history
America Ruined the Temperance Movement
by Xan Holbrook The Mafia are a disgrace to our species. The true stories of the Mafia – of people too inept to handle laundry, too mediocre to hold someone’s hand or kiss a cheek, yet so brutal as to pull the richest nation’s strings – are at once horrifying,
How Booze Helped Britain Conquer a Quarter of the World
by Xan Holbrook As a people, we Britons are stereotyped according to our drinking habits. This usually falls into the twee joshing about tea, as Americans love to remind us with teeth-grinding regularity. However, it is no exaggeration to say that the British love of alcohol is fabric-of-the-nation stuff. But,
The November 2024 BAS Voter Guide
A Big Change to This Year’s Voter Guide We’ve been doing voter guides for a really long time. I’m pretty sure we put our first one out in like 2010 or something. And I know that thousands of you rely on our voter guides to help you make decision. But
The Strange Economy of Fake Urine
by Hannah Harkness One day, when I was relaying my usual drug-testing rant to a fellow stand-up comic, they responded “Oh yeah, and you can just jump those tests with fake piss anyway. I got a job at a children’s hospital doing that.” Before this point, I’d only ever heard
Somebody is Spreading Sidewalk Joy in Berkeley
While Berkeley roots may be hard to find these days, somebody is out there doing the most to remind passersby of the creativity and counter-culture sentiment that once permeated the historic city. If you stroll Berkeley streets with your head down, you’ll find little silver discs of pure joy and
Yes, It Is Ethical and Appropriate to Call Trump a Racist
A large chunk of the country is up in arms about recent tweets and public comments made by the president that seem to project a, well, super racist tone. In a recent swarm of posts, he’s dubbed a group of four Congresswomen the “squad” and has called on them to
Who is Gentrification Actually Helping?
What comes to mind when you hear the word gentrification? Your mind may immediately depart from a place of safety and security, only to find itself at a destination surrounded by ill-fated words such as displacement, eviction, and homelessness. With this air of negativity surrounding your mind as it floats
There’s a Festival of Old Archival Footage of San Francisco
The people at the Long Now Foundation have been putting this on for 13 years and it keeps getting bigger each time. This year it’s happening over two nights at the Castro Theatre. The info below is from the Eventbrite page, which is where you can also buy tickets. The Long
Why the Monument in Union Square Should be Taken Down
Guest post by Max Silver Disclaimer: The author of this article is not Filipino. He is a white man from San Francisco. While this story focuses on the acts of Admiral George Dewey of the U.S. Navy, figures such as Emilio Aguinaldo and Apolinario Mabini are also mentioned. Their perspectives are