I Hear America Singing

Reflections on patriotism are always puzzling for me – take, for example, Whitman; as a gay man, he was excluded from American society and condemned by the religious beliefs of the majority of the population. Yet the sonofabitch loved America. How do you square that? Semantic debates aside, the guy was all about a whole [...]

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All Out of Red Ink

This title is a not-terribly-subtle allusion to an old Eastern European joke that Zizek recounts in one of his books, where two Polish comrades are separated, one is sent to the Siberian mines, and before he leaves, he tells his friend: Look, we will establish a code for writing letters, since they are obviously going [...]

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On Truth and Lie in the Extra-Moral Sense

I often wondered what the significance of the hyphen in this title indicated – if the word extra was taken to mean simply “outside of morality” or if it implied that truthfully, in an almost meta-moral way, one is being more moral by embracing the sort of non-absolutist Truth that Nietzsche endorses. The distinction is [...]

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Pedagogy of the Oppressed

I’ve just switched nine time zones and spent most of the day drinking alternately coffee and wine (a good Chianti, if it helps the imagination) , so apologies in advance if this post rambles slightly. But then, you’re used to that.  The title is, of course, not only a bit of a nod and a [...]

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Sorry America, People in Iran Still Fucking Hate You

I like to think of myself as a person who, if not unbiased, is at least aware of his biases. This doesn’t mean that I’m working to overcome them, but at least I know where they are. Part of this system of prejudices is that I generally hate Republicans more than I hate Democrats. This [...]

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Love in the time of Cholera, pt. 2: Where it gets all mushy

This part will, with any luck, be the section that the previous one was meant to be. I’ll confess, I chickened out – Dani said that I never write anything personal in my “journal,” and loathe as I am to admit it, she may be right. This entry will be, then, my attempt to come [...]

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Love in the time of Cholera, pt. 1

My response to hearing people use the phrase “in real life” is generally akin to hearing nails screeching on a chalk board. For those of you who don’t have ears, this feeling is bad. I’ve been meaning for quite some time to write about this sort of bucolic, folksy ideal of “common sense” that’s quite [...]

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It’s Just A Human Life

As far as I can recall, the only significant fight that Dani and I have ever had occurred as we were stumbling (drunk, because normally I’m extremely graceful) down Franklin Street to buy more beer on the evening of some NCAA championship game. Because we’re both fairly intelligent and not total assholes, we were having [...]

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Lethal Text

Jeden Tag stirbt ein Teil von dir
jeden Tag schwindet deine Zeit,
jeden Tag einen Tag den du verlierst,
nichts bleibt für die Ewigkeit
I’m feeling alienated now. Not lonely, although that may be a part. Lonely doesn’t particularly bother me, because it’s easy enough to fix. The world is filled with warm bodies, and unless you’re particularly ugly/communicable/obnoxious, [...]

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The Fascist Within

There’s a certain amount of investment that goes into writing these blog posts – I’m always convinced there’s something better I could be doing at the time, and can only reluctantly sit down and write these. This is, however, not without its rewards – I get to sit down later and chuckle at my own [...]

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