obituary

Diamonds for the Antichrist

This is the exposé I wrote for The Guardian that killed off “Reverend” Pat Robertson’s billion-dollar financial scams parading under the banner of The Christian Coalition. Note: The juiciest parts I got from Robertson himself, recorded on a miniature reel-to-reel tape recorder hidden inside a fake cigarette lighter. No-one asked why I had a cigarette lighter—but no […]

Raising the Price: Martin Amis and the Post-9/11 Cataclysm

The death of novelist and essayist Martin Amis on 19 May triggered a ‘mainstream’ wave, not just of admiration, but of adoration. It is clear from the obituaries that Amis died with his reputation intact and untarnished. In tweeting a link to his obituary for the Guardian, the Independent’s former literary editor Boyd Tonkin captured […]

Vivienne Westwood: Activism and the Godmother of Punk

There was the punk scene, Malcolm McLaren, their racy clothes shop at 430 King’s Road that started out as Let it Rock, the creation of a look, and the gathering of the earth rumbling Sex Pistols. In fact, the late Dame Vivienne Westwood was already a proven stirrer, suggesting that she, not Sex Pistols frontman […]
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Modern Prophet in the Age of US Empire: A Tribute to David Ray Griffin

I close with the observation that, insofar as Americans participate in this anti-imperialist movement, their activities will be deeply patriotic, because they will be seeking to call our nation back to its moral ideals, which stand diametrically opposed to the values implicit in the global domination project. – David Ray Griffin1 LISTEN TO THE SHOW Near […]

Give Me that Flipper Shane

For more terrestrially grounded people, writing about cricket can be seen as an exercise in distant planetary speculation.  The Nobel laureate Harold Pinter did not think so, calling this old English game “the greatest thing that God ever created on earth.”  Others might disagree with mild disgust, finding it archaic, jargon heavy and slow. In […]
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Archbishop Desmond Tutu (1931-2021) on Apartheid, War, Palestine, Guantánamo, Climate Crisis & More

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the South African anti-apartheid icon, has died at the age of 90. In 1984 Desmond Tutu won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work fighting to end white minority rule in South Africa. After the fall of apartheid, Archbishop Tutu chaired the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, where he pushed for […]

FW de Klerk: A Negotiator before Defeat

Rarely is the pragmatist admired.  Be it in policy or politics, such a figure induces suspicion, a concern that principles will have to be subordinated to broader goals.  True dreamers and visionaries, for all their glaring faults, can take the accolades; the pragmatists can be given lower pegging. These differences have proven stark with the […]
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