Matthew J. Parker: The Era of Idiocy
I did over a decade in jails and prisons because a squad of Pence-like puritans felt it immoral of me to get high on anything other than the drooling drunkenness of alcohol, an endeavor not only baldly hypocritical but so too borderline absurd; a worldwide farce manifesting in the militarization of both the cartels and the police, all of which, of course, was and is more great news for arms dealers.
Robert Frost: The Fear
A lantern light from deeper in the barn
Shone on a man and woman in the door
And threw their lurching shadows on a house
Near by, all dark in every glossy window.
Nancy Krygowski: “Here’s a Partial List of Mass Shootings in the United States So Far This Year”
Here’s the full list of the people the murdered have kissed.
Here’s a pair of slippers made of birds’ beaks, ear plugs made of screams.
Video: The Opposites Game
An English teacher asks his class: ‘What’s the opposite of a gun?’
Abby Zimet: So The Whole World Will Listen To Joaquin
On the fourth anniversary of his son’s murder, Manuel climbed a 150-foot crane in the early, gusty morning – “A father’s job never ends” – so “the whole world will listen to Joaquin today.”
Tom Engelhardt: My Year and Welcome to It
A year of illness, death, mourning, and ever-increasing political chaos on a striking, if not unparalleled, scale threatens the American system as we’ve known it. Meanwhile, a new kind of weather threatens the world as we’ve known it.
Video: The Rifleman | Sierra Pettengill
Through meticulously assembled archival imagery, “The Rifleman” reveals the roots of the modern National Rifle Association, U.S. Border Patrol, and the gun lobby’s unyielding influence on national politics. (running time: 18 minutes)
Jason Baldinger: A Seventy-Four Dollar Shotgun
two men in camouflage
drunk loud talk, stare at shotguns
Abby Zimet: The Word Is Love
It was 39 years ago Sunday that John Lennon was murdered by a deranged fan in front of his apartment.
Mehnaaz Mome: The Missing Piece in the Gun Violence Discourse — The Porous Border Between Republic and Empire
It may not be a coincidence that the rise in the killings of unarmed civilians thrives at a time when America remains engaged in a multitude of wars, some visible, … Continue reading
Robert C. Koehler: Gunfire and Wildfire — The New Abnormal
This is a country at war with itself in multiple ways. Thousand Oaks, California: a city torn apart by wildfire and gunfire. Both are unnatural disasters. “This is the new … Continue reading
Abby Zimet: This Is America
. This week saw both more achingly quotidian crimes against African-Americans – cops called for Shopping/Napping/Airbnbing While Black – and, aptly mirroring them, the release of the searing video … Continue reading
Jennifer Jackson Berry: The Body Button
for my sister, Julia I have no way of knowing how many times she’s hit her body button— it’s how she calls for help when the patient’s fists are … Continue reading
Video: “Loss”
. In recent years, several media outlets have taken to calling President Obama the ‘Mourner-in-Chief’ due to the frequency with which he addresses the nation following fatal incidents of mass … Continue reading
Vox Populi 