Wars
of the Laptop Bombers
Today's
Stories
February 12
/ 13, 2005
John Feffer
Bush
v. N. Korea: Round Two
February 11,
20055
Manuel Garcia,
Jr
The
Eight Percent War
Kurt Nimmo
Ann
Coulter's Racism: Where's Geronimo When You Really Need
Him?
Dave Lindorff
Guckert
or Gannon? The Perfect Plant; He Fit Right In
Larry Birns
War is Peace; Slavery is Freedom: Democracy According to Elliott
Abrams
Bill Quigley
Twenty Questions: a Social Justice Quiz
Tom Barry
Bush's State of Delusion
Jennifer Van
Bergen
Lynne
Stewart's Conviction Hurts Us All
February 10,
2005
Dave Lindorff
What
Academic Freedom?
Christopher Brauchli
The Love of Slaughter: From Rwanda to Iraq
Patrick Cockburn
In Baghdad, It's Easy to Get Killed
Nicole Colson
Have the Democrats Surrendered on Abortion Rights?
Suzan Mazur
More
on the Assassination of Lumumba from Mr. Garsin of Kinshasha
Michael Donnelly
Salvaging an Opposition
Mike Stark
Driving Ossie Davis: "Give Them a Little Truth, a Little
Hope"
Greg Moses
Taking
Jesus Back from the Hijackers
Website of
the Day
The Missionary Positions
February 9,
2005
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Duck
and Cover Redux: Bunker Busters and City Levellers
Mickey Z.
What Ward Churchill Didn't Say
John Ross
Hecho
en Mexico: the Iraqi Election
Tom Barry
Ambassador of Lies: Elliott Abrams, the Neocon's Neocon
Conn Hallinan
The
Coup in Nepal: Nursing the Pinion
Patrick Cockburn
Sistani's Vision for Iraq: Cricket is Fine, But Chess is "Absolutely
Forbidden"
Steen Sohn
Danish PM Says It's OK for Israel to Violate UN Resolutions
Tim Wise
Reflections on Empire and Uppity Indians
Website of
the Day
Support Antiwar.com
February 8,
2005
Patrick Cockburn
Shia/Kurd
Coalition to Dominate New Iraqi Govt.: "It's an Electoral
Pact, Not a Party"
Brian Cloughley
Out
of the Mouths of Generals: "It's Fun to Shoot Some People"
Steve Breyman
Against the Selfishness of the "Ownership Society"
Harry Browne
"Don't
Get on that Plane!": Soldiers Seek Asylum in Ireland
Doug Giebel
"We Love Free Speech in America": the People, the President
and Ward Churchill
Nate Collins
The Censorship of Ward Churchill and Dancehall Reggae: It's the
Same Beast
Dave Lindorff
It's Time for a Labor-Oriented Newspaper
David Smith-Ferri
Sanctions and the Health Crisis in Iraq
February 7,
2005
Paul Craig
Roberts
Bush's
War on Jobs
Carolyn Baker
The New McCarthyism on Campus: Churchill and the Attack on Higher
Ed
Joshua Frank
Marc Cooper's Hit List: First Mumia; Now Ward Churchill
Mickey Z.
Warning: More Hate Speech from W. Churchill
Patrick Cockburn
The
Kidnapping Gangs of Iraq
Mike Whitney
Tom Friedman: Scribe for New Age Imperialism
Stacie Jonas
Pinochet: Fit to be Tried
Dave Zirin
A Miserable Super Sunday: Clinton, Bush and the FBI
Tariq Ali
Imperial
Delusions
February 5
/ 6, 2005
Alexander Cockburn
Ward
Churchill and the Mad Dogs
Kurt Nimmo
A Ward Churchill Kind of Day
Joshua Frank
Liberals Trash Ward Churchill
P. Sainath
Mumbai's Man-Made Tsunami
Patrick Cockburn
Sistani's Triumph; Allawi's Bust
Laura Carlsen
Bush, Rice and Latin America
Dave Lindorff
How the NYT Killed the Bush Bulge Story
Pamela Olson
West Bank Story
Behzad Yaghmaian
The Future of Sudanese Refugees in the West
Saul Landau / Farrah Hassen
A Threatened UN in King George's Court
Roger Burbach
World Social Forum: a Tale of Two Presidents
Robert Fisk
History by Laptop
David Swanson
James Forman and the Liberal-Labor Syndrome
Justin E.H. Smith
Gay Marriage: a Report from Canada
Cacie Hart
The "State" of the Union: More War and a Ban on Love
Ron Jacobs
Chairman Bob Avakian: a Revolutionary Life
Mickey Z.
Viewing America from the Outside
Ben Tripp
Republican Heroes: a New Breed of Good Guy
Ben Sonnenberg
France at the End of the Devil's Decade: Renoir's Rules of the
Game
Poets' Basement
Smith-Ferri, Davies, Collins, & Albert
Website of
the Weekend
John Trudell: How to Earn a 17,000 Page FBI File
February 4,
2005
Brian Cloughley
The
Army Symphonist: "Sometimes the Only Way to Change the Behavior
of Someone Like That is to Kill Them"
Bill Christison
Election
Parallels: Vietnam, 1967; Iraq, 2005
Elaine Cassel
Did Zoloft Make Him Do It?
Jacob Levich
Chomsky and the Draft
Kanak Mani Dixit
Return of the Royalists in Nepal
Ron Jacobs
The
Downward Spiral in Iraq
February 3,
2005
Ward Churchill
On
the Injustice of Getting Smeared: a Campaign of Fabrications
and Gross Distortions
Sharon Smith
Resisting
Soldiers Need Our Support
Mickey Z.
Leslie
Gelb Asks Iraq: Who's Your Daddy?
Mike Whitney
President of Alienation: a Desperate State of the Union
Jenna Orkin
9/11 the Sequel: the Toxic State of Lower Manhattan
Saul Landau
Elections Won't Prevent Civil War in Iraq
Yitzhak Laor
Strange is the Silence
Dave Lindorff
The
Assault on Social Security: a New Campaign of Lies
February 2,
2005
David Domke
/ Kevin Coe
Bush's
Brand of Christianity
Noam Chomsky
Iraq
After the Elections
M. Shahid Alam
O'Reilly's
Fatwah on "Un-American" Professors: FoxNews Puts Me
in Its Crosshairs
Richard Oxman
Ringing in 1984 with Ward Churchill and Derrick Jensen
Joshua Frank
The Suckering of Howard Dean
Dave Lindorff
A History Lesson from the NYT
Nina Hartley
Feminists for Porn
Website of the Day
War is a Racket
February 1,
2005
Joshua L. Dratel
The
Torture Memos
Patrick Cockburn
New Doubts About Allawi
Robert Fisk
"The Only Decent Food We Get is at Funerals"
Uri Avnery
The Stalemate
Col. Dan Smith
"W" Stands for Withdrawal
Alison Weir
Making America as "Secure" as Israel
Alan Farago
Heaven and Hell in the Everglades
Ray Hanania
Low Voter Turnout of Iraqi Expatriates: Less Than 10% of Qualified
Voters
Paul Craig
Roberts
American
Police State
Website of the Day
Statisticians Refute Official Rationale for Exit Poll Errors
January 31,
2005
Dave Zirin
Mr.
Frank's Fatwah: New Republic Writer Calls for Death & Torture
of Arundhati Roy and Stan Goff
Robert Fisk
Amid
Tragedy, Defiance
Chyng Sun
Gonzales: Chief Prosecutor of Porn?
Greg Moses
The Real Scandals of the Texas Election
Mike Whitney
Cheney at Auschwitz
Ali Tonak
Turkey and the EU: Fantasies and Ultimatums
Patrick Cockburn
A
Victory for the Shia
Website of
the Day
Voting by the Script: Where Did the 8 Million Voter Turnout Figure
Come From?
January 29
/ 30, 2005
Manuel Yang
/ Peter Linebaugh
A
Dialogue About Murder in Toledo
Gabriel Kolko
Wilsonian
and Neoconservative Myths
Patrick Cockburn
Baghdad: City of Empty Streets
Robert Fisk
This Election Will Change the World, But Not as the US Wanted
Linn Washington,
Jr.
Con Job: Bush Pledges on Racism Lack Realism
Bernard Chazelle
Why the Children of Iraq Make No Sound When They Fall
Gary Leupp
"This Kind of Subject Matter": Bush's New Ed Secretary
vs. Vermont's Lesbians
JoAnn Wypijewski
The Passion of Paul Shanley
Alexander Cockburn
The Case of Father Jerry
Ron Jacobs
Ballot of the Puppets in Iraq
Brian Cloughley
Smart Bombs; Wrong House: Iraq's Civilian Dead
Fred Gardner
Peron May Split
Sister Dianna
Ortiz
Memo to Bush from a Survivor of the Guatemalan Torturers: Stop
the Torture!
Tom Reeves
How Bush Brings Freedom to the World: the Case of Haiti
Fran Quigley
Report: Haiti Now "More Violent and More Inhuman"
Suzan Mazur
"Mr. Garsin from Kinshasa": an Old Hand Weighs In on
the Murder of Lumumba
Kurt Nimmo
Condi Rice and the Neocon Plan for the Palestinians
Lenni Brenner
Holocaust History: Beyond the UN's Rhetoric
Gilad Atzmon
The
Politics of Auschwitz
Luis Gomez
Power and Autonomy in Bolivia
Mark Gaffney
NASA Searches for a Snowball in Hell: Why Velikovsky Matters
Ben Tripp
Lament of the Mnemonopath
Richard Oxman
Meet the Fuqers
Poets' Basement
Louise, Collins, Shanahan and Albert
Website of
the Weekend
Chemical Industry: Deceit and Denial
January 28,
2005
Rachard Itani
Tsunami
Aid By the Numbers: the US Really is a Miser
Jensen / Youngblood
Iraq's
Non-Election
Patrick Cockburn / Elizabeth
Davies
Attacks on Polling Places Leave 13 Dead
Dave Zirin
The Great Donovan McNabb: Proud "Black Quarterback"
Dave Lindorff
Suicide by State Execution?
Karyn Strickler
A Corporate Death Penalty Act?
Jorge Mariscal
Fighting
the Poverty Draft
January 27,
2005
Seymour Hersh
We've
Been Taken Over By a Cult
Cockburn /
Sengupta
The
US's Bloodiest Day in Iraq
Dave Lindorff
Juke Box Journalism: Shilling for Bush
Ignacio Chapela
/ John F. García
The Laws of Nature
Mike Whitney
The Widening Chasm Among Conservatives
Dr. Teresa
Whitehurst
Those Liberal Southern Baptists!
Ray McGovern
Reining In Cheney
Russ Wellen
Marginalizing Bin Laden
Christopher
Brauchli
The
FBI's Carnival of Errors
Website of
the Day
Informed Eating
January 26,
2005
Saree Makdisi
An
Iron Wall of Colonization: Fantasies and Realities About the
Prospects for Middle East Peace
Scott Fleming
In Good Conscience: an Interview with Concientious Objector Aidan
Delgado
Dave Lindorff
Filling Saddam's Shoes: the Puppet Regime Return's to Torture
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Salazar and Obama: Two Dismal Debuts
Toni Solo
The
US and Latin America: a Not-So-Magical Reality
William James Martin
Condoleezza Rice: Confused About the Middle East
William A.
Cook
Bush's Second Inaugural Address: the Lost Ur-Version
Eric Hobsbawm
Delusions
About Democracy
Alexander Cockburn
The CIA's New Campus Spies
January 25,
2005
Brian Cloughley
Iraq
as Disneyland
Mike Roselle
Satan is My Co-Pilot
Josh Frank
/ Merlin Chowkwanyun
The War on Civil Liberties
John Chuckman
Freedom on Steroids
Paul Craig
Roberts
A
Party Without Virtue
Dr. Teresa
Whitehurst
The
Intolerance of Christian Conservatives
James Petras
The
US / Colombia Plot Against Venezuela
Website of the Day
Lowbaggers for the Environment
January 24,
2005
Fred Gardner
Last
Monologue in Burbank
Lori Berenson
On the Politicization of My Case
Uri Avnery
King
George
January 22
/ 23, 2005
Jennifer Van
Bergen / Ray Del Papa
Nuclear
Incident in Montana
Alexander Cockburn
Prince
Harry's Travails
Jeffrey St. Clair
The Company That Runs the Empire: Lockheed and Loaded
Stan Goff
The Spectacle
Saul Landau
Nothing Succeeds Like Failure
Gary Leupp
Official Madness and the Coming War on Iran
Fred Gardner
Is GW Getting the Runaround?
Phil Gasper
Clemency Denied: the Politics of Death in California
Stanley Heller
A Kill-Happy Government: Connecticut Chooses Death
Greg Moses
The Heart of Texas: an Inauguration Day Betrayal on Civil Rights
Justin Taylor
The Folk-Histories of John Ross
Daniel Burton-Rose
One China; Many Problems
Elaine Cassel
Try a Little Tyranny: Questions While Watching the Inaugural
Mike Whitney
Failing Upwards: the Rise of Michael Chertoff
Mark L. Berenson
My Daughter Has Been Wrongly Imprisoned
Christopher
Brauchli
It Doesn't Compute: a $170 Million Mistake
Gilad Atzmon
Zionism and Other Marginal Thoughts
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Day of the Rats
Mark Donham
The Secret Messages of Rahm Emmanuel
Ben Tripp
Adventures in Online Dating
Walter Brasch
Hollywood's Patriots: Soulless Kooks, Mr. Bush?
Poets' Basement
Wuest, Landau, Ford, Albert & Drum
January 21,
2005
Dave Lindorff
A
Great American Journalist:
John L. Hess (1917-2005)
Sharon Smith
The
Anti-War Movement and the Iraqi Resistance
Don Santina
Baseball, Racism and Steroid Hysteria
Ron Jacobs
Locked Out and Pissed Off: Protesting the Bush Inauguration
Kurt Nimmo
The Problem with Mike Ruppert
Don Monkerud
Once They Were Cults: Bush's Faith-Based Social Services
Alan Farago
Swimming Home from the Galapagos
Derek Seidman
An
Interview with Army Medic and Anti-War Activist Patrick Resta
January 20,
2005
Paul Craig
Roberts
Dying
for Sycophants
William Cook
The
Bush Inauguration: A Mock Epic Fertility Rite
Joshua Frank
The Democrats and Iran: Look Who's Backing Bush's Next
Eric Ruder
Why Andres Raya Snapped: Another Casualty of Bush's War
Mike Whitney
Coronation in a Garrison State
Robert Jensen
A Citizens Oath of Office
Peter Rost
Bush Report on Drug Imports: Good Data, Bad Conclusions
David Underhill
Is It Torture Yet?: the Eclectic Fool Aid Torture Test
James Reiss
Adieu, Colin Powell: Pea Soup in Foggy Bottom
CounterPunch
Staff
Voices
from Abu Ghraib: the Injured Party
January 19,
2005
Marta Russell
Social
Security Privatization & Disability: 8 Million at Risk
Mike Ferner
Marines
Stretching Movement: Protesting Urban Warfare in Toledo
Nancy Oden
The
Nuremberg Principles, Iraq and Torture
Tony Paterson
A Catalogue of British Abuses in Iraq
Dave Lindorff
Bush's Divide-and-Conquer Plan to Destroy Social Security
Doug Giebel
BS and CBS: When 60 Minutes Helped Promote WMD Fantasies
Alexander Cockburn
Will
Bush Quit Iraq?
January 18,
2005
Paul Craig
Roberts
How
Americans Were Seduced by War: Empire and Militant Christianity
Jennifer Van
Bergen
Federal
Judge: Abu Ghraib Abuses Result of Decision to Ignore Geneva
Conventions
Douglas Lummis
It's a No Brainer; Send Graner: a Rap for Our Time
Ron Jacobs
Syria Back in the Crosshairs?
Seth DeLong
Enter the Dragon: Will Washington Tolerate a Venezuelan-Chinese
Oil Pact?
Lance Selfa
Stolen Election?: Most Democrats Didn't Even Bother to Inquire
Paul D. Johnson
Mystery Meat: a Right-to-Know About Food Origins
Elisa Salasin
An Open Letter to Jenna Bush, Future Teacher
January 17,
2005
Heather Gray
Misconceptions
About King's Methods for Social Change
Robert Fisk
Hotel Room Journalism: the US Press in Iraq
Dave Lindorff
What the NYT Death Chart Omitted: Civilians Slaughtered by US
Military
Jason Leopold
Sam Bodman's Smokestacks: Bush's Choice for Energy Czar is One
of Texas's Worst Polluters
Gary Leupp
A Message from the Iraqi Resistance
Douglas Valentine
An Act of State? the Execution of Martin Luther King
Harvey Arden
Welcome to Leavenworth: My First Encounter with Leonard Peltier
Greg Moses
King
and the Christian Left: Where Lip Service is Not an Option
January 15
/ 16, 2005
James Petras
The
Kidnapping of a Revolutionary
Robert Fisk
Flying Carpet Airlines: My Return to Baghdad
Ron Jacobs
Unfit for Military Service
Brian Cloughley
Smack Daddies of the Hindu Kush: Afghanistan's Drug Bonanza
Fred Gardner
The Allowable-Quantity Expert
Dr. Susan Block
The Counter-Inaugural Ball: Eros Day, 2005
John Ross
Zapatista Literary Llife
Suzan Mazur
Unspooking Frank Carlucci
M. Shahid Alam
America's New Civilizing Mission
Frederick B. Hudson
Jack Johnson's Real Opponent: "That I Was a Man"
Mike Whitney
Bush's Grand Plan: Incite Civil War in Iraq
Tom Crumpacker
A Constitutional Right to Travel to Cuba
Bob Burton
The Other Armstrong Williams Scandal
John Callender
La Conchita and the Indomitable 82-Year Old
Lila Rajiva
Christian Zionism
Saul Landau
An Imperial Portrait: a Visit to Hearst's Castle
Doug Soderstrom
A Touch of Evil: the Morality of Neoconservatism
Poets' Basement
Davies, Louise, Landau, Albert, Collins and Laymon
January 14,
2005
Robert Fisk
"The
Tent of Occupation"
Lee Sustar
Bush's Social Security Con Job
José
M. Tirado
The Christians I Know
Dave Zirin
The Legacy of Jack Johnson
Sheldon Rampton
Calling John Rendon: a True Tale of "Military Intelligence"
Tracy McLellan
Under the Influence
Yves Engler
The Dictatorship of Debt: the World Bank and Haiti
Tom Barry
Robert
Zoellick: a Bush Family Man
Website of
the Day
Ryan for the Nobel Prize?
January 13,
2005
Mark Chmiel
/ Andrew Wimmer
Hearts
and Minds, Revisited
Joe DeRaymond
The Salvador Option: Terror,
Elections and Democracy
Greg Moses
Every Hero a Killer?...Not
Dave Lindorff
The Great WMD Fraud: Time for an Accounting
Jorge Mariscal
Dr. Galarza v. Alberto Gonzales: Which Way for Latinos?
Christopher Brauchli
Gonzales and the Death Penalty: the Executioner Never Sleeps
Gary Leupp
"Fighting
for the Work of the Lord": Christian Fascism in America
January 12,
2005
Robert Fisk
Fear
Stalks Baghdad
Josh Frank
The
Farce of the DNC Contest
Jack Random
Casualties
of War: the Untold Stories
John Roosa
Aceh's Dual Disasters: the Tsunami and Military Rule
Carol Norris
In the Wake of the Tsunami
Mike Whitney
Pink Slips at CBS
Alan Farago
Can
the Everglades be Saved?
Paul Craig
Roberts
What's
Our Biggest Problem in Iraq...the Insurgency or Bush?
January 11,
2005
Tom Barry
The
US isn't "Stingy"; It's Strategic: Aid as a Weapon
of Foreign Policy
James Hodge
and Linda Cooper
Voice
of the Voiceless: Father Roy Bourgeois and the School of the
the Americas
Linda S. Heard
Farah Radio Break Down: Joseph Farah's Messages of Hate and Homophobia
Derrick O'Keefe
Electoral Gigolo?: Richard Gere and the Occupied Vote
Gila Svirsky
A Tale of Two Elections
Harry Browne
Irish
"Peace Process", RIP
January 10,
2005
Ramzy Baroud
Faith-Based
Disasters: Tsunami Aid and War Costs
Talli Nauman
Killing
Journalists: Mexico's War on a Free Press
Uri Avnery
Sharon's Monologue
Dave Lindorff
Tucker
Carlson's Idiot Wind
Dave Zirin
Randy
Moss's Moondance
Dave Silver
Left Illusions About the Democratic Party
Charles Demers
Plan Salvador for Iraq: Death Squads Come in Waves
William A.
Cook
Causes
and Consequences: Bush, Osama and Israel
January 8 /
9, 2005
Alexander Cockburn
Say,
Waiter, Where's the Blood in My Margarita Glass?
John H. Summers
Chomsky
and Academic History
Greg Moses
Getting Real About the Draft
Walter A. Davis
Bible Says: the Psychology of Christian Fundamentalism
Victor Kattan
The EU and Middle East Peace
John Bolender
The Plight of Iraq's Mandeans
Robert Fisk
The Politics of Lebanon
Fred Gardner
Situation NORML
Joe Bageant
The Politics of the Comfort Zone
Mickey Z.
I Want My DDT: Little Nicky Kristof Bugs Out
Ben Tripp
CounterClockwise Evolution
Ron Jacobs
Elvis and His Truck: Out on Highway 61
Saul Landau
Sex
and the Country
Rep. Cynthia McKinney
Time to End the Blackout
Ellen Cantarow
NPR's Distortions on Palestine
Richard Oxman
Bageantry Continued
Poets' Basement
Gaffney, Landau, Albert, Collins
January 7,
2005
Omar Barghouti
Slave
Sovereignty: Elections Under Occupation
Kent Paterson
The Framing of Felipe Arreaga: Another Mexican Environmentalist
Arrested
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Old
Vijay Merchant and the Tsunami
David Krieger
Cancel the Inauguration Parties
Gideon Levy
New Year, Old Story
Dave Lindorff
Ohio Protest: First Shot Fired by Congressional Progressives
Christopher
Brauchli
Privatizing the IRS
Roger Burbach
/ Paul Cantor
Bush,
the Pentagon and the Tsunami
January 6,
2005
Brian J. Foley
Gonzales:
Supporting Torture is not His Greatest Sin
Greg Moses
Boot
Up America!: Gen. Helmly's Memo Leaks New Bush Deal
Petras / Chomsky
An
Open Letter to Hugo Chavez
Alan Maass
The Decline of the Dollar
Dave Lindorff
Colin Powell's Selective Sense of Horror
Jenna Orkin
The EPA and a Dirty Bomb: 9/11's Disastrous Precedent
P. Sainath
The
Tsunami and India's Coastal Poor
January 5,
2005
Alan Farago
2004:
An Environmental Retrospective
Winslow T.
Wheeler
Oversight
Detected?: Sen. McCain and the Boeing Tanker Scam
Jean-Guy Allard
Gary Webb: a Cuban Perspective
Fred Gardner
Strutting, Smirking, As If The Mad Plan Was Working
David Swanson
Albert Parsons on the Gallows
Richard Oxman
The Joe Bageant Interview
Bruce Jackson
Death
on the Living Room Floor
January 4,
2005
Michael Ortiz
Hill
Mainlining
Apocalypse
Elaine Cassel
They
Say They Can Lock You Up for Life Without a Trial
Yoram Gat
The
Year in Torture
Martin Khor
Tragic
Tales and Urgent Tasks from the Tsunami Disaster
Gary Leupp
Death
and Life in the Andaman Islands
January 3,
2005
Ron Jacobs
The
War Hits Home
Dave Lindorff
Is
There a Single Senator Who Will Stand Up for Black Voters?
Mike Whitney
The Guantanamo Gulag
Joshua Frank
Greens and Republicans: Strange Bedfellows
Maria Tomchick
Playing Politics with Disaster Aid
Rhoda and Mark
Berenson
Our Daughter Lori: Another Year of Grave Injustice
David Swanson
The Media and the Ohio Recount
Kathleen Christison
Patronizing
the Palestinians
January 1 /
2, 2005
Gary Leupp
Earthquakes
and End Times, Past and Present
Rev. William
E. Alberts
On "Moral Values": Code Words for Emerging Authoritarian
Tendencies
M. Shahid Alam
Testing Free Speech in America
Stan Goff
A Period for Pedagogy
Brian Cloughley
Bush and the Tsunami: the Petty and the Petulant
Sylvia Tiwon
/ Ben Terrall
The Aftermath in Aceh
Ben Tripp
Requiem for 2004
Greg Moses
A Visible Future?
Steven Sherman
The 2004 Said Awards: Books Against Empire
Sean Donahue
The Erotics of Nonviolence
James T. Phillips
The Beast's Belly
David Krieger
When Will We Ever Learn
Poets' Basement
Soderstrom, Hamod, Louise and Albert
December 23,
2004
Chad Nagle
Report
from Kiev: Yushchenko's Not Quite Ready for Sainthood
David Smith-Ferri
The
Real UN Disgrace in Iraq
Bill Quigley
Death
Watch for Human Rights in Haiti
Mickey Z.
Crumbs
from Our Table
Christopher Brauchli
Merck's Merry X-mas
Greg Moses
When
No Law Means No Law
Alan Singer
An
Encounter with Sen. Schumer: a Very Dangerous Democrat
David Price
Social
Security Pump and Dump
Website of the Day
Gabbo Gets Laid
December 22,
2004
James Petras
An
Open Letter to Saramago: Nobel Laureate Suffers from a Bizarre
Historical Amnesia
Omar Barghouti
The Case for Boycotting Israel
Patrick Cockburn / Jeremy Redmond
They Were Waiting on Chicken Tenders When the Rounds Hit
Harry Browne
Northern Ireland: No Postcards from the Edge
Richard Oxman
On the Seventh Column
Kathleen Christison
Imagining
Palestine
Website of the Day
FBI Torture Memos
December 21,
2004
Greg Moses
The
New Zeus on the Block: Unplugging Al-Manar TV
Dave Lindorff
Losing
It in America: Bunker of the Skittish
Chad Nagle
The View from Donetsk
Dragon Pierces
Truth*
Concrete
Colossus vs. the River Dragon: Dislocation and Three Gorges Dam
Patrick Cockburn
"Things Always Get Worse"
Seth DeLong
Aiding Oppression in Haiti
Ahmad Faruqui
Pakistan and the 9/11 Commission's Report
Paul Craig
Roberts
America
Locked Up: a System of Injustice
Hot Stories
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante
Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click
Here for More Stories.
|
Weekend Edition
February 12 / 13, 2005
A Valentine's Greeting
Chemistry
of Love
By
Dr. SUSAN BLOCK
It's Hearts 'n' Flowers Time again,
or maybe it's Panties 'n' Dildos time for you. Whatever your
fancy or fetish, even if you manage to somehow steer clear of
love and sex the rest of the year, it's futile to resist that
itching in your heart, that longing in your loins around Valentine's
Day.
If love and sexuality are important
to you, as they are to me, then Valentine's Day is almost a religious
holiday, a time to stimulate your lover(s), celebrate your love
or, at least, masturbate yourself. If you love love, you've just
got to make love to someone you love on Valentine's Day, even
if that someone is you. That's right. Better to make good clean
love to yourself than feel sorry for yourself or make bad love
to someone you really don't love.
Still, loving someone besides
yourself is one of the great delicious challenges and blessings
of life. But don't panic, there's still time. Even if, as you're
reading this, it's too late for Valentine's Day, it's never too
late for nookie, and it's never too late for love.
"The spiritualization
of sexuality is called love," said Nietzche in The Twilight
of the Idols, "It is a great triumph over Christianity."
Not to mention every other organized religion.
Sex is my obsession. Love is
my religion. Sometimes I'm not sure if I believe in God. But
I always believe in Love. I know love exists, because I can see
it in my lover's eyes, I can hear it in his voice, I can feel
it in his arms, I can smell it on the back of his neck, and I
can taste love in his kiss. I love the physicality of love; it
gives me faith, breaks down the agnostic in me, and makes of
me, against all odds, a true believer.
But my belief in love goes
beyond the physical. I believe the more love there is in the
world, the less violence. And I'm not just talking here about
love of humankind. That's a wonderful, very important kind of
"altruistic" love, but it can only go so far because
it's not passionate (and who the hell wants to go to bed with
all of humankind anyway?). Violence is passionate. It can only
be defeated by an equally passionate, powerful force like romantic
erotic love. Duke Ellington said it best: "Love is supreme
and unconditional. Like is nice but limited."
But how can we make love
last? That is the question,
and the answer lies in the story of our lives on earth, and the
chemistry of our feelings...
In the beginning, there is
love. A hot and steaming love supreme that can heal our wounds,
open our eyes, shake up our governments, give us more zing than
a case of Red Bull and make us hap-hap-happier than we ever imagined
possible.
And it's real. As scientifically
real as the chemical changes it unleashes within our bodies.
But alas, it is not eternal. Nor is it exclusive.
Just look at nature: exclusivity
in love is rare as an endangered species. The Nile crocodile,
the American toad, the wood roach, the klipspringer, the siamang,
the reedbuck, some beetles, most birds, muskrats, some bats,
beavers, deer mice, a few monkeys, some wild dogs, and the ironically
named dik-dik are monogamous creatures. At least, they're into
serial monogamy. But that's about it.
Monogamy is not the norm in
nature, since it's not normally to a male's genetic advantage
to stay with one female when he can get it on with several and
recycle more of his genes. For females, monogamy isn't natural
either. Despite the old saying, Hoggamus higgamus, man is
polygamous. Higgamus hoggamus, woman's monogamous,
studies show that human females aren't much more faithful than
males, even though almost all societies punish women for cheating
far, far more than men.
Hoggamus, hiscuous, nature's
promiscuous. From nature's
viewpoint, romantic love merely serves an evolutionary purpose
for both sexes: to make us so HOT for each other that we reproduce.
Otherwise, considering the high cost of child care, we very well
might not. We fall in and out of love so we'll mix up our genes
(I call it "Integration through Intercourse"), increasing
their odds of "winning" the human race, genetically
speaking, if not environmentally.
Never mind that society values
long-term monogamy. Nature isn't so pious. Anthropologists tell
us that nature only provides for us to feel "in love"
for a few months, or at most a few years, enough time to rear
a child through babyhood, somewhere between the three-year tingle
and the seven-year itch. At this point, theoretically, the kid
is brought up by the "village," tribe or school system,
leaving the parents relatively free to fall in love with someone
else and start the process again. In modern terms, you could
say that's when Junior goes off to kindergarten, and Mummy and
Dadda go off and have affairs.
It all seems like a nasty trick
that Mother Nature is playing on those of us who'd like to make
love last. Especially around Valentine's Day. And there's only
one solution. If you want to make love last, you just have to
trick nature.
Trick nature? You can't fool
Mother Nature, can you? Don't be intimidated by Her PR. You can
fool Her. At least sometimes. And "sometimes" might
be all you need to keep love hot through Ice Ages of mortgages,
meetings, seductive strangers, dirty diapers, soul-consuming
children, depressing political situations, personal tragedies
and platinum anniversaries.
The trick is to crack the Chemical
Code of Love. It all comes down to chemistry--literally. Falling
in love floods your bloodstream with a fricassee of powerful
chemicals: dopamine, norepinephrine, phenylethylamine (PEA) and
other natural cousins of amphetamines, stimulants and painkillers.
Yes, falling in love is like
being on drugs. Hard drugs. It's a natural high far finer and
smoother than anything you could inject, smoke, snort, drink
or swallow. Of course, love isn't something you can pick up at
the pharmacy or even on the black market. It strikes you like
a mystical gift from God, or a practical joke from tricky, fickle
old Hot Mama Nature. Then it stirs up that euphoric, love-juicy
chemical goo that permeates your cells, creating a place within
you where hormones meet holiness, wildflowers bloom, angels dance,
and the city never sleeps.
To differentiate it from long-term
love, I call this marvelous, giddy, speedy, slightly insane,
falling-in-love feeling "Hot Love." Hot Love
is the supernova of affection, but like the song sings, it's
just too hot not to cool down. After a while, your body builds
up a tolerance to the PEA and other sizzling chemicals. Inevitably,
the feeling fades. And you wonder (as the two of you go to bed
yet again without coupling madly like you used to), where is
the passion? Where has love gone?
It's a sad, sad, universal
story. But don't despair! All is not lost, chemically speaking.
If your relationship continues past the Hot Love stage, another
set of chemicals flows into your bloodstream. These are opiate-like
endorphins and sweet-feeling oxytocin that sensitize your nerves,
stimulate muscle contraction, enhance orgasm and make cuddling
feel absolutely divine. I call this stage "Warm Love,"
as it brings on that nice, warm sense of well-being you get when
you're really comfortable with someone.
The coolest thing about Warm
Love is that, unlike Hot Love, it can last forever. No tricks
necessary. In fact, it's quite habit-forming. That's why breaking
up is so hard to do. Even when you really don't like someone
anymore, and you know you should move on, it often feels like
you "can't." Why? Because you're chemically addicted.
Oxytocin, when it's got you hooked on the wrong partner, can
be tougher to kick than heroin. In fact, the prescription painkiller,
OxyContin, based on somewhat similar ingredients, is considered
one of the most addictive medications on the market.
But if you're with the right
person, the cozy compounds that concoct Warm Love create a "good
addiction," helping to keep you happy together long after
your Hot Love peaks have petered out. Warm Love chemicals aren't
just a high; they're a health benefit, naturally strengthening
your heart and immune system. And yet, without that exhilaratingly
giddy fizz of Hot Love, you may feel you've fallen out of love.
Have you?
Well, yes and no. It's natural
to only feel Hot Love with your partner in the beginning. Then,
if you just go according to Nature's Plan, the relationship evolves
into Warm Love, never to scale the delightfully dizzying summits
of Hot Love again, or at least, not very often. Not that all
of us require multiple helpings of Hot Love throughout life.
But without it-even with plenty of Warm Love-most of us feel
a bit empty and bored. That's why so many people in genuinely
"happy marriages" have affairs, restlessly seeking
that elusive Hot Love fix.
After all, the easiest way
to experience Hot Love is with a new lover. Novelty triggers
PEA like the sun brings out the string bikinis. It may be disturbing,
but it's undeniably true: there is no aphrodisiac like fresh
meat.
But it's also possible to trick those mercurial Hot Love chemicals
into kicking in--if both you and your partner really want
to--by adding new elements to your old relationship.
Of course, you knew that already,
didn't you? Every self-help sexpert and romance hustler tells
you to try new things. But do you actually do it? See, that's
the trick.
Sometimes all it takes is the
simplest novelties: Surprising each other with a sexy (but not
appalling) new look or spending the weekend in a strange (but
not uncomfortable) locale. Yes indeed, these are some of the
oldest tricks in the book because they very often work, literally
tricking your nervous system into reacting as if "Wow! Something
new is happening here! I'm falling in love!" Your chemical
soup is stirred, your heart beats fast and fireworks explode,
all with the same old sweetheart.
There are more exotic ways
to fool Mother Nature into giving you a Hot Love chemical shower.
The following suggestions are easy enough to incorporate into
your relationship. They just require two very valuable commodities:
time and faith. Indeed, like the faith of a religious fundamentalist,
you have to allow yourself to be tricked into believing what
you know to be objectively false, i.e., "My wife of 20 years
is a young, hot hooker" or "My husband is really three
guys and a bi chick, all of whom are after me."
Also, this stuff only works
if you've already shared loads of Hot Love, at least in the beginning
of your relationship. Chemistry can't be conjured from nothing.
So with that caveat, the essential "suspension of disbelief"
and the willingness to put some real quality and quantity
time into this endeavor, let's give these tips a whirl:
1) Sharing Fantasies. Fantasy
creates the feeling of novelty in the erotic theater of your
mind. Cynics have a hard time with this, of course. But even
cynics can be softies if the fantasy is compelling enough. Fantasies
don't have to be completely made up; some of us just don't have
the imagination for it. Sharing memories can be just as good
or better than sharing totally made-up stuff, especially if these
are memories of Hot Love experiences you've had together (your
first kiss, your first sex). You can also share memories mixed
with fantasies. Remember that time you made love on the beach?
Or off that mountain path? Or under a blanket in the first class
cabin of that flight to Paris? That was exciting. Now
what if someone was watching? What if they joined in? Whew, I'm
getting hot already...
2) Role-Playing. Take fantasies
a little farther by dressing up, acting the part, wearing masks,
using props. You might even pretend to meet for the first time,
maybe in a bar. If you play it out and don't giggle too much,
it's amazing how easily your Hot Love button can be pushed even
when you know the sexy stranger with whom you're carrying on
some serious flirtation is really just your familiar old spouse.
3) Make Love First if You Want
to Make Love Last. Make love a top priority--or better yet, THE
top priority--in your lives. If you've got a busy schedule, you
have to schedule sex. Make plans for love, Hot and Warm. But
remember: the best laid plans may not get you laid the way you
planned! Be open to the magical mysteries of surprise.
4) Chemical Combo. Give your
lover a massage to activate Warm Love endorphins as you whisper
fantasies to kindle Hot Love amphetamines. Take a scary roller
coaster ride together to ignite Hot Love, then fall into a soft
Warm Love bed in a strange (but comfy) motel.
5) Try New Sexual Things. Sample
sex toys. Watch porn. Look at erotic art. Or maybe a good horror
movie (fear can be an aphrodisiac). Go to a swing party. You
don't have to really "swing." You can go and just watch,
maintaining your monogamy, while voyeuristically experiencing
the excitement of multiple partners engaging in public sex. Try
feeding each other oysters, damiana, playing bondage games---the
list of potential aphrodisiacs is endless. Some are better than
others, depending on your taste, your values and your mood. Experiment.
That's one way to fire up your PEA Bunsen burner. But keep in
mind that Hot Love chemicals are highly combustible. Things that
ignite them can also elicit feelings of paranoia, anger, jealousy
and embarrassment. Remember, a little bit of fear is like spice
in your enchilada. But too much fear spoils the meat. Don't let
yourself become a Hot Love junkie, oblivious to your partner's
Warm Love needs. Take good care of each other with lots of reassuring
Warm Love when you undertake Hot Love experimentation.
It's not easy to make true
love that lasts more than three or four Valentine's Days. It's
a delicate chemical soufflé. If you can whip it up right,
you'll keep love and sex hot and warm your whole life long. Hey,
it's worked for me for the past 14 years, and I have high hopes
- hell, I have FAITH, Brothers & Sisters, Lovers & Sinners
- that it will keeping working for years to come. But if it
doesn't work for you, if you can't make love last, hey, you're
only human. Forgive yourself. But never give up. Remember the
wise words of that horny old Victorian, William Makepeace Thackeray:
"To love and win is the best thing; to love and lose, the
next best thing."
And if you need a little inspiration
or stimulation, you can come to my Valentine Saturday Night celebration
where we'll have all of the above Hot Love stimulators (except
the roller coaster), and more. Come one, come all, come with
someone you love, even if that someone is you.
Dr. Susan Block is a sex educator, cultural commentator,
host of The Dr. Susan Block Show and author of The 10 Commandments
of Pleasure. Visit her website at http://www.drsusanblock.com
Send all hate mail, love letters,
commentary, questions and confessions to her at liberties@blockbooks.com
|