Cowa-Sequential

Sony is one of those companies while not exactly a trainwreck, is prone to have soap opera-esque public relations nightmares. From the lackluster launches of the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita to the bungling of the Spider-Man film franchise and the Network data breaches, they seem to have an ideal mix of hubris and clueless-ness which makes The Interview debacle all the more fascinating. The Interview of course is the Seth Rogen, James Franco comedy vehicle where they are sent on a mission by the US government to interview then assassinate the North Korean leader Kim Jung Un. In response to the film, the North Korean government hacked Sony Pictures's confidential data and released them to the public. There were also threats of 9/11 type terrorist attacks against theaters that showed the film. Sony pulled the film from its Christmas release date though ultimately released the film digitally and at the movies. Sony is currently being sued for the breach and faced criticism f...

Earlier this week, President Barrack Obama gave his annual state of the union address and to be honest, it was quite a familiar scene. Vice President was there looking odd and Speaker of the House John Boehner was flanking him looking tanned and constipated. However much of what the president said was seemingly regurgitating points from earlier speeches and campaign such as  the points on Guantanamo Bay and the war in Afghanistan.  While it's good to remind the American public that we still have troops fighting on foreign soil, he could have ended both instances years ago. I'm a bit tired of the war on women and  wage inequality arguments at this point given women have higher graduation rates from both high school and college and lower incarceration rates. Our nation is a service economy with ever increasing numbers of people with college degrees, this will eventually cause a gender gap in the opposite direction. Formerly male dominated fields such as farming and manufact...

A few months ago the United States was on the brink of intervening in the Syrian civil war due to the use of chemical weapons. Subsequently, a deal between Russia and Syria's Assad regime, the weapons were turned over and hopefully disposed of. Regardless of the outcome, the war itself has largely disappeared from the headlines and public memory. The following is a letter that I wrote to US Senator Robert Menendez regarding my opinion as events unfolded. Senator Menendez, My name is Matthew Cowans and I am a resident of New Jersey who is very concerned about the direction of the United States’ recent foreign policy. I strongly believe that military action is the wrong reaction to the Syrian civil war.  What is the current urgency of this action? The Syrian civil war has been fought in the streets of Damascus and the suburbs of Alleppo for over thirty months yet prior to the chemical weapon attacks, there was no march to war or call to action. Syria possessing chemical weapon...