The Isla Vista spree killer was in therapy since the age of eight, including almost every day while in high school. That’s total baloney. He didn’t undergo therapy. THIS is therapy, what I will now tell you about myself. In 1998 I was at the end of my rope. My career as a music journalist…
Just had a brush with the next spree killer
May 27, 2014
I’m drinking coffee again. And how! I shouldn’t, because of the Meniere’s disease, but I’m losing my doctor in less than a month, I’m writing a very emotionally draining novel, we’re now feeding a family of doomed feral cats, and I’m not happy with people in my life. I buy my coffee at a convenience…
The youngest doughboy
May 25, 2014
Tomorrow is Memorial Day 2014. World War One began on July 28, 1914, nearly a century ago. For this Memorial Day, I want to remember Frank R. Sauliere, the youngest doughboy to fight in the war. Nobody knows where the term “doughboy” comes from. It could refer to the dumplings that soldiers made from flour,…
You’re doing everything wrong
May 24, 2014
As I predicted, the reaction to the mass murder at Isla Vista, California, last night is utterly pro forma. Everybody is doing everything wrong. When families have spokespeople issue statements, I get queasy. Alan Shifman — a lawyer who represents Peter Rodger, one of the assistant directors on “The Hunger Games” — issued a statement…
The right way to report on these things
May 24, 2014
Last night Elliot Rodger murdered six people and injured seven others in the Isla Vista neighborhood beside the University of California at Santa Barbara. Rodger himself was killed, either by sheriff’s deputies or by his own hand. Normally I oppose publicizing mass shootings, because almost nobody ever describes the situation accurately. People use them to…
What happens when it’s all based on lies?
May 23, 2014
Lies have cost me almost everything, as I document in Ghosts and Ballyhoo. Why do people lie to create outrages that don’t exist? Let’s say you passionately believe that the world is getting worse. What happens when it’s all based on lies? My next novel is about titanic, unfathomable lies. I need help in grasping…
In praise of warriors
May 15, 2014
I just saw a tweet by author Joyce Carol Oates. It’s about a movie titled Les Chevaux de Dieu (Horses of God). I’ve never had the urge to read anything by Ms. Oates. Clearly I haven’t missed anything. Ms. Oates suffers from the mental illness of moral equivalency. She compares American warriors to suicide bombers….
Junk science to make you hate yourself
May 9, 2014
Mother Jones is out with an article titled “The Science of Your Racist Brain,” by Indre Viskontas (not Indrid Cold) and Chris Mooney. It’s absolutely hilarious. More junk science to make you hate yourself for being irredeemably evil. The article initially differentiates between “explicit racists” like Donald Sterling and “implicit racists”—all white people. According to…
Are you willing to kill to get the girls back?
May 8, 2014
On April 14, 2014, the terrorist group Boko Haram kidnapped 276 schoolgirls from the Chibok Government Girls Secondary School. When Nigerian soldiers left the village of Gamboru Ngala to search for the girls, Boko Haram attacked and murdered more than 300. They had armored personnel carriers, rocket-propelled grenades, and explosives. It was an orgy of…
Who is the audience?
May 7, 2014
Alanis Morissette has recorded “Today” for independent congressional candidate Marianne Williamson. Who is the audience? Have you ever heard more loathsome tripe in your life? It’s fitting, since Williamson is a cheesy self-help entrepreneur who knows nothing about politics. Given that she’s not a politician, this isn’t a political post. It’s a post about rampant…