Florida: America’s Fascist Future

On May 18, 2023 By Mark PerigardIn Politics2 Comments

If you ever wonder what this country will look like if Republicans win the White House in 2024, look no further than Florida.

Under Gov. Ron DeSantis, the “Sunshine State” has earned a new nickname: “The Hate State.”

DeSantis, trying to pave the way for his own presidential run and backed by a Republican supermajority that knows no shame, has passed a series of measures more befitting a banana republic.

He’s banned abortion, books, and health care for trans people.

He even approved a bill in which health care workers can now refuse care to patients whose lives violate their beliefs.

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Sanctuary Lost

On January 25, 2023January 25, 2023 By Mark PerigardIn ComicsLeave a comment

New England Comics shuttered its Cambridge store on Sunday.

A mainstay of Harvard Square for more than 30 years, the store closed because of a precipitous decline in foot traffic in this post-pandemic era.

Despite its proximity to Harvard University, the store was no longer profitable.

I had been a customer almost as long as the store was open.

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Forever Our Dark Knight

On November 12, 2022 By Mark PerigardIn TV2 Comments

Never meet your heroes.

You’re bound to be disappointed.

Isn’t that what we are told?

But years ago, while working for the Fishrag That Shall Not Be Named, I got the chance to interview Kevin Conroy.

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Can America ‘Hold the Line’?

On November 7, 2022 By Mark PerigardIn BooksLeave a comment

There have been many books about the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Doubtless there will be many more to come.

But you will be hard-pressed to find one more visceral, more frightening, more damning that Michael Fanone’s “Hold the Line: The Insurrection and One Cop’s Battle for America’s Soul.”

Fanone, in video footage of that day seen round the world, was a Metropolitan Police Department officer defending the Capitol when the angry mob of Trump supporters yanked him out of the building and almost killed him.

He was repeatedly Tased, beaten with a Blue Lives Matter flagpole, and kicked.

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‘EastEnders’ Ballum Beats Everything on American TV

On October 29, 2022October 30, 2022 By Mark PerigardIn TVLeave a comment

American TV shows are rubbish when it comes to depicting gay relationships.

Take, for example, ABC’s “General Hospital.”

The long-running serial features a gay character who appears about once every two months to provide comic relief to his bestie.

The love of his life, his now ex-husband, a legacy character no less, has been working on another floor of the hospital and hasn’t been seen onscreen in two years.

Tokens and time-fillers. That pretty much sums up the wasteland of American TV.

Not so across the pond.

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