by Dan Madden
Hi Don,
A genuine hero, the like of which we we won’t see again in our lifetimes, died this week. Boris Nikolayevich was one of those rare phenomena, the right man at the right time. Without him, the Soviet Union would very likely still be with us. Lamentably, his successor is systematically eliminating all [...]

How can one resist an email that begins:
“Want get porno by your dick with average woman?”

Today, George Bush expressed renewed faith in his bumbling Attorney General, even after he was humiliated by Republicans and Democrats alike in Senate hearings last week.

I guess I shouldn’t expect much from George Bush, who wouldn’t know honest or honorable, if it was a dog that took a long piss on his leg. [...]

A man died and went to heaven. As he stood in front of St. Peter at the Pearly Gates, he saw a huge wall of clocks behind him.
He asked, “What are all those clocks?”
St. Peter answered, “Those are Lie-Clocks. Everyone on Earth has a Lie-Clock. Every time you lie, the hands on your clock [...]

Two years ago, Robert Greenwald, a progressive filmmaker made Wal*Mart: The High Cost of Low Price. I finally got around to watching it and sent off a note to Mr. Greenwald, who was kind enough to respond. His other work is worth checking out: he made a creditable film about 60’s radical Abbie [...]

On his way to deliver the same kind of hate- and fear-based ideological harangues he’s been giving on behalf of Karl Rove and George Bush, el hatcheteer, former and future Halliburton executive, Dick Cheney’s plane, Air Force Two, hit a bird on its approach into Chicago’s O’Hare airport. What Cheney can’t seem to [...]

I just finished eight ten-hour days of writing at an artist colony in Costa Rica. Happily, I was able to tell a large part of the end of the novel I’ve been working on, or living in as it sometimes feels like I’m doing. I’ve always liked writing endings. As a poet, [...]

For the past ten minutes, I’ve been looking at the subject line of a piece of spam email I got today about a Chinese stock. Pump and dump I believe it’s called when these stock tips are sent out in the bazillions in the hopes that a couple hundred people will buy the stock, causing [...]

Check out Noam Chomsky’s piece that appears on Alternet.

I’m about a day away from writing about my experience at an artist colony in Costa Rica. Generally speaking, this is a very good trip for me, and I’m pushing ahead into the final section of this novel. Each day for a break, geek that I am, I’m listening to Coffee Break Spanish, [...]