This Essay Is Not About American Sniper

by Akim Reinhardt I was gonna write something about the Clint Eastwood film American Sniper. Seems like a topic of the Now. Something the internetting public can really grab onto and scream about. Clint Eastwood: Sentimental warmonger, or artist of more nuance than leftists and pacifists can discern? U.S. sniper Chris Kyle: Troubled war veteran…

Tchotchkes and Latkes

by Akim Reinhardt I still remember the first time I heard it. It was back in the late ‘90s, when I had cable. There was this openly gay guy, bald, a little overweight, a beard I think. He had some design show about sprucing up your house. There weren't a lot of openly gay men…

7500 Miles, Part II: Dakota

by Akim Reinhardt Part I of this essay appeared last month. Thus continues my grand voyage, in which a rusty ‘98 Honda Accord shuttles me from one end of North America to the other and back again . . . After stumbling half-way across the continent, I settled into the northern Great Plains for a…

In the Shadow of Mo’Ne Davis

by Akim Reinhardt Thirteen year old Mo'ne Davis recently took America by storm when she pitched her south Philly baseball team deep into the Little League World Series, where clubs from around the world compete every August. A beloved celebrity of the moment, her success brought to mind my own somewhat tortured little league experiences.…

Marketing Soccer to Americans

by Akim Reinhardt It has been exactly 20 years since the United States hosted a World Cup, and just as long since the debut of Major League Soccer (MLS), the nation's homegrown professional soccer league. Two decades later, American interest in the World Cup continues to grow. Beyond that, however, soccer remains a marginal product…

2000 Words

by Akim Reinhardt As far as human experiences go, there's not much that tops doing something you love. But when doing it means you're not only indulging your personal creativity, but also sharing it with hundreds or thousands of other people who are appreciative, and you're contributing to something larger by helping to keep a…

Clayton Lockett’s Botched Execution and the Moral Ambiguity of Capital Punishment

by Akim Reinhardt Let me begin this essay by making one thing clear: I am opposed to capital punishment. I agree with pretty much all of the arguments against it. It's clearly not a deterrent. The possibility, much less the reality, that innocent people are sometimes executed is beyond inexcusable. A variety of factors have…

On the Academic Boycott of Israel

by Akim Reinhardt Let me begin with some personal disclosure. I am a half-Jewish American who has never been and has no personal connection to Israel. In the early 1960s before I was born, my mother, who has otherwise lived her entire life in The Bronx, spent two years on a northern Israeli kibbutz named…

Remembering Winter

by Akim Reinhardt In an early episdoe of Mad Men, a character named Ken Cosgrove publishes a short story in the Atlantic Monthly. It'sentitled: “Tapping a Maple on a Cold Vermont Morning.” That's just about pitch perfect for the American literary scene circa 1960. The coating of influential New England literati is so thick on…

The Crisis in American Colleges: Rising Tuition and Labor Degradation

by Akim Reinhardt American colleges have undergone substantial changes during the last three decades. Rising tuition costs, which have far outpaced the rate of inflation, are nearly universal. Other changes that have affected most schools include a tremendous growth in non-instructional areas and a serious re-shuffling of labor. Many schools have added layers of administration;…

The Scorpio Groin

by Akim Reinhardt It was 1996. I was 28. I had recently moved to Nebraska to attend graduate school. I was at a party. I didn't know a lot of people. Maybe I didn't know anyone. One woman was talking about palm reading. Apparently she read palms. Laughable, of course. But I didn't say anything,…

Black Pete, the Washington Redskins, and Modern Minstrelsy

by Akim Reinhardt Black Pete. Good Lord, what a head shaker that is. Most anyone who's not Dutch looks at Black Pete and thinks to themselves: For real? You've got Sinterklaas, the Dutch version of Santa Claus, working his Christmas season magic accompanied by an army of little Jumpin' Jim Crows? Diminutive, black face helpers…

Is it Time for a Libertarian-Green Alliance?

by Akim Reinhardt In the recent Virginia gubernatorial election, Libertarian candidate Robert Sarvis received over 6% the vote. If he had not run, much of his support would likely have gone to Republican Ken Cuccinelli rather than Democrat Terry McAuliffe, who won by a narrow 2.5% margin. Last year's U.S. Senate race in Montana also…

The New Dark Ages, Part II: Materialism

by Akim Reinhardt In part I of this essay, I offered a broad re-definition of the term “Dark Ages,” using it to describe any historical period when dogma becomes ascendant and flattens people's perceptions of humanity's very real complexities. From there, I discussed how the conventional Dark Ages, marked by religious dogma's domination medieval Europe,…

The New Dark Ages, Part I: From Religion to Ethnic Nationalism and Back Again

by Akim Reinhardt European Historians have long eschewed the term “Dark Ages.” Few of them still use it, and many of them shiver when they encounter it in popular culture. Scholars rightly point out that the term, popularly understood as connoting a time of death, ignorance, stasis, and low quality of life, is prejudiced and…