Category Archives: Uncategorized

The Picture of Alice The porch was a concrete block with steps formed into it and a visible tilt, or so I thought, like some chunk of brutalist architecture that had fallen out of the sky. It was about five by five feet. Young people were crowding there to smoke, despite the rain having lapsedContinue reading “Re-run; Alice Again”

Jussie Smollet’s lynching documentary.“You can’t have reconciliation until you, first, have truth.”

Modern communications necessitate desensitization to gore and obscenity. Sensitivity to personal offense rises in inverse proportion. The Verge has published an expose of life at one of Facebook’s content moderation contractors: The panic attacks started after Chloe watched a man die. She spent the past three and a half weeks in training, trying to harden herselfContinue reading “Carnage Call Center”

“Well private collections are a problem, certainly. We have no idea how many are out there. What constitutes a collection, also, is a legitimate question.”Herbert perked up at this.“Yes. That’s my concern. Say a guy has, in the classic example, an old newspaper announcing the moon landing–“Genero looked at him with sly sympathy.“Well, if thisContinue reading “Sunday Story”

Philip Weiss: I’ve been reading Amos Oz’s books since his death, and one of the feelings he leaves me with is: Self-contempt. Many of Oz’s characters look on American Jews with disdain. “To be without power is, in my eyes, both a sin and a catastrophe. It’s the sin of exile, and Diaspora,” says one.Continue reading “The Cult of Guilt”

Kamala Harris is not having a very good campaign. When grilling Bret Kavanaugh she did her best imitation of a character from Law & Order, all self-righteous condescension, even appearing to corner him (in the eyes of those who wanted to see him cornered) with a probing question about whether or not he’d had improper discussionsContinue reading “Daddy Issues”

As Democrats crowded each other to join the Jussie Smollet hoax, Kamala Harris distinguished herself by pointing out she knows the boy personally, and by stumping for her state-of-the-legislative-art anti-lynching law (segregated lunch counters you’re next!) and denouncing the “modern day lynching” in chorus with the affable and clueless Corey Booker As the hoax playedContinue reading “Kallusion?”