AMERICA THE COMMUNITY By Stan Hartman There is so little that is close and warm. It is as if we were never children. —Wallace Stevens Those are some of the saddest lines in the whole of American literature, yet they also point to an aspect of America that’s most deeply joyful— the sense of real family, and in a …
• An alarming number of people are wearing their shirts inside out today. • The last flake of snow melted off the roof hours ago. • A quantum leap was made by several thousand seekers since midnight, and several thousand more will experience one before midnight. • Hundreds of tires are going flat as you read this. • Some people …
There’s a fascinating article by Amanda Marcotte at PANDAGON, “My hands are mine, but my feet are my sister,” which recounts a most unusual anomaly among the naturally occurring vagaries of human gene blending. In the process of unfolding that amazing story, she somewhat tangentially observes: I don’t truck with the more superstitious need to have individuality strongly defined in …
EDITOR’S NOTE: The fourth installment from the Daily Matzo, a rare extant parchment throw-away rag of 30 A.D. Jerusalem coffee shops, chronicles the unprecedented events surrounding the crucifixion and resurrection of one Joshua Ben Joseph, the Galilean boat builder, and coincidentally, the “Son of God.” [Daily Matzo] Editor’s Preface of April 9, 30 A.D. : All Jerusalem is astir this …
He trusted in God to deliver him. He even claimed to be the Son of God— look at him now— crucified between two thieves.
George Bush the candidate warned us that he decried nation-building. After invading Iraq, the justifications for doing so devolved from looking for weapons of mass destruction to spreading democracy, even if we had to kill a million or so people to “gitter done.” But the world did not heave a collective sigh of relief. People smarter than George Bush have …
The fetish word of authority is a fear-inspiring doctrine, the most terrible of all tyrants which enslave men. A doctrinal fetish will lead people to betray themselves into the clutches of bigotry, fanaticism, superstition, intolerance, and the most atrocious of barbarous cruelties. —The Urantia Papers IT’S A QUAINT BUT POPULAR NOTION for some Americans to say they hate the idea …
