Gregory Laxer For some time now, a towering irony has tickled my brain, though at root the topic is not at all amusing. This is the paradox that the regions of the United States that are suffering the most devastating effects of the climate crisis appear to be home to the greatest concentrations of those…
Stuart Lyle It is only if you willfully ignore what we know about human civilizations that have come and gone over a number of millennia that you could believe that our current civilization is here to stay. Whether Mayan, Egyptian, Babylonian, Roman, or any other great societies of the last 10,000 or so years of…
Intro by b. traven Bill Clinton, that paragon of marital fidelity, could not wait when he was president to rush to Richard Nixon’s funeral to pay his respect to the man who was drummed from the of Presidency for his alleged crimes and misdemeanors while in office. Clinton has now, in concert with his equally…
b. traven I’m ninety three now and Kurt Weill’s “September Song” can bring me to tears. Not just because it hearkens back to my lost youth, but also its poignancy of “loss” reverberates to my sadness over the loss of our country to greed and vicious mediocrity. My youth was spent in a war that…
Dr. George Blau The news is so depressing these days that you have to look pretty far sometimes to see the bright side. This last week, however, the bright side came to some of us in North America in the most contrary way possible – darkness at mid-day from a total eclipse of the sun. …
b. traven The United States, in Tom Engelhardt’s words, has become “the most dangerous country on earth.” And it is not because of our incessant military adventures. It has been simmering since before WW II, with right wing groups in this country who had favored Fascist Germany as a buttress against Socialism which they felt…
Jacek Popiel Americans live in a perpetual now, and the now of 2016 is looking decidedly grim. A quick summary of our current situation: U.S. finances are shaky, with an exploding national debt, two economic crises since the year 2000, and the next one possibly around the corner. The once superb U.S. economic machine has…
W.J. Astore The other day, I was watching a typical truck commercial on TV. It showed trucks literally tearing up the backroads, along with ATVs spinning and jumping and chewing up the countryside, all synonymous with “adventure” and “freedom.” I remember those old Coors commercials featuring Mark Harmon. They were set in Colorado (I think)…
Chris Hedges (Courtesy of Truthdig) The increase in nihilistic violence such as school shootings and Friday’s lethal assault on a Planned Parenthood clinic, the frequent executions of poor people of color by police, and the rise of thuggish demagogues such as Donald Trump are symptoms of the collapse of our political and cultural institutions. These…
P.J. Sullivan Americans have a powerful affinity for predators. Our national symbol, the American eagle, is a flesh-eating raptor, the top predator of the skies. The pets we dote on, cats and dogs, are carnivores. We kill for them and invite them into our homes, even into our beds. When Cecil the lion was killed…
The Contrary Perspective 