49 Beheadings But a Tourist Ain’t One
I have earned a reputation as the world’s leading expert in a specific branch of Decapitation Studies. In particular, I am the go-to guy when it comes to travel-related beheadings in Mexico. (more)
49 Beheadings But a Tourist Ain’t One
I have earned a reputation as the world’s leading expert in a specific branch of Decapitation Studies. In particular, I am the go-to guy when it comes to travel-related beheadings in Mexico. (more)
The Face of No Kill: The “Draft Katniss” Project
Can we persuade Jennifer Lawrence to become a spokeswoman for the No Kill movement?
Download the Poster.
Download the Pamphlet.
Share them, even with people you don’t like. (more)
The Face of No Kill: The “Draft Katniss” Project
Can we persuade Jennifer Lawrence to become a spokeswoman for the No Kill movement?
Download the Poster.
Download the Pamphlet.
Share them, even with people you don’t like. (more)
Hairless Love: Understanding Mexico’s Very Bald Dog
FIFTY YEARS AGO, the Xoloitzcuintli — the Mexican Hairless dog — was on the edge of extinction. Now one sleeps in my bed. Whether this is an improvement in the creature’s circumstance can be debated. (more)
Hairless Love: Understanding Mexico’s Very Bald Dog
FIFTY YEARS AGO, the Xoloitzcuintli — the Mexican Hairless dog — was on the edge of extinction. Now one sleeps in my bed. Whether this is an improvement in the creature’s circumstance can be debated. (more)
Amnesia: A Novel
SHORTLISTED for the WH Smith Award, longlisted for the Commonwealth prize
Bill Maher Gets Religion: PETA’s Celebrity Porn Melts Another Brain
Bill Maher is a merciless bastard. And I say that with the greatest respect. Lesser guys may be conned by righteous charlatans — not Bill. He’s the one in the front row, shining a rude light on the emperor’s flashed genitals. (more)
Bill Maher Gets Religion: PETA’s Celebrity Porn Melts Another Brain
Bill Maher is a merciless bastard. And I say that with the greatest respect. Lesser guys may be conned by righteous charlatans — not Bill. He’s the one in the front row, shining a rude light on the emperor’s flashed genitals. (more)
Katniss Fight: Could Jennifer Lawrence Take Down PETA?
(The fourth part of an exposé of PETA’s mass butchery of healthy pets.)
“Screw PETA,” quoth Jennifer Lawrence, the actress of the moment. This is a young woman with genuine courage: a good thing, as she will likely be terrorized in the months to come. (more)
Katniss Fight: Could Jennifer Lawrence Take Down PETA?
(The fourth part of an exposé of PETA’s mass butchery of healthy pets.)
“Screw PETA,” quoth Jennifer Lawrence, the actress of the moment. This is a young woman with genuine courage: a good thing, as she will likely be terrorized in the months to come. (more)
The Humane Alternative to PETA’s Pet Slaughter
(The third part of an exposé of PETA’s mass butchery of healthy pets.)
Nathan Winograd believes that PETA’s founder, Ingrid Newkirk, is mentally ill. That to him is the only credible explanation for her monstrous compulsion to kill healthy shelter animals. In contrast, I have argued that she is fully rational: Her viciousness has its own internal logic; moreover, it is counterproductive to psychologize evil. (more)
The Humane Alternative to PETA’s Pet Slaughter
(The third part of an exposé of PETA’s mass butchery of healthy pets.)
Nathan Winograd believes that PETA’s founder, Ingrid Newkirk, is mentally ill. That to him is the only credible explanation for her monstrous compulsion to kill healthy shelter animals. In contrast, I have argued that she is fully rational: Her viciousness has its own internal logic; moreover, it is counterproductive to psychologize evil. (more)
Ingrid Newkirk: The Empress of Extinction
(The second part of an exposé of PETA’s mass butchery of healthy pets.)
How does a saint become a butcher?
I am convinced that Ingrid Newkirk, the founder of PETA (“People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals”) was once a good person. (more)
Ingrid Newkirk: The Empress of Extinction
(The second part of an exposé of PETA’s mass butchery of healthy pets.)
How does a saint become a butcher?
I am convinced that Ingrid Newkirk, the founder of PETA (“People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals”) was once a good person. (more)
Vicky Cristina Malia Oaxaca (What the President’s Daughter Was REALLY Doing in Mexico)
There are so many reasons to criticize President Obama’s decision to allow his daughter to spend her spring break down Mexico way in the city of Oaxaca. Some of these reasons are depressingly ignorant, but others are refreshingly stupid. (more)
Vicky Cristina Malia Oaxaca (What the President’s Daughter Was REALLY Doing in Mexico)
There are so many reasons to criticize President Obama’s decision to allow his daughter to spend her spring break down Mexico way in the city of Oaxaca. Some of these reasons are depressingly ignorant, but others are refreshingly stupid. (more)
Celebrities Getting Naked in the Name of Euthanasia
(The first part of an exposé of PETA’s mass butchery of healthy pets.)
A celebrity is at her most vulnerable when naked. This is when she is least likely to make sensible decisions. (more)
Celebrities Getting Naked in the Name of Euthanasia
(The first part of an exposé of PETA’s mass butchery of healthy pets.)
A celebrity is at her most vulnerable when naked. This is when she is least likely to make sensible decisions. (more)
Joy of Not Cooking
(BECAUSE I CAME CLEAN regarding my fraudulence — a full disclosure, in their own magazine — Food & Wine decided they’d continue to let me write articles for them.)
I have never cooked a meal in my apartment. (more)
Joy of Not Cooking
(BECAUSE I CAME CLEAN regarding my fraudulence — a full disclosure, in their own magazine — Food & Wine decided they’d continue to let me write articles for them.)
I have never cooked a meal in my apartment. (more)
I’d Like to Apologize for Calling Rush Limbaugh a Sex Tourist
DEMOCRATS HAVE been disgracefully uncharitable to Rush Limbaugh. He has apologized for calling a perfectly decent woman a slut and a prostitute; he deserves generosity in return. (more)
I’d Like to Apologize for Calling Rush Limbaugh a Sex Tourist
DEMOCRATS HAVE been disgracefully uncharitable to Rush Limbaugh. He has apologized for calling a perfectly decent woman a slut and a prostitute; he deserves generosity in return. (more)
Canada the Weird
(INITIALLY PUBLISHED in Travel+Leisure Magazine, this feature won the Lowell Thomas Gold Medal from the Society of American Travel Writers.)
—
I have made a career out of not enjoying Canada. (more)
Canada the Weird
(INITIALLY PUBLISHED in Travel+Leisure Magazine, this feature won the Lowell Thomas Gold Medal from the Society of American Travel Writers.)
—
I have made a career out of not enjoying Canada. (more)
How Not to Get Beheaded in Mexico
I CAN’T EVEN REMEMBER when I last experienced the beheading of a close friend. Everyone assumes it must be a weekly, or even a daily event: after all, I live in Mexico. The truth, however, is that you are as likely to have your head removed against your will in my town — Oaxaca — as you are to be murdered by roving, machete-crazed gangs in Martha’s Vineyard. (more)
How Not to Get Beheaded in Mexico
I CAN’T EVEN REMEMBER when I last experienced the beheading of a close friend. Everyone assumes it must be a weekly, or even a daily event: after all, I live in Mexico. The truth, however, is that you are as likely to have your head removed against your will in my town — Oaxaca — as you are to be murdered by roving, machete-crazed gangs in Martha’s Vineyard. (more)
Should a Novelist Feel Bitter Losing to Stephen King? Not Really.
(THE NEW YORK TIMES, June 29, 2000. They wanted to know what it felt like to have Stephen King make a fortune on an idea which had originally been mine, and upon which I had famously not made a fortune. (more)
Should a Novelist Feel Bitter Losing to Stephen King? Not Really.
(THE NEW YORK TIMES, June 29, 2000. They wanted to know what it felt like to have Stephen King make a fortune on an idea which had originally been mine, and upon which I had famously not made a fortune. (more)
Democracy’s Best Barometer? Dead Cats.
THE CAMPAIGN MANAGER of a congressional candidate in Arkansas returns home to find his children’s cat bludgeoned to death. The creature’s skull is caved in. (more)
Democracy’s Best Barometer? Dead Cats.
THE CAMPAIGN MANAGER of a congressional candidate in Arkansas returns home to find his children’s cat bludgeoned to death. The creature’s skull is caved in. (more)
The Absent Vultures of Tribeca (A Short Story in the Adirondack Review)
ON LABOR DAY the vultures disappeared. Nobody could remember when they had not circled early dawn. Death’s falcons. Turning miles above the arid northwest reaches of Tribeca tethered by scent. (more)
The Absent Vultures of Tribeca (A Short Story in the Adirondack Review)
ON LABOR DAY the vultures disappeared. Nobody could remember when they had not circled early dawn. Death’s falcons. Turning miles above the arid northwest reaches of Tribeca tethered by scent. (more)
The Plot Thickens
AN INTERVIEW with Novelist Douglas Anthony Cooper.
(This dialogue was published in Architecture magazine, which is no longer with us. The piece never appeared online. I did not own a copy for years, but I recently stumbled over this transcript: the conversation looks a bit quaint, in this century, but it’s a nice time capsule.)
_____
The few architects we find in popular fiction are predictably likable. (more)
The Plot Thickens
AN INTERVIEW with Novelist Douglas Anthony Cooper.
(This dialogue was published in Architecture magazine, which is no longer with us. The piece never appeared online. I did not own a copy for years, but I recently stumbled over this transcript: the conversation looks a bit quaint, in this century, but it’s a nice time capsule.)
_____
The few architects we find in popular fiction are predictably likable. (more)
The World’s Most Dangerous Hobby
I admit to sneering when I first encountered the vast international community of flashlight addicts. Who are these losers, I generously wondered. These “flashaholics.” Perhaps the nerd equivalent of, say, those neurally healthy folk who have sex with plush toys? (more)
The World’s Most Dangerous Hobby
I admit to sneering when I first encountered the vast international community of flashlight addicts. Who are these losers, I generously wondered. These “flashaholics.” Perhaps the nerd equivalent of, say, those neurally healthy folk who have sex with plush toys? (more)
Milrose Munce & The Plague of Toxic Fungus
VOLUME TWO in the Epic Milrose Chronicle Saga in Many Volumes
Milrose Munce & The Plague of Toxic Fungus
VOLUME TWO in the Epic Milrose Chronicle Saga in Many Volumes
Happy New Year. Tom Cruise is Sane.
I HAVE BROWSED the relevant entrails, and it will be an amusing if shallow year. In particular, I have weighed the Mayan prophecy of the Unrapture against a countervailing but potent sign: the mental health of Tom Cruise. (more)
Happy New Year. Tom Cruise is Sane.
I HAVE BROWSED the relevant entrails, and it will be an amusing if shallow year. In particular, I have weighed the Mayan prophecy of the Unrapture against a countervailing but potent sign: the mental health of Tom Cruise. (more)
Israel and Genocide, Part 4: Hatred Means Never Having to Say You’re Sorry
THE GENOCIDE LIBEL can be innocent. I truly believe this. Many people simply do not have the relevant information. Not everyone can be expected to do historical research, and when quasi-respectable historians promote a lie, it is hardly a sin to believe them. (more)
Israel and Genocide, Part 4: Hatred Means Never Having to Say You’re Sorry
THE GENOCIDE LIBEL can be innocent. I truly believe this. Many people simply do not have the relevant information. Not everyone can be expected to do historical research, and when quasi-respectable historians promote a lie, it is hardly a sin to believe them. (more)
Israel and Genocide, Part 3: A Matter of Lies and Death
GENGIS KHAN IS in fact an interesting choice. He is not just any murderous figure. Even among the most homicidal rulers, he occupies a special position. We know that Stalin admired him immensely, and for good reason: Until Stalin arrived, Genghis Khan was almost certainly the most prolific murderer in history. (more)
Israel and Genocide, Part 3: A Matter of Lies and Death
GENGIS KHAN IS in fact an interesting choice. He is not just any murderous figure. Even among the most homicidal rulers, he occupies a special position. We know that Stalin admired him immensely, and for good reason: Until Stalin arrived, Genghis Khan was almost certainly the most prolific murderer in history. (more)
Israel and Genocide, Part 2: Murder by Numbers
THE TOTAL NUMBER of Israelis and Palestinians killed, in over half a century of conflict, is approximately 15,000. This includes all of the fatalities on both sides. The great majority of these have been armed enemy combatants. (more)
Israel and Genocide, Part 2: Murder by Numbers
THE TOTAL NUMBER of Israelis and Palestinians killed, in over half a century of conflict, is approximately 15,000. This includes all of the fatalities on both sides. The great majority of these have been armed enemy combatants. (more)
Israel and Genocide, Part 1: “Genghis Khan With a Computer”?
MIGHT ISRAEL BE an evil nation? It is a question I admit to asking myself. Am I on the wrong side of history? Liberals tend to question themselves — they question their ideas and their allies. (more)
Israel and Genocide, Part 1: “Genghis Khan With a Computer”?
MIGHT ISRAEL BE an evil nation? It is a question I admit to asking myself. Am I on the wrong side of history? Liberals tend to question themselves — they question their ideas and their allies. (more)