Shooting minnows in a barrel

by David Benjamin “The solution lies in stronger families, more supportive communities, I would argue, renewed faith… We’ve stopped teaching values in so many of our schools. Now we’re teaching wokeness. We’re indoctrinating our children with things like CRT, telling… some children they’re not equal to others and they’re the cause of other people’s problems.” …

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The agent rejection I’d like to see

The gateway to publication and success as a writer is the “literary agent.” There are hundreds of these, mostly in New York City and each harboring strongly held “genre” preferences. This edition of Write Away illuminates the unsubtle art of rejection by literary agencies, a baptism of blood that every aspiring author must eventually encounter.……

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The old razzle dazzle

by David Benjamin “‘I think that livestreaming this attack gives me some motivation in the way that I know that some people will be cheering for me,’”  ― Payton Gendron MADISON, Wis. — An  unencrypted smartphone dialog intercepted by an undisclosed federal agency after white-panic gunman Payton Gendron murdered ten Black Americans at the Tops…

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The commodities box

by David Benjamin “She has eighty names, thirty addresses, twelve Social Security cards and is collecting veterans’ benefits on four non-existing deceased husbands. And she’s collecting Social Security on her cards. She’s got Medicaid, getting food stamps, and she is collecting welfare under each of her names. Her tax-free cash income alone is over $150,000.” …

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Don’t Do It, Kid!

As the benefactor of a scholarship competition for young writers at my alma mater, La Follette High School in Madison, I have a chance, at least once a year to converse with promising young writers. I cheer them on, but also worry about the challenges they face if they expect their talent to bestow fame……

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Judge Sam and the revirginization of America

by David Benjamin “No pity. After the carnage we are left with the hope of a purified humanity.”  ― Tristan Tzara, The Dada Manifesto 1918 PARIS — There is nothing more poisonous to civil society than purity. The purity police reared their shrouded form and bared their scythes again this week, in the pinched, pious…

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