Bits & Pieces
Articles with unfiltered opinions
Cruel And Unusual Punishment
In January President Obama announced that federal prisons would no longer use solitary confinement to punish juvenile offenders and adults who have committed minor offenses. The practice leads to “devastating, lasting psychological consequences,” declared the President, after a Justice Department study concluded that the practice reduces the chances of successful rehabilitation upon an inmate’s...
Is Mass Media Choosing Our President?
When backing a candidate for high office, whether you’re a Democrat, Republican or third party, it often comes down to a difficult choice: the candidate who most reflects your values and positions or the candidate who stands the best chance of winning. In the long, drawn-out horse race of the modern American Presidential campaign,...
America: The Killing Field
In the last year we have been horrified by an endless stream of mass murders and questionable police shootings, to the point that it’s almost the new normal—tune in for Shooting Tragedy of the Week. While American homicide rates had been falling steadily since the 1990s, the trend is now starting to reverse. The...
The True State of the Union
President Obama is delivering his last State of the Union address this month, signaling the final laps of the long Presidential campaign marathon. It’s been mandatory for all candidates to extol the greatness of America and promise to keep the USA on top of the world. But some statistics belie our extreme patriotism: Out...
Paralysis In Washington
There is no question that Washington, D.C., has become one big dysfunctional family. Rated by legislation passed, the current Congress is on track to be the least productive since World War II. A poll in 2013 judged cockroaches and hemorrhoids more popular than Congress. The partisan gridlock tightens as urgent problems go unaddressed, snowballing...
Alive and Well!
This issue marks HUSTLER’s 42nd anniversary of continuous publication—something of a miracle, because in the beginning, virtually nobody thought we could be successful against the titans of the industry. And by the late ’70s, nobody thought we could survive the oppression unleashed by publishing and political prudes offended by HUSTLER’s naked truth—whether of the...
Larry’s Statement
Last year the Republicans launched a preemptive sneak attack on the Paris climate summit, sending a special ops team of diplomatic saboteurs abroad to warn that any agreement made by Obama will likely be repealed or undercut by Republicans in control of Congress, and maybe by the White House after the next election. It’s...
Take Back Our Democracy
There are many challenging issues confronting this nation—climate change, financial instability, the erosion of Constitutional rights, foreign policy insanity—but as Doug Hughes, the “gyrocopter guy” who landed on the Capitol lawn last April, said, “Those won’t get addressed until we fix campaign finance reform.” The obscene level of money flooding current campaigns—the Koch Brothers...
GOP Clown Parade
Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart have given up their shows, but lovers of comedy need not despair—the Republican Presidential circus is in full swing. Every four years the clown parade swells—now it’s become a virtual Mister America pageant of slick talking heads all parroting the most banal clichés and bromides. Any halfwit capable of...
Prosecute Our War Criminals
Most Americans believe that the United States is still the brightest beacon of human rights in the world. But that reputation has been severely undermined by the Bush Administration’s deliberate torture of detainees (officially revealed by the Senate Intelligence Report) and the Obama Administration’s refusal to prosecute the offenders. This past June, the ACLU,...
Just Say No To Death Row
Twenty years ago, 42 nations practiced the death penalty. Today that number has dwindled to 22. China remains the world’s leader, but the exact number of executions there is a state secret. Following China are those bastions of enlightenment—Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and, in fifth place, the United States. That’s shameful company. Although the...
Fire Sale: American Democracy
Wealthy elites have always exercised a disproportionate influence in the political realm, but in 21st century America they now completely rule the roost. Our democracy has degenerated into a full-fledged oligarchy—and that’s not just leftist boilerplate, but the verdict of a new study by two scholars at Princeton University. Martin Gilens and Benjamin Page...
The War Racket
The Neocon radicals who hijacked our nation almost 15 years ago are still driving our bloodthirsty foreign policy, fueling conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Libya. Surrounded by hawks of both parties in Washington, President Obama wants another AUMF (Authority to Use Military Force) from Congress to expand military operations in the Middle East....
America, Reclaim Our Dream!
The Founding Fathers did not intend our nation to become a class society ruled by an aristocracy, as in England. But that’s where we’ve drifted over the last few decades, with the greatest wealth inequality since the Great Depression continuing to expand, the cost of a college education skyrocketing beyond the means of many...
Thoughts Are Free
The sickening news that Islamic militants had executed the top staff of French satire publication Charlie Hebdo hit very close to home for me. I’ve been shot, sued and repeatedly threatened by people who didn’t like things I published. The cartoonists at Charlie Hebdo worked in the same nothing-is-sacred spirit as we do at...
