John Scott G
With a soul as frightening as his face, John Scott G gleefully mocks everything you hold dear. Working with Jimmy Ray and Victoria Sarkozy-Reiss, he operates this “freemium literature” site. Other than noting that Jimmy is “the sultan of snark” and Victoria is “the empress of erotica,” nothing else needs to be said about them because their rap sheets are a matter of public record. In addition to his subversive stories, Mr. G has written songs with Merle Haggard, Danielle Egnew, DJ Insane, Doug Colosio, Scott Joss, Johnny Harmonic, and James Sotelo, among others. Under the pen name ‘Gerald Laurence,’ Mr. G wrote the private eye novel “One Bang-Up Job” (Berkley Books), the self-help book “The Ego Diet” (Oak Tree Press), and the good parts of the screenplay to “Final Approach” (Trimark).
Book Review: Gadget Go Boom – 'The Girls of Atomic City' by Denise Kiernan
BOOK REVIEW: When you're at work, you have some idea of the product or service your employer provides. Not so for "The Girls of Atomic City." They had no idea they were helping create Fat Man and Little Boy, the bombs used at Hiroshima and Nagasaki in WWII.
Book Review: Shabazz! 'Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention' by Manning Marable
BOOK REVIEW: Malcolm X is still controversial nearly 50 years after his assassination. In examining his life from a multitude of perspectives, author Manning Marable brings the reader close to Malcolm's thoughts, deeds, leadership, struggles, conflicts, contradictions, and presence -- which even today seems to have been larger than life.
Book Review: Of Slavery and Freedom – ‘Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power’
REVIEW: When the United States of America was just a gleam in our founding fathers' eyes, the country faced some fascinating dichotomies, including human equality versus inhumane captivity and popular will versus monarchal rule. These battles and several others play out in intimate detail in Jon Meacham's excellent "Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power."
Photons and Bosons and Quarks, Oh My! – Book Review: The Particle at the End of the Universe
BOOK REVIEW: As science reveals more about our place in the universe, sentient beings are ecstatic about Sean Carroll's "The Particle at the End of the Universe" and its view of what might be called the blueprints of reality.
Book Review: 'Rule and Ruin' by Geoffrey Kabaservice
REVIEW: A newcomer to American politics would write off the Republican Party as a gang of xenophobic, racist, theocratic, misogynistic, fiscally irresponsible war-mongers. In "Rule and Ruin," Geoffrey Kabaservice explains how and why this happened.
Deadly Spin: Propaganda Practices in the USA
ARTICLE: Wendell Potter, formerly a propagandist for various avaricious and venal corporations, 'fesses up and reveals the prevarication, lying, deception, and obfuscation of the industries that pick your pocket every day. His 'Deadly Spin' opens the playbook used by corrupt companies, insufferable industries, and the GOP.
Opinion: Republican Town Hall Meeting
OPINION: People see the GOP as an out-of-touch, uncaring, heartless, backward, ignorant, and dangerous group of people who drape themselves in the flag as they pursue an ugly and vicious form of anti-Americanism. The GOP can't figure out why.
Good Golly Miss Molly: welcome to the writing of Molly Ivins
ARTICLE: Sense, sensibility, sarcasm, and spot-on skewering of political blowhards and buffoons: welcome to the writing of Molly Ivins. Beginning as a staff writer for the scrappy Texas Observer before moving on to the major-market New York Times, Molly Ivins enjoyed a brilliant career that raised the collective consciousness about US politics.
Crazy is as Crazy Does
OPINION: We all know someone who is not quite "all there." The normal human connections with the world are missing, twisted, or distorted. Interacting...
Book Review: 'The Righteous Mind' by Jonathan Haidt
REVIEW: Jonathan Haidt grabs onto the twin time-bombs of American punditry, politics and religion, and does so from an amazingly optimistic point-of-view. He combines...
Book Review: 'As Texas Goes…' by Gail Collins
REVIEW: The litany of deceit, stupidity, outrage, and perfidy from the lone-brain-cell state is remarkably terrifying, yet Gail Collins is such a good writer...
Book Review: 'The Republican Brain' by Chris Mooney
REVIEW: Rational people have always wondered about the anti-fact and anti-science positions of republicans, conservatives, RWNJs, birthers, and morons in general. Turns out there...
Book Review: 'The Fox Effect' by David Brock and Ari Rabin-Havt
REVIEW: A fact-packed and smoothly written work, “The Fox Effect” demonstrates how Fox News chairman Roger Ailes operates from the Joseph Goebbels playbook by...
Kill the Bill: Congressional Lawmaking, Down and Dirty
eNewsChannels COLUMN: You have probably rolled your eyes while watching members of Congress argue about important legislation and then vote to kill it using...
Book Review: 'Drift' by Rachel Maddow
eNewsChannels COLUMN: Wisdom and wit make a devastating combination, which is why The Rachel Maddow Show is steadily charming its way into the hearts...
Book Review: 'Among the Truthers' by Jonathan Kay
eNewsChannels COLUMN: Some of them believe in reptile overlords and all of them are seeking non-existent data about secret cabals in government. Members of...
Book Review: 'The Last Testament' by God (with David Javerbaum)
eNewsChannels COLUMN: God has quite a sense of humor, once you get past all the smiting, tormenting, and killing. Whether setting things straight, settling...
Mom is Wow Upside Down: A Mother's Day Appreciation
eNewsChannels COLUMN: Everyone has a mother, and every mother has the capacity to be magical, magnificent, and magnanimous. Too often, the celebration of these...
Fuller Understanding: Modern Solutions from Design-Scientist Buckminster Fuller
eNewsChannels COLUMN: Recognition of R. Buckminster Fuller's genius is not as widespread as it should be, which is understandable given his near-total lockout from...
Pro vs. Con: A Friendly Chat Between a Progressive and Conservative
eNewsChannels Column: The know-nothings really need to have a few facts presented to them, as you'll find if you try to have a reasonable...
Patriot Acts: Taking Pride in This President
eNewsChannels COLUMN: Too many times, the use of words such as 'patriot' and 'patriotism' comes from a highly politicized place. The terms become part of campaign speeches or commercials. Let's examine some acts that can be accurately called patriotic.
Opinion: Local Politics or Loco Politics
eNewsChannels COLUMN: A guilty-as-charged politician gets advice about his court case. A campaign contribution is made to obtain more community service. This is how it works at the local level. Note: all names in this article have been changed.
Super Bowl Personal Politics
eNewsChannels COLUMN: A sporting event where it doesn't matter who wins. A sixty-minute game crammed into four hours of television programming. An exercise in organized hype. An excuse for overeating and excessive drinking. Yup, it's Super Bowl time again. Yay! But there are battles brewing outside the game.
Hate and Fear, Inc.
eNewsChannels COLUMN: Politics is sometimes the art of perception. If you can define the way people discuss a topic, you are a few steps...
Book Review: 'The Daring Spectacle' by Mark Morford
eNewsChannels COLUMN: Ideas and opinions come flying at you non-stop in Mark Morford's essays. His eye-opening concepts are presented with slashing images and hyperbolic language. This results in delightful shock waves for the brain and jarring karma for the soul.
