April 13, 2013–If there’s one thing pro-choice Americans universally hate, it’s groups of pro-life protesters hoisting up huge, unsightly, and graphic photos of aborted babies in public spaces. Years ago, in fact, after a pro-choice Denver church sued over a cluster of photo-brandishing pro-life protesters across the street, the Colorado Appellate Court upheld a decision [...]
February 28, 2013–Let’s face it: Kids can be really dumb. I know, because I was once a kid. In kindergarten, I accidentally tied myself to a playground tetherball pole, leaving myself stranded and dangling when the recess bell rang. In sixth grade, I permed my hair into a ball of frizz — on purpose — [...]
February 18, 2003–More than three months ago, just hours after the U.S. election results rolled in, something rather stunning occurred. On media outlets throughout the nation, before the scarred and trampled body of Campaign 2012 even went cold — indeed, while some votes were still being counted — conservative pundits turned from the too-blue electoral [...]
January 22, 2013–What is it like to live in a world where nothing matters? If you’ve ever watched HBO’s cult series “Girls,” you know the answer. If you’re not familiar with the show, which follows the largely depressing, sex-fueled lives of four self-centered, fresh-out-of-college Brooklyn women, rest assured: The national media are working industriously to [...]
January 14, 2013–Five years ago, on a quiet, leisurely Thursday night, my husband and I sat at the dining room table with a yellow notepad, discussing when we should start having kids. “See, here’s how it works,” he said, drawing a graph. “With a dog, you put in a medium amount of work, and you [...]
Follow @heatherwilhelm July 23, 2012–Marissa Mayer is young, blond, attractive, and six months pregnant. She’s also, as of last week, the new president and CEO of Yahoo, a Fortune 500 tech company, and—much to her chagrin, I’m guessing—the fevered subject of dozens of angst-laden feminist blog posts. As a woman, Mayer is a rarity in [...]
February 3, 2012–Americans, the saying goes, don’t like to talk about class — but they certainly enjoy reading about it. They also love to see how they stack up against their peers. One of the most notorious and snobby books on the topic, Paul Fussell’s Class: A Guide Through the American Status System, capitalizes on [...]
January 25, 2012–It doesn’t take much to these days to get labeled a “provocateur.” Back in the good old days, you had to really work to cause a sensation — or at the very least, dance on TV with a little too much pop in your pelvis. Once the ante had been upped, you had [...]
August 16, 2011 – Are Christians a bunch of delusional, sanctimonious lame-os? Penn Jillette — atheist, “Penn & Teller” Vegas showman, and author of the new book, God, No! Signs You May Already Be an Atheist and Other Magical Tales — certainly seems to think so. And he is not alone. Forget Dawkins, Hitchens, and [...]
July 5, 2011–In an opening scene of “Napoleon Dynamite,” a 2004 film highlighting teenage perils and triumphs in a middle-of-nowhere Idaho town, the title character, a tall, gawky ostrich of a kid, disconsolately boards a school bus. He slumps into a seat, all nerd. “What are you going to do today, Napoleon?” a kid nearby [...]
