Tim Barrus New York Times

Take notes. I’ve been waiting for this one. This is a “home for the holiday” piece and I can get that in Teen Vogue. Thank you. A publication that is impotent. The New York Times, award-winner of journalism goes to see a show cuz it gives them a new perspective.…

Tim Barrus New York Times

IT’S A RAPIST

Take notes. It’s a convicted rapist. Yet the country loves him. They do not care about women. They do not care about rape. Rape is a weapon of war. It has always wanted WAR. Are you ready to be led by a rapist. An It. Find some way to remove…

Rich People Have Agency

Take notes. I am a radical. Not a democrat. Not a republican. There are no independents. They employ the same political and cultural infrastructure – how things work – that the rest of us are compelled to use. Climate: Not a word. It’s the Trump go to for climate change,…

I Want Caleb’s Bike

Take notes. Caleb is a lucky guy. Curiosity drives us to a film set where people actually live. With all that stuff. Caleb has a voice. That is what a camera is, a voice. That is what a video is, a voice. The spaces that reflect us are accumulated voices.…

Next Flight Out

Take notes. After I put my kids on the flight out of America, and all the crying had slightly ebbed, I had to sit in the airport for about an hour because I could not get up. I knew I had done the right thing. America is just not a…

Walking the Walk

Take notes. We all want to know, is it worth it. This question haunts us as the Internet becomes a utility. The tech oligarchs are not keen on the idea. One of the things FDR did, was bringing electricity to rural America. The people who got electricity last, knew they…

Tim Barrus New York Times

Take notes. Gay men have formed a survivor’s group that is about older men who survived AIDS. And the AIDS era. Which has not ended. The group is angry with me for questioning the tenet of the tenets. The rule that life is always worth living because it’s life. Living…

Tim Barrus, New York Times

Take Notes. I have to watch what I write. What are the risks of having a voice. As a writer, every time I turn around, there are new rules. There are the NYT rules of etiquette. There are the religious rules about specific words that are not allowed. All new…

Tim Barrus, New York Times

Take notes. What I see is a media that is conveniently ignoring one big thing. The American people did this. They want this. They are this. The talking heads were wrong. Optimism is another lie. Hope is not available. It never has been. The Lower Middle Class gets its name…

Tim Barrus, New York Times

Take notes. I had to make a judgement call. I got my family out of North America. My decision was based in what the New York Times take is. In all the talk about vibes, the publication has one, too. It’s dark. It’s fearful. It’s nervous. If it wasn’t, something…

Shawn Mendes

Take notes. People demand to know if Shawn is gay. These are the people who will make him pay for it. His fan base is mainly composed of fifteen-year-old girls. There’s a lot of anecdotals attached to Shawn. I hear a lot of: No One Cares If He’s Gay. That…

A Division Laid Bare

Take notes. The graphic implies a civil war. It’s in your face. The image works, but not alongside the writing of this particular article. Soltis-Anderson is kinda perky, and very informed. The juxtaposition of the flag, with its message that we are undone, is a whole world away from the…

Other People Took the Same Oath

Take notes. All flights (to anywhere) on November 6 are filling fast. I have already got my family out. The trick is to know when to get out of Dodge. The American people simply do not believe Trump will do what he has pledged to do. The threat to execute…

THE MEDIA WANTS RAZZLE DAZZLE POLITICS AS IF THEY WERE EVENTS

Take notes. About control. Dream Big Again is beginning to sound like Dream What We Tell You To Dream. Americans would never buy a used car from a used car salesman named Nixon Halloween who had used cars to unload. Fast. Faster. The Garden is another testosterone wrestling event. Ordinary.…

Church

Take notes. Last Church Standing could be a book title. I live in the Blue Ridge. Our little towns all have a kinda strange housing market where $250,000 buys you one bedroom. I lived in a church once in Michigan. My bedroom was the balcony. It was a great place…

ALL BETS ARE OFF

Take notes. The historian and biographer Ian Kershaw described Hitler as “the embodiment of modern political evil”. Under Hitler’s leadership and racist ideology, the Nazi regime was responsible for the genocide of an estimated six million Jews and millions of other victims, whom he and his followers deemed Untermenschen (subhumans)…

Your Mouth

the last time I touched your soft lips with my fingers/ you put those fingers in your mouth/ tasting dreams/ but by the wind grieved, ghost/ we wrote that book together/ the ice machine was just outside the room/ it sounded like the USS Enterprise/ smoking ass/ but you cannot…

Ross Douthat’s Catholicism is Subordination

Take notes. There is no god. There is no Jesus. There is no heaven. There are no wing rentals for Victoria’s Secret Angels. There are no angels. There are no gates. There is no sane theology. There never was a virgin Mary. Jesus did not walk on water. When Ross…

Tim Barrus: New York Times

Take notes. “But voters still trust his positions more than his opponent’s.” Don’t tell me. Show me. I do not believe it. There’s a different standard for showing, and clinging to a narrative that is dubious at best. How do we know that Americans trust Trump more. Where are the…

Tim Barrus New York Times

Take notes. Grief, too, comes for everyone. I worked with adolescent boys who had HIV. Those were the days when nothing and no one was safe. Two thirds of them had lost one parent. Many had concomitant issues (various cancers). When someone from the group died, the boys insisted they…

Tim Barrus: Let’s Get Rid of SCOTUS

Take notes. There are two  Americas. The rich tribe. And the poor tribe. Nothing of significance in between. The senate is the rich guys. They never go down without a blood feud. The House of Representatives is also with the rich guys. They do go down regularly. The bottom is…

Tim Barrus: Despair Is All That Is Left

Take notes. “Despair, however, is not an option in medicine.” Despair is the only option there is. What I do not understand is that health insurance is still unavailable. Money. Capitalism and health care is an uneasy relationship. Instead of kicking you out into the street, they are allowed to…

Tim Barrus: New York Times

Take notes. I have no faith. Things are worsening fast. I got my kids to another country. I am hopeful we will have a civil war. Repeat: I am hopeful we will have a civil war. The problem is that – allow me to call them the Normals – it…

Fire Cracker

Take notes. Truly great literature is written by outsiders—the unorthodox and the nonconformist. When their careers are destroyed before they begin, we all lose. Writers privately tell us that they are concerned about the inevitable literary pablum of the coming decade. It’s already here.  I live in a village in…