Susan Sontag is Dead

Imagine a writer/playwright/intellectual whose most famous single remark was “the black race is the cancer of human history”. Who said “The Pinochet revolution is astonishingly free of repression and bureaucratization.” Who praised the attack on Pearl Harber as a brave deed. Do you suppose such a person would collect laudatory tributes and glowing obituaries on… Continue reading Susan Sontag is Dead

The Journalist as Herd Creature

In September 2004, well before the elections, I wrote an essay on the collapse of mainstream media influence. I predicted that the Rathergate scandal and the Swift Boat Vets would lock up the election for George W. Bush, despite the MSM’s most determined efforts to get Kerry into the White House. I related this to… Continue reading The Journalist as Herd Creature

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Categorized as Politics

Hacking My Way To Stardom

This is storyboard art for a movie called Nightmask, with the interesting property that I will probably get a speaking part in it if it’s actually produced. “Whoa!” you may well ask. “How does a middle-aged geek with no showbiz history beyond a few singer/songwriter coffeehouse gigs in his college days land a part in,… Continue reading Hacking My Way To Stardom

The Revenge of the Nerds is Living Well

Grant McCracken has argued in his book Plenitude that one of the defining characteristics of the last fifty years is an explosion of subcultural variety — people creating new lifestyles and new identities around occupations, sexual tastes, hobbies, genres of art and music, religions, and just about any other investment of time human beings have… Continue reading The Revenge of the Nerds is Living Well

Upgrading to WordPress

The WordPress update is now complete. Unfortunately, I deleted some recent comments while clearing out comment spam. Comment spam is now blocked using a simple and clever method which I will not disclose in public.

The Racist of Earthsea

In Slate magazine, SF author Ursula LeGuin complains that the producers of the new Earthsea miniseries have butchered her work. One form of butchery that she zeroes in on is by casting characters who she intended to be red, brown, or black as white people. I have mixed feelings. LeGuin has every right to be… Continue reading The Racist of Earthsea

Free Falling

My friend Howard Tayler, the cartoonist behind Schlock Mercenary, invited me to post this.