Today Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was sentenced to death for his role in the Boston Marathon bombings of April 15, 2013. People on Twitter told me that they oppose the death penalty because it’s immoral. Opposition to the death penalty is perfectly legitimate for a variety of reasons, but if you think capital punishment is immoral, then…
The snakes are loose
April 8, 2014
One of my all-time favorite films is Crossfire. It’s got everything I love in art: surreality, beautiful women who break your heart, insane authority figures always on the edge of violence, the sense of everything spinning out of control, and fantastic writing: “The snakes are loose.” The story is about homicidal bigotry, but that’s not…
Slapstick
January 7, 2014
Kurt Vonnegut’s sister died of cancer. The day before her death, her husband was killed in a train accident. When she was told, she laughed and said, “Slapstick!” I’ve just discovered that I’ve been mercilessly scammed for months. The scammers targeted someone who’s housebound with an incurable illness that’s getting worse. Not only that, they…