This Creeping Malaise
Sean MurphyOf course, what we write about is what we think about, and what we think about is invariably influenced by what we’re doing, what we’re reading, what we’re ceaselessly reacting…
Mail Bombs, MAGA hats, and The Genius of the Crowd
Charles Bukowski has long been an easy target, especially for the insufferable and self-appointed insiders of the literary scene. Sure, the macho posturing (although this dude at least knew how…
John McCain: RIP
P368426 03: (File Photo) Lieutenant Commander John Mccain Is Welcomed By U.S. President Richard Nixon Upon Mccain's Release From Five And One-Half Years As A P.O.W. During The Vietnam War…
Sorry, Charlie (on the Charlie Hebdo Attacks, Three Years Later)
i. OF COURSE RELIGION IS the problem. For anyone who, understandably, would say it’s a political issue and not a religious issue, I aver that so many of our political…
Just Say (N)Oprah or, Make Great American Again
All this breathless, borderline hysterical enthusiasm about Oprah running for president is, sadly, doing a great deal to help me understand how Trump became president. It's different demographics to be…
50 BULLET POINTS CONCERNING AMERICA’S GUN PSYCHOSIS
Let’s politicize these acts, if for no other reason because, in America, we politicize everything else. Of course it’s a mental health issue. For starters, the mental handicap of anyone…
Donald Trump: The Man in America’s Mirror
i. Orwell, Again (Obviously) Even before the Reality TV circus American politics and, by extension, American life, degenerated into late last year, George Orwell was the go-to guy for…
Life Imitating Art: The Russiagate Floodgates
Toward the end of Sydney Lumet’s ’70s classic Serpico there is an unnerving scene that encapsulates the conundrum faced by the eponymous cop: already persona non grata within the law…
Cruel DeVos
I. TRUE STORY. MY WIFE teaches grade school. In addition to the stories I can tell, and the ones my many friends who teach or are married to teachers can tell,…
On Health Care: George Carlin Called It
Nine years ago today we lost not only one of our better comics, but one of our most vital and intelligent voices. George Carlin was incendiary, he was hilarious, he…