America's Most Critical Journal since 1999
cautiously pessimistic: If, for example, a bad guy – like, say, a Charles Manson or a Jeffrey Dahmer – is injured but not doing that badly, doctors might say, “Well, unfortunately, he’s doing okay. So, right now, we’re just cautiousl... More »
By Martin H. Levinson Welcome to Safe Space University, an institution of higher learning where you are free to express yourself without fear of being made to feel uncomfortable, unwelcome, or challenged on account of biological sex, race-ethnicity, sexual ori... More »
The 12 Steps of Aspiring Autocrats Anonymous by Stephen J. Lyons We admit that we are powerless over the mighty sway of Donald Trump—aka “Him”—his enabling lies rhetoric and the glitter of repeated appearances on Fox News. We came to believe tha... More »
by William Vaillancourt “Thanks to the hard work of Rev MLK Jr. and others, growing up in Georgia, I’ve seen the beautiful fruit that blossomed from the Civil Rights Era, where segregation ended & equality began. Today, I believe we are seeing ... More »
“…when the Havana Syndrome met COVID” More »
by Kevin Higgins No longer exactly young but still in a hurry to board the bus bound for what they call somewhere. Emerging poet acquires agent so sang the update. Or is acquired by, it neglected to add. From now on they will focus less on the bits that don... More »
Time to parent up. Nobody told you to have kids. Hey, I bet people even discouraged you, but you did it despite the warnings. You must not have listened when friends told you what crappy parents you’d make; you did the fertility treatments anyway and low... More »
by Mary Cappelli, MFA, JD, PhD Recently at my very liberal high school in West Los Angeles, I was called into the Administration because a student complained about the use of derogatory descriptions of the Congolese people in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darknes... More »
By Tom Deisboeck First off, I want to extend a warm “Ni Hao” to the supremely talented PLA hacker assigned to scour lines like these for hidden intel about quantum computing & AI – sorry, Dude, nothin’ here but thin air – ‘see’ you on Twitter... More »
Writer: Paul Lander Artist: Dan McConnell Bannon Pleads the Fifth: Bannon Drinks the Fifth Paul Lander is a TV comedy writer, award-winning columnist and producer. His humor pieces have appeared in MAD, American Bystander, Weekly Humorist, McSweeneys, Nation... More »
By Martin H. Levinson Melancholia was the daughter of Polemius, the God of Adhesives, and Daphne, the Goddess of Grape Juice. She was the offspring of an unhappy union, for when she was a babe she was glued to her highchair by her father who then struck her mo... More »
by Kevin Higgins after Rod McKuen The old woman upstairs is again engaging in multi-partner Sadomasochism. I set my watch by the yelps and screams wafting through my ceiling. I see her often abseiling down the side of the building in her bloodstained ov... More »