America's Most Critical Journal since 1999
For most of my childhood, the reflection in the mirror startled me: in my mind, I was blonde and blue-eyed, an admittedly far-fetched feat in my Jewish-Gipsy family. Then puberty swept in, carrying gifts of fainting-grade menstrual pains and a sizable butt. So... More »
Do you wish to write a satirical essay? Mind, it should be something original. If not, at least have the good sense to make it interesting. Don’t bore with more “ought.” The president ought to be honest, the government ought to be good, this essay ought ... More »
Grandparents always ask their grandchildren the same questions, so why don’t their grandchildren have a quiz of their own for Grandma and Grandpa? After telling them how school is, your favorite subjects and the names of your best friends, you should have a ... More »
This week Alabama’s Governor signed a statute that aims to outlaw all abortions, despite the majority of Alabamians indicating that they do not support this law — i.e., a clear case of a minority view prevailing. Or, as the GOP might call it, “governin... More »
Gun control advocates think they’re slick when they quote statistics like more than 35,000 men, women, and children are killed each year by guns in the United States and among high-income countries the US accounts for 80 percent of all gun deaths in the worl... More »
Since Americans are engaged in a contentious dispute over building a southern border wall to prevent hordes of evil-doers from invading our country, we need to reach out for more credible, practical, and yes, imaginative solutions. Have we looked to the north?... More »
The 2020 presidential primary season has begun and the Democrats in the race are falling all over themselves to show how tremendously progressive they are and how fervently they believe in big-time, radical change. Don’t buy their hype. There’s only one pe... More »
Weary of the continental breakfast of four tablespoons of orange juice, a tiny pot of coffee, a huge pitcher of steaming milk and the daily basket of one delicious croissant, one inflexible hard roll and a packet of something akin to zwieback? Reluctant to pou... More »
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. All the king’s horses and all the king’s men Couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty together again. Though our contemporary Humpty Dumpty may never have been as completely together as the original, there... More »
The past generation has seen the reunification of a number of fractured states: Vietnam and Yemen (North & South), Germany (East & West) — to be fair: it has seen dissolutions as well, chiefly of the Soviet Union and of Yugoslavia. The former cha... More »
The right never grows weary of shouting at the top of its lungs about America’s political correctness problem. And, in case the recent outrage over Esquire’s scandalous decision to put a 17-year-old white male (how revolting) on its Tuesday cover didn’t ... More »
Harvard Professor Alan Dershowitz says one shouldn’t compare Adolph Hitler to Donald Trump and he’s right, because it’s unfair to Hitler. Hitler heeded his call to serve in the Austrian army during WWI when he showed up in Salzburg for his physical, whic... More »