Danny Keener

Bio

My name is Danny Keener, and I am an English teacher at Santa Ana College and Chaffey College. My students ask me all the time if I am a conservative or a liberal. My answer is always the same: I don't think of myself as a conservative; I don't think of myself as a liberal; I simply think of myself as thinking for myself. And I ask them to do the same.
Because of the president’s recent victory over his opponent, Mitt Romney, republicans find themselves trying to figure out how to regroup and adapt their party to appeal to a broader demographic. President Obama specifically enjoyed a 44% advantage…
Currently, the unemployment rate in America sits around 7.7%. While this number is up from just a few months ago, it still leaves much to be desired and has people who find themselves out of work thinking about what they might be able to do to…
Wednesday night, as I enjoyed the company of a long time friend, our time together was abruptly interrupted by a call from a professor at California State University, Fullerton. My best friend, Rob Piluso, was set to give a speech to creative…
In the recent elections, we saw two different states legalize the use of marijuana, a progressive piece of legislation and a slippery one to be sure. This is great news for those who enjoy smoking pot, but what those who wish to use hemp? Is that…
I have noticed many articles on PolicyMic recently that discuss the issue of education. More specifically, I have noticed articles that have dealt with “the failing public education system.”  Many of these articles have been written by people who…
The primary elections across the country have been intriguing. The one that steals the show is the battle for recall in Wisconsin, but other things are happening around the country — other very important things. Take, for example, California. Some…
ALEC, the conservative lobby group, has come under fire recently for its involvement in helping write the “Stand Your Ground Law.” In a piece I wrote about a year ago, I voiced my dissent of the way this group practices writing legislation as “model…
The recent incident at Santa Monica College serves to highlight a growing problem in this country—the use of pepper spray on protesters. Before the advent of this spray, police only had two options: shoot or do not shoot. Now, with different means…
Recently, social conservatives, (i.e. Rick Santorum) have been promulgating policies that promote religious fervor in government and seem to reach for a kind of theocracy this country has never seen before.  In fact, the theocratic rule and blending…
PBS Frontline recently ran an episode called "Murdoch's Scandal," detailing the whole News of the World debacle. With all of the intrigue of a spy novel (corrupt police, phone hacking, crooked politicians), this story has managed to disgust as much…
Authors never write anything for pure entertainment purposes. Everything always has a deeper meaning. Hunger Games phenomenon is not excluded from this truth. The author, Suzanne Collins, certainly seems to have something to say about the current…
As party politics have grown increasingly divided, more and more people are identifying themselves as independents. Thus, any candidate must win over the majority of independent voters in order to ensure victory in November. President Obama's State…
The 2012 elections are fast-approaching, and the dirty political tricks are already starting. In America we are born with the First Amendment right to free speech. However, we are increasingly seeing that our voices, though still effective in…