John Samuel Tieman: The Party Of ‘No!’
If Democrats want an emotionally charged, yet meaningful bumper sticker for the 2016 election, I suggest, “Republican = Anarchy + Nihilism.” I am not anti-Republican. Nor am I anti-conservative. I … Continue reading
Ed Ochester: Poetry
I too dislike it the mystified truisms the dusty puzzle-prunes the theatrical exaggerations: “the brutal crescendo of woodworms”— yet I think of O’Hara’s delight in the endless pleasures of quotidian … Continue reading
Video: “Father Death Blues” sung by Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg (June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and one of the leading figures of both the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the … Continue reading
Tom Engelhardt: My War on Terror — Letter to an Unknown American Patriot
Dear American Patriot, I wish I knew your name. I’ve been thinking about you, about all of us actually and our country, and meaning to write for a while to … Continue reading
Video: Alan Watts — Can we change the world?
In this 1971 video, philosopher Alan Watts talks about the problem with trying to change the world. — Alan Wilson Watts (6 January 1915 – 16 November 1973) was a … Continue reading
Audio: Leonard Nimoy reads Ray Bradbury’s “There Will Come Soft Rains” from “The Martian Chronicles”
In the mid-seventies, a pair of record albums came out that offered a truly singular listening experience: the voice of Bradbury in the voice of Nimoy. Here’s a recording of … Continue reading
Video: Pierre-Auguste Renoir at work in 1915 (rare footage)
This is rare footage of French Impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir at work, which is from Sacha Guitry’s patriotic World War I-era film Ceux de Chez Nous, “Those of our Land”. Renoir … Continue reading
Audio: Raymond Carver reads “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love”
Here’s an audio recording of Raymond Carver reading his most famous story, “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love.” Taped in a Palo Alto hotel room in 1983 … Continue reading
Marta Daniels: Justice is a Black Woman — The Amazing Constance Baker Motley
You may not know her name, but you have been affected by the legal battles she won and the precedents she set that helped shape civil rights, women’s rights and … Continue reading
Mel Packer: Divestment from Fossil Fuels
Feb. 13 and 14 were “Global Divestment Days” devoted to the international movement calling for governments, universities and financial and religious institutions to divest from fossil fuels. In Pittsburgh, college students … Continue reading
The Golden Age of the Western
Originally posted on The Contrary Perspective:
Henry Pelifian The Hollywood Western is truly an American creation that epitomized the hardship to maintain and restore justice. The inequality, greed and corruption were…
Peter Van Buren: Hollywood War Porn from WWII to American Sniper
In the age of the all-volunteer military and an endless stream of war zone losses and ties, it can be hard to keep Homeland enthusiasm up for perpetual war. After … Continue reading
Abby Martin: How Exceptionalism Fuels America’s Gun Massacres
We recently passed the second anniversary of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, where twenty helpless children and six staff members were gunned down in cold … Continue reading
Bill Moyers and Michael Winship: Netanyahu Speaks, Money Talks
Everything you need to know about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress Tuesday was the presence in the visitor’s gallery of one man – Sheldon Adelson. The gambling … Continue reading →