• A couple of questions about abortion

    A friend and his son asked me for my opinion on a couple of questions about abortion, and they made me think. So here is the result, FWIW. Maybe it will spark some thinking from someone else that will correct mine.

  • the particle menagerie — and why

    This, from this morning’s Schwartzreport (which I and others were glad to see return after Stephan’s vacation), strikes me as another report from fantasyland, comparable to politics. What I know about particle physics, you can put in your hat and still have plenty of room for your head, but all this searching for particles seems…

  • Hemingway in the afterlife

    July 2 is the 51st anniversary of the day that Ernest Hemingway — old, sick, a shadow of his former self, his memories and his ability to write destroyed by electroshock “treatments” — shot himself to death. When I first made nonphysical contact with him, half a dozen years ago, I half-expected to find him…

  • Ventura column – Accidents of Birth and Rebirth

    MICHAEL VENTURA LETTERS AT 3AM – ACCIDENTS OF BIRTH AND REBIrTH Austin Chronicle – July 13, 2012   Whenever I bitch about the evils of my era, I take a moment to remind myself that no other era would have me. Had my birth occurred a few years earlier, my mother almost certainly would have…

  • Hemingway book back cover copy

    In case you’ve been wondering why I haven’t been posting much lately, I’m writing another novel, and taking time out from time to time to do things like approve the publisher’s back cover copy for the forthcoming Hemingway on Hemingway: Afterlife Conversations.  Here’s the back cover copy in final form. Consider this a sneak preview.…

  • Michael Ventura on the great disconnect

    As usual, it is a case of “argue if you can.” I’d like to see you try! MICHAEL VENTURA LETTERS AT 3AM – A JOG IN THE SMOG Austin Chronicle – August 10, 2012    In Austin, you see them on West Cesar Chavez Street near the river, on Exposition Boulevard, on Windsor Road between…

  • Hemingway book retitled

    I had to retitle the forthcoming Hemingway book, because my publisher was afraid we might be sued — publishers are always afraid of being sued, and for good reason, this society being what it is. The potential grounds were that people might read the title Hemingway on Hemingway as being a collection of quotations —…

  • Scientists are mixing human and animal forms

    The situation with what is called “science” but is actually technology (and sometimes technology-worship) is about as bad as it can get. The “science” establishment in our society has more or less the power, influence, prestige and access to resources that the Church had at the time of the renaissance. Where is the Luther that…

  • the reality behind the words

    Political theater is so threadbare today that it shouldn’t be able to fool anyone, yet it contues to do so. Nice to see Michael Ventura’s analysis cut through the drama to show the reality. Intriguing final paragraph. MICHAEL VENTURA LETTERS AT 3AM – THE SYSTEM AIN’T THE SYSTEM Austin Chronicle – August 31, 2012  …

  • Afterlife Conversations with Hemingway

    Afterlife Conversations with Hemingway: A Dialogue on His Life, His Work, and the Myth, is my seventh published book, my fifth non-fiction, and in some ways the one I’m closest to. I just got my author’s copies yesterday. You can buy copies directly from the distributor, Square One Books, or you can order from Amazon,…