Meaning and Almostness
by Jim Chaffee, April 2008
"Essence and existence. For certain believers in God and such, essence precedes existence. For some unbelievers, most famously Jean-Paul Sartre or Simone de Beauvoir, the statement is reversed. Neither of these notions is anything more than a repetition of the point they are attempting to drive home, however, and as far as existential dilemmas go, the God-no God question is at best meaningless and really a yawner. Besides which all the arguments end in begging."
If I Can't Dance...: An Open Letter to the U.S. Left on the Relevance of Culture
by David Rovics, April 2008
"...why is so much of the left in the US so attached to being so dreadfully boring? Why do so many people on the left apparently have no appreciation for the power and importance of culture? And when organizers, progressive media and others on the left do acknowledge culture, why is it usually kept on the sidelines? What are we trying to accomplish here?"
Against Trust
by Jonathan Penton, April 2008
"I am writing today to suggest that Amazon.com is in violation of competition law, and that its violations of law directly effect the integrity of the free press in the United States. I am writing this to you, the reader of Unlikely 2.0, in the hopes that you are already predisposed to enjoy my writing. I'm relying on this predisposition because if there's one thing that all discussions of competition law have in common it is that they are incredibly boring."
Three Folds Across Her Middle
by Iftekhar Sayeed, March 2008
'Advertisers have long been familiar with the technique called "depth advertising". The term itself became famous – or infamous – with the book The Hidden Persuaders. The book uncovered how every discipline, and especially psychology, was being used to make people buy more, since logical persuasion was useless for products were identical.'
How to Avoid a Drab Garden Party (and what to do if you are trapped in one
by Kane X. Faucher, March 2008
"People throw garden parties for all sorts of reasons, and none of them good. It takes an especial kind of deep-seated psychological or cerebral deficiency to entertain the very idea that garden parties are swell things to either throw or attend. Legions of Martha Stewart clones and Oprah fanatics of the lukewarmly bored housewifery stripe take it upon themselves to believe that this will improve their social cachet."
Breakfast with Streckfuss
Excerpted from Fission Among the Fanatics by Tom Bradley, March 2008
"I wanted to be a royalty-subsister, so I shrewdly and bravely surrounded myself with distasteful, even dangerous, but topically promising research subjects, like this poor shell-shocked veteran, who might have a combat flashback any minute and do something rollickingly marketable, and in the meantime could be pumped for ready pathos."
An Interview with Gregory Sams
by Andrew P., March 2008
"Much of the clientele came from the new psychedelic trance party scene in the UK. Musicians, dj's and promoters were coming in and getting blown away by seeing, in print, the patterns and colours that they had been experiencing in some of their travels as psychonauts. I made friends with many of them, and when they all disappeared to Goa for the winter I ended up joining them and became very involved in that whole Goa party scene..."
The Happiness of Others
by Sam Vaknin, January 2008
"But, in life, an increase in utility or happiness or pleasure is CONDITIONED upon, is the RESULT of the motives behind the acts that led to it. Put differently: the utility functions of two acts depend decisively on the motivation, drive, or urge behind them. The process, which leads to the act is an inseparable part of the act and of its outcomes, including the outcomes in terms of the subsequent increase in utility or happiness."
The Excluded Middle: Fallacies and Punditries
by C. Derick Varn, January 2008
'The problem with both the apologists and the right-wing "anti-fascists"—whose zeal resembles the Marxist juveniles' elementary throwing that label at anyone who displeases them—is that both U.S. political parties omit the nearly infinite spectrum of ideologies within Abrahamic religion as whole and with Islam in particular.'
A Victim of Imperialism
Iftekhar Sayeed discusses Heart of Darkness, January 2008
'"Those who read me," wrote Conrad about himself, "know my conviction that the world, the temporal world, rests on a few very simple ideas; so simple that they must be as old as the hills. It rests, notably among others, on the idea of Fidelity." And, like the Polonaise, we find a Chopinesque dedication to the fact that 'Poland is not so much a state as a state of mind'...'
Trawling for Lucid Fiction in Recent Issues of Innovative Fiction
by Tantra Bensko, January 2008
"It is an exciting time for innovative fiction, especially as so many are noting that there are tangible gaps between genres. If literature truly continues moving forward through postmodernism, will it embrace new paradigms that break free more strongly than ever from the encasings of the old ones? How much of the work presented currently as innovative really does move forward our concepts of ourselves, of reality, of the nature of literature?"
GITMO-SOP.PDF: The Camp Delta Standard Operating Procedures at Guantánamo Bay, March 2003
Leaked November 2007, discussed December 2007
Leaked Guantánamo Document Confirms Routine Use of Isolation as Psychological Torture
by Stephen Soldz, December 2007
"In addition to the mundane, but often chilling details — destroying a Styrofoam cup was a punishable offense and receiving extra toilet paper required being at the highest level of privileges while the interrogators determined one's ration of this "comfort item" — of the running of this high security facility designed to facilitate interrogations and intelligence gathering, the manual contains two major revelations."
Stupidity: Its Uses and Abuses
by Robert Levin, December 2007
"...stupidity is the most effective means available to reduce terror and panic (the human default condition) to a relatively tolerable disquietude. So I respect stupidity. Okay? I think, in fact, that stupidity has been, since the origin of consciousness, a marvel of human resourcefulness. Indeed, as a response to the human condition, I think that stupidity is rivaled in its genius only by schizophrenia!"
The Incoherence of Progress
by Iftekhar Sayeed, December 2007
"Progress has been the religion of the century. Its priests have been the myriad scientists, economists and politicians who, from lab, lectern and loudspeaker have declaimed in concrete terms the benefits of the new age. But the previous century was even more vociferous in its boasts and arrogant in its confidence."
Market Street "Vuelta"
by Ray Brown, November 2007
"the tribe in the nomad days knew nothing of this singular person, the wife and the husband, the relative, and the children live possibly in more symbiotic relationships (we got the electric communion, but whether this is bad or good, whose to say), not in any bullshit utopia, but more dependent on each other and the realization of that said fact, as i become so certain of myself that unbeknownst to the normal being i stand on the soapbox of infinite jest and wisdom."
The Pathology of Love
by Sam Vaknin, November 2007
'Appearing in the BBC series Body Hits on December 4, 2003 Dr. John Marsden, the head of the British National Addiction Center, said that love is addictive, akin to cocaine and speed. Sex is a "booby trap", intended to bind the partners long enough to bond.'
How to Give a Rousing Reading
by Tom Bradley, November 2007
'At an open reading in a Dublin pub, years ago, someone started reciting along with me, and was doing a better job, so I gave him his head and sat back. Nobody complained, and he got a stand-up ovation. Only after the reading was over did this guy's catamite inform me that he'd been trying to read sarcastically, to "take the piss out" of me.'
Leftist Humor - why it never obtains.
by Kane X. Faucher, November 2007
"As if to populate my hours with meaningful activities, I attempted to construct a garbage golem that I could subsequently sic on my enemies. This proved a rather disastrous and messy failure, despite the fact that I possess this land's most impressive collection of rabbinical recipe books. Instead of malingering in the failure of that enterprise, I decided on the low-level slow to boil conflict stand-by of writing another book. Bear traps come in many forms."
Outer Mongolian Throat Singing
by Paul Murphy, June 2007
"After Hendrix, Punk rock arrived, demonstrating that hard white men could still be angry, passed quickly. Then Techno, born in Berlin and probably doomed to die there. Personally I like the German Band Wolfsheim. My friend Martha from Bayern introduced me to them. They cast their shadow back to 80s groups like Gary Numan but also to Kraftwerk, a German techno group 'growing up' in the era of Punk, a British/US phenomenon."
Seasons and Calendars
by Tala Bar, June 2007
"Observing the changes of seasons and their effect on life around them was important for the gatherer-hunters long before farming. They had to know when and where the various parts of plants appear and are edible; when birds nest and their eggs could be collected; when beasts drop their young which can be taken and eaten."
Texans for Peace: Delegation to Jordan, April 2007
by Belinda Subraman, June 2007
'He was threatened, called a traitor because he was working for the "infidels." He mentioned teaching his sister to use an AK-47 for protection—common practice in Iraq. He and his sister fled to Jordan with their dog, Benji, who is deaf and blind from a car bomb. Ayad has shrapnel in his neck from the same explosion.'
The Epic of Gilgamesh
by Iftekhar Sayeed, June 2007
"Homer, by rendering anarchy romantic, rendered death beautiful; Gilgamesh, by assuming government, achieved the reverse. Both affirm life. The Greek affirms life through the Other, as togetherness, the Mesopotamian through the Third, the state, as separateness. The Greek other may be free or a slave, necessarily, for Otherness implies either equality or subordination."
The Anarcho-Capitalist FAQ
by Hogeye Bill, reprinted June 2007
'Anarcho-capitalists believe that a stateless society would be much more peaceful, harmonious, and prosperous than society under statism. We see life under States as chaotic - the insanity of war and the arbitrariness of government regulation and plunder. Anarcho-capitalists agree with the "father of anarchism" Pierre Proudhon: "Liberty is not the daughter but the mother of order," and his contemporary Frederic Bastiat, who wrote of the "natural harmony" of the market...'
Adventures in the Subdivision of the Great Beast
by C. Derick Varn, May 2007
"So now we take a trip to Economics 101: Affluence, and by that I mean sustained affluence, is dependent on wise use of capital. Suburbia, then, which is a waste of resources on several levels, is contra any meaningful definition affluence, because it wastes energy and farm land (although we in the USA have an abnormally high amount of arable land) and depletes energy reserves."
Let Sleeping Morals Lie
by Katharine Coldiron, May 2007
'In August of 2006, Günter Grass, a Nobel Prize-winning German author, publicly disclosed that he was a member of the Waffen-SS (distinct from the regular SS) in 1944. This caused a miniature shockwave in the lit-crit community, as Grass has been liberally outspoken, and morally "rather smug", as Joachim Fest has it, about Germany's dark past. He has been called a hypocrite by some, and praised by others for his bold, but admittedly ill-timed admission.'
On the Recent Free Speech Flap: Imus Confess My Reservations
by Norman Ball, May 2007
'Had he been an indefatigable commercial speech spokesman (and why apologize for capitalism?) Moonves should have said —"We are a bloodless, asocial entity known as a corporation. The profit motive has evaporated beneath our feet. Imus is gone." Hey man, I sell soap and this gig ain't workin' for us anymore! See ya!'
The E-Mail that Wouldn't Die
by Kane X. Faucher, May 2007
"Some foul-mouthed cretin-critic takes a few potshots and you find yourself bristling and knuckle dusting in the sandbox. Scenes like that are terrible and should be fervently avoided. They reduce us to the level of beasts, and no one ever really wins...these fights have no bells, no final hit count, no closure. They just go on in perpetuity like bad weather or taxes."
Nothing But Nihilism
by Norman Ball, April 2007
"The eschatological branches of Christianity, Islam and Judaism are all abuzz at the imminent fruition of their grim projects. Even the great secular stories are looking a bit long in the tooth. For example, no one expects to get bailed out by an advancing enlightenment or scientific progress anymore. Marxism went belly-up. Liberalism is wilting in the face of resurgent fascist tendencies."
Hungry for God
by Gregory Whitehead, April 2007
"Sculley is an American dealer in celebrity body parts who relocated his business to London in the late 1980s because, by his own account, "Brits don't ask so many questions, and in my business, you can't put a price tag on privacy." The last time I visited, he had just taken delivery on a highly speculative investment in the remains of an individual once touted as the next Che Guevara, a Peruvian guerillero named Gonzalas Rodrigos."
The Insanity of the Defense
by Sam Vaknin, April 2007
'A mother bashes the skulls of her three sons. Two of them die. She claims to have acted on instructions she had received from God. She is found not guilty by reason of insanity. The jury determined that she "did not know right from wrong during the killings."
'But why exactly was she judged insane?'
The Failure of Cuban Intellectuals
by Bryan Aja, April 2007
"On one side of the boundary, intellectuals debate whether the people really have a right to be reunited. In the dark, secretive side of the boundary, intellectuals mutter a little about a so-called new way and then become strangely quiet. Both sides are blind to what will really happen: There won't be a reunion; there will be a takeover."
gala-salvador dali foundation v. mark kostabi
by William Kamens, March 2007
"The Foundation argues that it, not the defendant, was entitled to summary judgment, principally on the ground that the defendant's use was both commercial and significantly contributed to confusion in the marketplace as to the authenticity of works by the artist Salvador Dali, and therefore should receive little protection under the fair use defense."
Downward Dog
by Timber Masterson, March 2007
"I arrive with black handlebar moustache and a Slovak accent, ready to divvy up the meats and see just what's behind all this. Before he sets off into the night to make the rounds at the other stands he owns, he tells me in broken English that he's grateful, and appreciates 'the good help of me'. I'm sure I can do this. I've got long underwear and an old transistor radio to keep me company."
The Cult of the Narcissist
by Sam Vaknin, March 2007
"The narcissist is the guru at the center of a cult. Like other gurus, he demands complete obedience from his flock: his spouse, his offspring, other family members, friends, and colleagues. He feels entitled to adulation and special treatment by his followers. He punishes the wayward and the straying lambs. He enforces discipline, adherence to his teachings, and common goals. The less accomplished he is in reality - the more stringent his mastery and the more pervasive the brainwashing."
Escape from America
by Joe Bageant, March 2007
"You get a retired California pot grower; old libertarian Alaskan "pipeliners"; IRS fugitives; German anarchist lesbian couples running jungle B&Bs; child support skippers; and senior citizens completely worn out from their tour of duty in the U.S. labor camp and no longer willing to fuck with the bureaucracy that was supposed to take care of them. In short, just about everybody America no longer wants these days."
Reflections on Democracy and Violence
by Iftekhar Sayeed, February 2007
"Japan has a conviction rate of 99.8% despite the fact that, in 1990, 31% of offenders were released after signing an apology. But these were for minor offences; for major offences, the Japanese police only strike when they're absolutely certain. Most convictions are obtained by means of – unconstitutional – confessions. On the other hand, non-offenders love the police!"
Introducing the Cross-Media Issue
by Dan Waber, January 2007
"Prepare yourself for a mind-expansion. Whatever you thought art was, whatever you thought literature was, whatever you thought poetry was, whatever shape you thought had been mapped by the explored intersections of the digital and the creative, this collection is about to affect a permanent change in your understanding. I personally guarantee it."
Publishing the Cross-Media Issue
by Jonathan Penton, January 2007
"The immediate catalyst for creating the issue was the increasing popularity of visual poetry among traditional poets. Visual poetry is hardly a new thing—one could easily argue that it predates our species. But it's current surge in popularity has been refreshing and enjoyable."
The Poet's View
by Mairéad Byrne, January 2007
A thorough study of the mind of the contemporary poet.
