Evasion of the Body Snatchers
January 24, 2008
There's nothing alien about the herd mentality.
Mommy Spanks the Class President
Jan. 23, 2008
Sissicrats are being forced to choose between Clinton's cookies and Obama's boyish charm.
The First Blackface President
Jan. 22nd, 2008
On the off-chance that Barack Obama becomes President of the United States, will everyone then please shut up about how Bill Clinton was the First Black President?
Sissy-In-Chief
Jan. 15th, 2008
The world is mean, hard, cold and brutal. You might think Americans would be wanting tough leaders for these tough times.
But Sissies want very much to believe that the world is a nice place, that all people are basically nice despite the surface differences and current conflicts, and that America can make itself seen again as the Mr. Nice Guy Superpower, the way it was during World War II.
We want a Sissy-in-Chief. The candidates know that the race for the White House will be won not by the candidate with the most experience or vision or guts, but by the one who can act most convincingly like Mr. or Ms. Nice Guy.
Halfway Black or Halfway Human?
Jan. 14th, 2008
The wonks and pundits can talk about the issues all they like. Sissies don't vote on the issues. Like everything Sissies do, Sissy politics is all about ME! Sissies pick their political candidates the same way they pick their spouses: One eye on the candidate, the other in the mirror.
Stand-Up Candidate of the Week
Jan. 8th, 2008
Stand-up candidate of the week:
Ron PaulNot that I'd want Ron Paul to run the country, but it has been instructive to watch him run in the primaries.
And anyway, it's not like I want any of them to run the country. If I had a car, my one political bumper sticker would read:
Nobody for PresidentLet's not have one for the next four years and see if we can tell the difference.
A Guide to the Most Sissy, Stoopit & Stand-Up Political Candidates
Jan. 1st, 2008
It's the first week of 2008, and the Iowa Circus has come to town. Not just in Iowa, obviously, but all over Sissy Nation.
Which makes us all rubes, gawking at the sideshow. See Hillary's animatronic replica simulate human emotions. Gasp as Rudy struggles to escape the shackles of his twisted character. Cheer and jeer as the Mormon and the Creationist go bare knuckles.
Presidential primary season is a time of make-believe. We pretend we don't know what a low business presidential politicking is, a loathsome marriage of nerdiness and sleaze. We make believe that we aren't being lied and pandered to. We play like politics isn't self-interest masquerading as civic duty.
And most of all we pretend to have an actual choice. President Stoopit has lowered the bar all the way to the ground, making it easier for us to act as if there's a decision to be made here: Hillary Romney Huckaliani or Fred McBidwards or Ron John Kubama?
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John Strausbaugh
John Strausbaugh is a journalist and cultural commentator based in New York City. He is also the host of the
New York Times podcast series “Weekend Explorer,” offering virtual tours into New York City's scandalous past. His previous books have examined the history of recreational drug use (
The Drug User: Documents 1840-1960, co-edited with Donald Blaise, 1990), the intersection of politics and popular culture in the White House (
Alone With the President, 1992), the priesthood that spreads the gospel of Elvisism (
E: Reflections on the Birth of the Elvis Faith, 1995) and Rock and Roll's infidelity to the youth culture that created it (
Rock 'Til You Drop: The Decline From Rebellion to Nostalgia, 2001), which was declared “the definitive word on the senescent Rolling Stones” by the
New York Times.
Rock Til You Drop established Strausbaugh as a favorite on American and British radio and television talk shows.
Strausbaugh followed up with the book
Black Like You: Blackface, Whiteface, Insult & Imitation in American Popular Culture, 2006, which explores race relations in popular culture, including the pervasive and long-lasting impact of black-face performance in rock and roll, hip-hop, advertising, “gangsta-lit” and contemporary Hollywood film-making. The book firmly established Strausbaugh as a writer of erudite, engaging and penetrating social commentary. His vivid writing style and candid treatment of controversial subject matter are exemplified in
Sissy Nation: How America Became a Culture of Wimps & Stoopits, which will be released on
February 5th, 2008.
