Thoughts, articles, and published work.
August 23, 2023
Congratulivings, ye Childer of Akenhatunwake! Methinks, somewinklings among yee fancy as Muslimans, Chrishtians, Judeites, or whosoevers, but beknowst to me deep drown heart, ye've the mark of…
June 18, 2021
If you believe you have a soul, you’re probably not going to like this, but hey, I’m not here to make you happy. It’s hard to think of a single fiction, other than that of monotheism, that has been…
June 15, 2021
I really want to address the phenomenon of people asking artists to work for free on commercial projects. You have to understand that not all artists can afford to work for free, and whereas it may…
May 29, 2021
People underestimate the importance of stories, but I think that stories are the fabric of our minds. Stories are how stars become constellations, and how flesh becomes character. They’re the…
April 25, 2020
Not everybody succeeds at what they try to do, but many keep trying. Some keep trying the same thing until they succeed, and others keep trying different things, like they’re throwing spaghetti at…
January 25, 2020
Today is a special, heartbreaking day for everybody who participated in the attempt to liberate Egypt from the yoke of oppression. We tried, and we failed. Our attempt was at first noble, then grew…
February 25, 2019
In 2002, when a fire erupted at a girl's school in Mecca, members of the 'Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice,' otherwise known in Saudi Arabia as the ' mutawiyin'…
December 26, 2018
Aquaman is terrible. The jokes don’t land. The close-ups and metal riffing on the little quips are so pathetic they’re laughable. The heroic arc is completely lacking, with everybody telling us how…
November 28, 2018
I like some of Tom King’s work, and some of his earlier Batman stories were really good (I’m ignoring the Batman Wedding debacle), but Heroes in Crisis should have been nipped in the bud by the…
November 26, 2018
Excited about the new Lion King? In case you forgot, this was the story: A brain-dead cub listens to his lying uncle and gets his father killed. He cowardly abandons his now-widowed mother, is…
October 24, 2018
I'm really tired of all the various editions that get published to fleece comic book readers, and that try to make a buck off prospective 'collectors.' Look at this one, for example - the issue for…
March 24, 2018
The universe does not respond to your ‘energy’ in kind, and I'm incredibly exhausted by people who claim that it does. All these ideas, whether from ‘The Secret’ or taught by self-styled second-hand…
January 3, 2018
I am sick of those who, while living in comfort, would seek to rob those who suffer of their opportunity to revolt because they believe that all hope is conspiracy. These condescending idiots are not…
November 28, 2017
Dear Americans, I know a lot of you think Trump is making you look bad internationally. I understand that. The man is an oaf—a buffoon. But America has looked bad for a while now. It started with…
January 10, 2017
Americans generally don't want to take responsibility for their choices, or, for that matter, for their very character as a nation. When children don't pay attention at school, you don't say they…
November 18, 2016
It's the height of intellectual laziness to accuse any man who has anything to say about women or gender relations of 'mansplaining'. It's not clever. It betrays a complete inability to actually…
June 8, 2016
This keeps happening, and I want to mention it. Every once in a while, as I am wont to do, I get into a bit of an argument or a conversational clash online. Often others get involved, people…
June 6, 2016
Congratulations, ye Children of Akhenaten! I know some of you like to think of yourselves as Muslims, or Christians, or Jews, for that matter, but we both know your basic operating premise is that of…
May 12, 2016
We judge all the time, and that's how we decide who we like, who we don't, who we trust, and who we don't. Who we are friendly towards, and who we're not. This isn't something 'wrong' that we do. In…
November 15, 2015
It seems like an obviously bad idea to bash anybody anywhere for sympathizing with victims of a crime. Having said that, it's also a bad idea to ignore why some people are taking offense, not to the…
November 14, 2015
All fascists are the same, even though they speak against each other and war against each other. They do so not because they are mortal enemies but because they are rivals for power. That's all.…
October 20, 2015
Fuck cars. Cars are a failed concept, to be honest. We'll outgrow them soon enough. We shouldn't be putting fleshy creatures in metal boxes running around at high speeds and then act surprised at the…
January 9, 2015
The notion that Charlie Hebdo is a purely satirical magazine that attacks everybody and cannot, therefore, be considered racist seems to generally be espoused by well-meaning but uninformed people.…
December 26, 2014
He cries, and there's very little you can do to help. He cries, and it makes you feel useless. You try to console him; you smile at him, you make silly faces, you do whatever comes to mind. If it…
November 5, 2014
We're sick of knowledge, so we don't really watch the news. Let me guess; you'd say - it's...bad? Of course, it is. Jaded. Forgotten is the fact that your disinterest is rooted in futility. Had the…
September 29, 2014
It's strange how some givens have been obfuscated by politics and fictional notions such as 'state,' 'nation,' 'patriotism,' and 'security.' You'd think that some basic issues were either…
July 25, 2014
Everything you have you have stolen. You are backing up an apartheid state that is racist, fundamentalist, and insane. You look at little children, and you consider them a 'demographic threat.' You…
July 7, 2014
The military will starve you, then feed you. They will raise gas prices then offer you transportation on their buses. They will make deals with terrorists, then offer to save you from them. Behind…
June 12, 2014
It's quite insulting when people keep accusing us of expecting too much, of wanting a utopia that's impossible to achieve. We may be fools because we keep trying, because we do not let your fears…
June 5, 2014
You have to remember, fascism is not a specific color, but an attitude, and all colors, once they seek to impose themselves, can become fascist. This is why you have red fascists, and blue fascists,…
May 26, 2014
Who are all these people who are so easily charmed by the promise of security? Are you all cowards? Is that it? How does the notion of security grip you so tightly? And yet, in other times, you post…
March 22, 2014
Being held by armed men - in most cases, that would be the police or the military - is something anybody who's never been arrested or tried for a crime can't ever quite understand. In my case, I…
March 14, 2014
I am generally quite aware of what I'm saying, and I work hard on maintaining what I refer to as the integrity of my internal monologue. If I do things that contradict what I say, then I tend to work…
February 19, 2014
We talk about losing faith in humanity because we see and do terrible things. But think of what that means. What are we comparing humanity to in order to be disappointed? Are we comparing it to the…
February 17, 2014
It's a little worrying that people are now identifying themselves as 'empaths,' and, of course, that label, once unleashed, attracts people who think of themselves as good people, people with a…
February 11, 2014
I love it when people do good things. I hate it when they tell everybody about it. Suddenly, the act is not so good anymore, not so noble, not so altruistic. The telling of it pollutes it, renders it…
October 15, 2013
So this man works at some office job all day, enduring an asshole of a boss, and then he gets off work, barely eats a snack, and then drives a cab all night. And he's doing this every day, just to…