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. Great piece. I knew we were in trouble when the Hurricane blew the front door off. I live at the top of a mountain in the Appalachian Blue Ridge. I have survived 22 hurricanes. But nothing like this one. The water was coming at us sideways. There was…

Mister Potato Head

I do not look back much. It has saved my ass. I wish book publishing would  stop what with the reader has to meet the writer thing. I just don’t get it. Why can’t the reader identify that thing they have for delving into what happened during your divorce. I…

Tim Barrus: NC and the Pollsters

Take notes. I lie to polls. This is Appalachia. From this perspective, this piece nails North Carolina. The new NC, and the old NC. It’s difficult to get folks around here to slide into politics. It begins with a shrug. Then, we tiptoe around: I thought Trump was gonna… You’all…

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…

Tim Barrus: Book Art

Tim Barrus: Journalists Elected Trump

Take notes. Harris is on the path to winning the presidency. It will be close. Mainly, it’s a battle cry. Journalists are bitter over the fact that they are not on anyone’s radar. Journalists are a problem. They think that anyone who they want to focus on has no agency…

Tim Barrus: Dirt Bike Town

Tim Barrus, Dirt Bike Town

Americans Are Apathetic

I was working in my office in the Hotel across the street from the Capitol building in Michigan. Our guests were legislators.The Secret Service wanted to speak to me. George Wallace was coming town and he was staying with us. I lived at the hotel, too. “There will be a…

The End

No mention of alcohol and HIV. I was working with adolescent boys with HIV and alcoholism. I have read thousands of these well-written, cogent pieces. But even the mention in this article – and all the others – is missing a lot. AIDS means stigma. Alcohol does not block the…

Tim Barrus: Bring In the Next One

Tim Barrus: The New York Times Take Notes. Just walking down the street, and you explode. Personally, I think it’s a game changer. As big as the bomb. Imagine: You can explode anything you want to explode. You don’t even need a bomb for that. 3,000 people exploding. Today. High…

The Internet IS a Pornography

Take Notes. When the Internet was still a baby, many people were excited that art itself could be expressed on the Internet, and virtually bring new art to everyone. The reason the Internet became the Internet was because the Sears and Roebuck Catalogue, capitalism, and all the usual suspects like…

Eat Me

I threw out color. I’m autistic. Red was a problem. Whatever dye they use makes me explode with hives, and you will swear, you feel like bees are attacking you. I do not know about dyes. All I know is I cannot wear red anything. I do not know why…

Tim Barrus: The Great American Novel

Tim Barrus: The Great American Novel A Novel In A Novel

I AM AN ALARMIST

I live in an extremely remote place in Appalachia. We are just now coming to the end of a drought. We don’t need some expert who tells us that it’s getting hotter, Duh. Frankly, I think the experts are wrong about the timetable speed. It’s getting hotter faster. No snow…

Tim Barrus: Naked Before Us

The boys I was dealing with sat on folding chairs in a circle. “Okay, who is going to play Richard Hatch, and who’s going to be Amarosa.” The question was What Is Reality. What is reality on TV. Or. What does it really mean. The boys all had HIV. A…

Tim Barrus: What Economics

Take notes. As the middle class slides down the rabbit hole, the middle class will encounter exactly what they think they left. The lower middle class. We welcome you to our hovel. I cannot read articles like this without thinking: Where are the poor in this. In Appalachia, we know…

AND WE’RE WALKING

He’s going down. The crazy daisies will now be his status quo. He’s not going to put himself in another debate with someone who just ragged him into a pool of make-up and sweat. But can she win the election remains the last pseudo-journalistic place to hide. But can she…

Tim Barrus: The Great American Novel

Tim Barrus Novelist

The Undecided

Take notes. In the bedrock heart of America, there’s always Vegas. It’s the highwire act in the middle of the dog and pony show. I was doing a magazine piece, and I was stuck in Vegas. There was a long row of one-armed bandits. I wanted this one on tape.…

Comment Moderation Softens the Image for the Bad Guys

If I so much as write – Trump is a rapist – comment moderators will side with Trump, and then, the swords come out. I get axed. Yet it’s civil for a columnist to articulate the same fact. There are several realities going on here. The reality of the rape.…

Tim Barrus: Blind Obedience

How do we deal with so much cultural Blind Obedience, that we are not creating people who know about the world.

There is no Art in Appalachia

There is no art in Appalachia. There is corruption though. Some of these suits are more crooked than a barrel of fishhooks. Unless you view what are, in fact, trinkets, or photographs of water running pastoral streams and dreams through the deep woods. Anyone can do those those things. That…

Taking Photographs of Other Photographs

The Great American Novel is a novel by Tim Barrus. Release the doves.

Chichchen Itza

Chichen Itza Take Notes. The starlings have arrived from the moon. All they drink is Scotch. They go barefoot on the boat, and they take photographs of everything they see. They will be sitting in your backyard’s solitary oak. Starlings vote. But it’s the whisky that makes them so articulate.…