Anthony Dean-Harris

Because it isn't exactly apropos to discuss the voting habits of others, let me just say I have heard tell of some people who voted recently and voted solely for the Senator Obama and maybe another candidate or two, all the while neglecting the rest of the ballot. Considering the contentious tone during election season and these people's fatigue after spending so long waiting to vote in the first place, I held my tongue about how annoyed I was at this (which for me is speaking two minutes longer than I should instead of five). But I had to let my thoughts out on the matter at this venue in case anyone who hasn't voted early yet(and everyone really should) is considering doing the same thing. I voted on Monday and I voted on the majority of the ballot. I voted typically down Democratic party lines. That's my prerogative. This blogpost isn't trying to convince you on the record of Barack Obama or about how Georgia and the US Senate could really use Jim Martin as

I had intended for my next post to be about America's socio-economic economy, but I'll save that for a little bit later. I was just reading through my normal load of publications and I ran across a brief article that bothered me so much upon reading it that I just had to write something about it. NME reports this morning that John Paul Jones and Jimmy Page got tired of waiting for Robert Plant to make up his mind about doing a new tour with Led Zeppelin and they're just going on without him . Considering how late to the game I am to one of the best bands ever, I cannot feel right in saying whether or not this must stand, but I know this certainly bothers me. Maybe it's a matter of perspective, but at what is the art still pure from its source when the authors are missing? Is Led Zeppelin still Led Zeppelin if Bonzo's son is playing the drums and some other dude is doing all the singing? When it was 75% original band and things were kept in the family for the ot

I'm unemployed. It's not a ludicrous thing for me to say. I graduated college in May. I did well while there. I wrote a lot for my paper. I gathered the respect of my professors. I was a good student. Yet, now that my college career has ended, I'm unemployed. When looking at the American landscape, I'm not alone . This floundering economy isn't exactly helping a lot of people and the national unemployment rate is 6.1%. Georgia alone is even worse with an unemployment rate of 6.5% . Everything isn't coming up roses for me when numbers like those show themselves. The thing is, this problem is a little deeper than most may think. See, the unemployment rate for 20- to 24-year-olds is actually 9.8% according to the US Department of Labor (since my parents read this blog, if there's any article I want them to read right now, it's the one I just linked so they know specifically why I'm still in the room upstairs). What no one noted about the dan

Because nothing has been written here in a while, I just wanted to make a quick comment. I ran across this story about how much money the McCain/Palin campaign has been spending on clothing and hair for the Governor Palin and her family. Yes, it's ridiculous. But while I haven't seen any numbers about the issue, as a black man I can easily guess that Sen. Obama is probably spending at most fifteen bucks a haircut (minus tip, of course) every two weeks. This also includes the fact that some days his hair can look pretty rough. I cannot conceivably think of a situation in which anyone can charge a black man $300 like Sen. Edwards has done in the past. This could be another reason to vote for Obama: you know he won't be spending America's money on haircuts. Michelle is another story, of course, but who's going to ask a black woman about the details behind her hair? That's like a trade secret or something.

I haven't written anything in a week. My Auntie Norma passed away last week and this weekend was spent in San Antonio for the funeral. It was a weekend without internet and oddly enough without well formed writing ideas. So, I'm going to try to get back in the swing of things by writing something right here and now. The only thing that could come to mind was television. As a child of media, it's understandable that I would think on this. While I didn't have the internet over the weekend, I did have MSNBC and CNN. The two tied me over fair enough so I'm not uninformed about things that happened. But I did miss a few of my usual shows while I was reuniting with family. Today was spent recuperating and playing catchup with webcomics, blogs, and television over the Internet. Once again I was struck in the face with how proprietary ABC is with its web presence (click at your own risk of sudden loud noises and your processor working harder than it should). I reme

The Maroon Tiger liveblogged again. Here's the play-by-play.

What exactly did she expect this to do for me? Did Gov. Palin think winking to all of America would impress us? She can believe ambiguity or staying on her own specific message could have been a positive attribute, but the winking? You want to know why this is sexist? A man couldn't do this. Sen. Joe Biden could not wink to 70 million people in the middle of repeating things for us and declaring his adoration for John McCain while highlighting his similar voting record to Sen. Obama. It ridiculous and absurd that she would do this. Barack Obama could wink at me next week and I'd seriously consider voting for Bob Barr.

I, being man (and a bit of an egoist), think about legacy a lot. Oddly enough, I think about legacy more than I think about mortality. Death is something I can deal with, but it's more difficult for me to consider being forgotten. Therefore, I think often about the friends I have and the words I type. I wonder about the impression I've made around me and the work I've yet to do to solidify my name in time. As a Christian, this is not always the best thing to do because I know even this world is only temporary, but if I am to die and there is a stretch of time before the Rapture, I want to know I have relevance in this world in the meantime. I think of these things because I've been thinking about the nature of legacy. It's a ponderous sort of thing. The nature of it is generational for most and can transcend generation for the truly poignant. The other day, I was sitting in a friend's room, listening to music. Eventually he played some Robert Johnson . Robert Jo

The world seems to have lost its capacity to maintain a crucial element in our daily lives. We lost it through a compartmentalizing media. We lost it through social networking that devalued people into lists. We lost it through politicizing everything. We lost it through absolute values. We lost it through polarization. We lost our capacity to be objective. As a man with an English degree who doesn't always follow the New Criticism, I think it necessary to look at the subtext of things. It's beneficial to know the background of a work. One must not only understand others' words but also the context of those words. It's necessary to look at this world as an investigator. We must analyze the things around us so we don't end up lying to ourselves about our erudition. Cursory knowledge is a dangerous thing when we're ignorant of our ignorance. But just as we must probe deeper into everything around us, we must also ensure we do this in the proper fashion

Simulcast on Maroon Tiger Politics and fly.paper . Maroon Tiger Editor-in-Chief Edward Mitchell and I live blogged the Vice Presidential Debate. As much as I wish more staff members were present for this event, it still went well. [20:50] I, sitting in far off Marietta waiting for staff members to show up online [21:01:35] Opinions Editor Emeritus Anthony Harris: Finding staff members to take part in this thing is like looking for a needle in a haystack [21:02:14] Anthony Harris: But I'm entirely willing to do this on my own [21:03:01] Anthony Harris: At least until Editor-in-Chief Edward Mitchell arrives just as triumphantly as the candidates [21:03:18] *** Edward Mitchell has been invited to the group chat. [21:04:17] Anthony Harris: From the moment Gov. Palin and Sen. Palin walked in, I think they two spent as much time together as Sens. McCain and Palin did before he chose her has his running mate [21:04:26] *** Edward Mitchell has joined the chat. [21:04:39] Editor in Chief

Embedded video from CNN Video EDIT: I'm also going to directly link to the video I found here . CNN Video only works when it wants to and it's the worse video news I've seen on the Internet. Still, one could kindly say that they have a room for improvement. I'm not crazy about smoking because I don't want the health risk. I've been raised all my life to never smoke cigarettes, but I still also believe in free will and individual choice. I've always hated the idea of smoking bans. I think people who complain about smokers are just contributing to the softening of the world. I wouldn't smoke around children with still developing lungs (this is if I smoked, of course) but I don't see anything wrong with the way things used to be with separate sections in restaurants and things like that. I believe in smoking in bars and in private offices. I believe if you're renting from someone and that person is against smoking, that just means you have to

Nobel Literature Committee Permanent Secretary Horace Engdahl recently upset many Americans with his comments about our literature, claiming US authors are "too isolated, too insular." Some are clearly finding fault with his statement. The thing is, what if he's sort of right. While it's extremely difficult to determine how many US citizens hold passports, many have surmised that the figure is at most 25% of the national population . Determining how many Americans speak another language is another staggering task . We are an extremely patriotic nation but this allegiance comes to the detriment of our world knowledge. I have to even admit that I'm guilty of this, especially as it pertains to my knowledge of literature. I'm about three weeks from taking my GRE general and literature tests and I'm thinking about how much I never did care for British literature. The other day, my mother was watching a film about Graham Greene and his love affair and