day: Andrew Sullivan
October 11, 2010 By 1 Comment
Happy birthday to Andrew Sullivan’s the Daily Dish.
The League of Ordinary Gentlemen
October 4, 2010 By 4 Comments
The League allows us to criticize the banal minutiae of man’s hyper-reality addiction while squeezing in a few fart jokes.
Good Men Around the Globe: Australia
September 21, 2010 By 1 Comment
This is the second post in a series of interviews with good men around the world. Here, Jacob Burke speaks with an Australian fellow, Adrian McGruther. What was an early memory you had about masculinity? Maybe something your father or grandfather did or said about “being a man?” I don’t think Australians make as much [...]
Traveling With Jim Crow
September 16, 2010 By 2 Comments
If you’ve traveled, then you know the value of a good guidebook. (If you haven’t traveled, then you need to take our word for it. And then you need to start traveling. Life is short.) Books like Lonely Planet and Frommer’s point us toward the sweeping vistas, historic churches, and party hubs from Copenhagen to the [...]
Good Men Around the Globe: Nicaragua
September 10, 2010 By 5 Comments
In the first in a series of interviews with good men around the world, Jacob Burke speaks with Zachary Lunin, an American expatriate living in Southern Nicaragua. Who are you? I’m a married 34-year-old who grew up in Newton, MA. I graduated from the University of Maryland, and I’ve lived in Nicaragua for eight years. [...]
“I’m happy I have a wife, and having two people both contributing across the board goes a long way.”
This is a comment by Lars Fisher on the post “I’d Benefit From a Traditional Wife”.