I recently wrote two articles related to the ethics of meat-eating. The first, published in Salon, was called 'New atheists must become new vegans: Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins and the extra moral burden on moral leaders'. Due to a clear issue with the title, imposed by Salon ...read more
I have had a strange week. Last Sunday my very first popular article was published: ‘New Atheists Must Become New Vegans: Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins and the extra burden on moral leaders’. Until then my words had been constrained to my practically invisible blog, but Salon gave ...read more
The Daily Banter can exclusively reveal that the liberal website Salon.com is actually a fraudulent entity run by an extremist right wing hate group in Iowa with links to the Koch brothers and Rupert Murdoch. After an extensive investigation and an in-depth look into their ...read more
I'll probably hear it for this -- and by "it" I mean cries of white male privilege and the ever-popular "mansplaining" -- but so be it. Here's my new favorite feminist media neologism: whorephobia. I've seen this appear several times over the past couple of days, all part of ...read more
Over the holiday weekend Salon.com published another in its long list of fine columns aimed at dissecting pop culture trends through the lens of the liberal viewpoint and thusly criticizing them. In Richard Cooper's excellent and understated piece, "Superheroes Are a Bunch of ...read more
Like any liberal arts-educated freelance writer and activist from San Francisco who values his progressive culture and identity, I'm a very strong supporter of Salon.com. The site has always featured some of the most thought-provoking and necessary advocacy journalism anywhere ...read more
"Honestly, it has to be the dumbest fucking thing I've seen ever. Literally ever." -- Banter founder Ben Cohen in an e-mail he sent me just a few minutes ago I know it seems like I'm going for the low-hanging fruit here by quoting my boss, but really there's nothing I've ...read more
"Celebrity male draws attention to radical politics -- supporting 'great man' narrative. Can't have it. Comedian makes lighthearted, charming joke about beautiful woman -- can't have it. No wonder you people never get anything done." -- Commenter "xwozzle," perfectly ...read more
When I was a senior in high school I had a sex-ed class taught by a priest. There are so many possible jokes in response to this and so much room to express bewilderment that I'm just going to forgo all of it and let you ponder the implications for yourself. Suffice it to say, ...read more
I pick on Salon quite a bit but I've always said that there are some really terrific people on-staff there, you just have to wade through a lot of nonsense to get to them. To wit, Brian Buetler seems to have taken over much of the political heavy lifting from the always ...read more
It was only a matter of time before it finally happened -- before the giant, churning digestive tract of humorless hyper-liberal outrage over at Salon crapped out an article so completely ridiculous, so breathtakingly self-serious, so relentlessly silly from start to finish ...read more
If you haven't been paying attention, Gawker is currently running a bracket-style contest it's calling the "Privilege Tournament," the stated goal of which is to nail down exactly which subset of Americans is the most un-privileged. While the whole thing is being done with ...read more
There are times when it feels like Charlie Pierce really is a national treasure, and right now is definitely one of them. In a quick piece just posted a little while ago, the Esquire political columnist and writer-at-large nails the grim reality of what Ted Cruz's seemingly ...read more
Another Monday is here and it's back to the wheel with you, gerbils. Here are a few things you can read this morning to hopefully deaden the pain. 1. Gold Rush Here's a wrap-up of the big winners and losers at last night's Emmys, as Matt Zoller Seitz live-blogged the whole ...read more
Stop me if you've heard this one before but Salon is complaining about Seth MacFarlane. The debut of the new Fox show Dads has given the internet's premier destination for keeping track of everything you need to be outraged by another chance to revisit one of its favorite ...read more
Over its seven-year-plus history, I can think of three things that I've written for my blog, Deus Ex Malcontent, that have practically earned me death threats. I'm exaggerating a little about that, but suffice it to say the three posts I'm talking about drew all kinds of fire ...read more
Not only is there nothing left that can be said about the shameful three-ring circus that was Anthony Weiner's campaign for New York City mayor, which was mercifully put out of its misery last night, it's probably best we just let the whole thing vanish from memory as quickly ...read more
I pick on Salon quite a bit. The reason being that it usually deserves it, given that it's the internet's official home for whiny liberal outrage porn. If there were no Salon, I can't imagine how we'd know what we're required to be indignant about and should all be "calling ...read more
Here at The Daily Banter, we don't claim to be out to cure all the world's ills and we damn sure aren't trying to remake it in the image we feel is the only correct one. We fight a couple of battles we think are worth fighting, try to be as tethered to reality as possible, ...read more
Here's what you should be reading on this Friday morning instead of sitting at your desk thinking of ways to duck out early without the boss seeing you. 1. Strike Out According to John Kerry the U.S. will soon be wrapping up its drone strikes inside Pakistan. Whatever will I ...read more
Here's what you should be reading today instead of worrying yourself with things like actually diving back into the work week. 1. No Justice, Still Peace A lot of news regarding the fallout from Saturday's not-guilty verdict in the trial of George Zimmerman. First of all, ...read more
I know it seems like the writers of Salon and their unbridled lust for humorless click-bait have become a running gag with me -- certainly over at my site, Deus Ex Malcontent -- but I really couldn't resist commenting on this because it so perfectly sums up the problem with ...read more
This has been alluded to a couple of times here over the past two days, mostly by the always thoughtful and analytical Bob Cesca, but as usual I'll be the one to dispense with all the pleasantries and just come right out and say it: Fuck Glenn Greenwald and David Sirota. Fuck ...read more
I'm not sure where I'd be if I woke up one morning and discovered that Alternet and Salon were suddenly bastions of rational, practical thinking, free from ridiculously pie-in-the-sky moralizing and a lot of liberals shooting themselves in the collective foot. I think it ...read more
Quick: There's a big-budget Hollywood movie that's nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture this year, a drama about a real-life event from America's history, that's currently being raked over the coals by some very vocal critics for what they claim is its lack of ...read more
Here's a little something I don't think I've ever actually told anyone: Andrew Breitbart wrote to me not once but twice. Back in February of 2010 he rattled off a very strange late-night rant at me in response to something I'd written about his little Renfield, James O'Keefe. ...read more
A couple of days ago it dawned on me how many columns and assorted quickie pieces of mine have been pegged off of Salon.com articles. For years I've had a love/hate relationship with Salon: On the one hand it's been a home to people like Steve Kornacki, Joan Walsh, Alex Pareene ...read more
A couple of years back, when I worked almost entirely from home and my schedule never involved meetings, lunches and so on, I used to make it a point to try to carve out an hour of my day to watch Maury. Yes, Maury. If you're somebody who's paid to be a snotty little shit ...read more
By Bob Cesca: It's only slightly less frustrating to watch Fox News Channel and to listen to right-wing talk radio as it often is to observe progressives choke on their own well-meaning, but ultimately self-defeating tongues. Seriously, the act of observing fellow liberals ...read more
By Chez Pazienza: So over the past week this site has turned into the "Let's Take a Few Shots at Glenn Greenwald" show, with two of its highest-profile columnists -- Banter founder Ben Cohen and blogging machine Bob Cesca -- penning pieces that take issue with Greenwald's ...read more
