THE DONALD'S STRUGGLE

As Mein Kampf rolls once again off the presses of Germany, I’ve been reading Peter Longerich’s Goebbels. Gregory Corso’s worst advice? Unmuzzled OX should publish Goebbels’ novel. Goebbels would have loved Donald Trump.
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AMERICAN JUSTICE

The media lynching of Bill Cosby recalls O.J. Simpson 20 years ago. Things look bad for Cosby. He claims he is “skilled at interpreting female reaction to him.” But the lawyer for Andrea Constand, the sometime Temple basketball coach and designated victim, noted in a filing Cosby “did not realize [Constand] was gay until police told him.”  Even the guilty are occasionally lynched.
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HILARY or HILLARY

Are we to judge everyone by their political views? Reagan was an actor and public speaker. John Wayne was a movie star and hypocrite. James Stewart was a movie star, a courageous war veteran, an intelligent and modest Republican. Stewart would certainly have been a wiser president than Reagan. Perhaps however like William Tecumseh Sherman he could not stomach the political process. Politicians have strong stomachs. “Sherman and Grant drank whiskey, smoked cigars and liked to kill.” Grant did such a bad job as president that the United States waited until 1952 before electing another war hero. Do Hillary Clinton and all the Republican candidates fill you with fear?

HOW MANY YEARS A SLAVE?

Minimum wage earners and illegal immigrants should be allowed to sell their children. The constitution must be re-interpreted. Perhaps we can take New York back to the London of William Blake --

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GUELPH

Sunni and Shiite are older and more confusing than Guelph and Ghibelline and far more important. Thus, if you’ve been reading Dante since 1963, Guelph and

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HEAT WAVE

Some blame the greenhouse effect, others say it’s the hole in the ozone layer spreading across the continent, and some believe we’re sinking toward the molten core of the earth, having pumped all the oil and water out of the ground.  The weatherman doesn’t give his opinion, just warns us...
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ELEGY FOR A CENTURY OF AIDS

Although the Germans in their wars
shot my uncle and grandfather

and the Holocaust and Vietnam perturb,
AIDS kills my friends:

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3 Riots in One Good Year

On this day in 1968 my French Canadian girl friend took me to the Parade. It is Jean le Baptiste day, the Fete Nationale in Quebec. She kept saying the guys were at Parc Lafontaine, and that’s where we headed. Do I remember mounted police? There were definitely many police cars. For practice the guys turned a police car over and set it aflame. Then they tossed bottles with burning wicks filled with some liquid in the general direction of the review stand. And who was there? Oh. Him. That would be Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. The idea made complete sense: Kill him! After all he opposed a free and independent Quebec. Vive le Quebec libre! Unfortunately the Molotov cocktails failed in their intent. And abruptly the resurgent authorities counter-charged. They drove us into the Parc. La mentalite Anglaise! my girlfriend cursed. Les maudits anglais! And this was, mind you, but the second of three excellent riots that year. The first was at McGill on one cold motherfucking winter night. The last was in Chicago, at the convention of the Democratic Party. 1968! What a great year!