Opinion The Future Is Now ... And Then December 11, 2009 • Commentator Andrei Codrescu remembers writing fortune cookies for $5 a fortune. The last fortune he received said: "You will know the future in time." Now that it IS the future, he offers this insight: time will make truth irrelevant.
Opinion As You Age, Time Turns Off The Lights November 19, 2009 • Commentator Andrei Codrescu says bulbs have been dimming, and he's not talking about flower bulbs. It's more like time has been putting out lights. He says when you're 20, you think the future is so bright you're immortal and you need sunglasses. But when you're 60, he says, you're looking forward to retiring and getting to that martini beach in the neon light you can't see your wrinkles by.
Opinion Bombing Moon Gives New Meaning To Lunatics October 9, 2009 • In response to NASA putting a spent rocket part on a collision course with the moon in search of water, commentator Andrei Codrescu asks whom the moon belong to anyway. They used to call the mentally ill lunatics, but Codrescu says he now wonders who the real lunatics are.
Opinion Internet's History As Tracked By Codrescu September 2, 2009 • Commentator Andrei Codrescu recounts the entire history of the Internet, from 40 years ago, when UCLA made the first connection between two computers, up until now — in places that parallel his own life.
Opinion Award The Birther Movement August 6, 2009 • To the Oscars, the Grammys and the Emmys, you can now add a wonderful new distinction: the Dobbies. Andrei Codrescu says the Southern Poverty Law Center's award, named for CNN's Lou Dobbs, should go to the "birther" movement.
Opinion Will Economy Push Californians Back To Midwest? July 22, 2009 • The Great Depression sent millions of dispossessed Midwesterners toward California's promise. Andrei Codrescu says now that the Golden State is selling off furniture signed by its movie-star governor to raise money, he's sure a reverse migration is on the way.
Opinion Issues Are Similar, But Iran And Tiananmen Differ June 17, 2009 • The streets of Tehran look much like the streets of Tiananmen Square in 1989. Some of the issues are the same, but this is 2009, and the stakes are both different and higher. Now, the whole world is watching, listening and hearing the events unfold.
Opinion Pondering Google, Facebook And Wasting Time June 2, 2009 • Commentator Andrei Codrescu complains about Google and Facebook, and how people ask him things they could look up themselves on Google. He finds Facebook a waste of time — and Google an alien force worthy of fear.
Opinion Looking To A Post-Human Future May 6, 2009 • To Andrei Codrescu, being "post-human" means transitioning to a new kind of animal, a wired, connected and, hopefully, less arrogant creature that might use its successful tools to rejoin the nature humans have nearly eliminated.
Opinion Pirates, Real And Phony April 23, 2009 • With much help from Hollywood, we tend to glorify old-style pirates. Commentator Andrei Codrescu wonders if someday in the distant future we will treat terrorists with similar affection.
Opinion Tear Down Caribbean Berlin Wall: End Cuba Embargo April 6, 2009 • President Obama has a historic opportunity to erase the unfair division of our Caribbean Berlin Wall. Lifting the travel ban is a good first step, but let's get rid of the whole embargo. It's time for real people to come first, politics second.
Opinion A Way To Save Economy: No-Theft Day March 25, 2009 • Commentator Andrei Codrescu proposes a Theft-Free Day to solve the nation's economic crisis. He adds that the holiday will only work if it is observed by big thieves, not just small fry. He says the flow of unfilched cash will boost the economy.
Opinion Say It Loud: I'm Hybrid And I'm Proud March 11, 2009 • The United States was always a nation of hybrids, but acknowledging it was something else. Not until the 1970s did we allow the possibility that we could accept our roots and also be Americans. The age of the hyphen was upon us.
Opinion Economic Hard Times May Be Good For Art February 25, 2009 • Commentator Andrei Codrescu reflects on how artists respond to the economic slowdown. He goes through the decades and examines when the best art has been made. He concludes that hard times make good art.
Opinion EU Artwork Flap Served Useful Purpose January 23, 2009 • An art installation depicting EU nations at the EU Council's headquarters in Brussels provoked an international incident of sorts. The Czech Republic commissioned the sculpture, Entropa, to mark its role as the current EU head, but some nations did not find humor in the way artist David Cerny portrayed them.
Opinion The Machines Haven't Taken Over December 24, 2008 • The amount of spam dropped precipitously last month after an Internet provider playing host to spammers was shut down. If it's that easy to stop what seemed unstoppable, why can't other seemingly unstoppable human-generated and computer-driven phenomena be switched off the same way?
Opinion Suggestions For New Cabinet-Level Agencies December 18, 2008 • Commentator Andrei Codrescu thinks that the Obama presidency needs some new Cabinet-level positions. Among them: a Department of Common Sense, a Department for the Defense of the English Language, a Department of Accuracy and a Department of Unused Resources.
Opinion Deadly Stampede At Wal-Mart Not Surprising December 3, 2008 • Commentator Andrei Codrescu reflects on the death of a Wal-Mart store employee at the hands of a crowd of shoppers eager to get down to the business of shopping. Codrescu says we were instructed by President Bush to "go shopping" after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and that is what these folks were doing.
Opinion Life Without Smell May Not Be Worth It October 30, 2008 • Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have shown they can extend the life spans of roundworms even when the worms are well fed. It just takes a chemical that blocks their sense of smell. Humans, however, need the sense of smell — and a longer life may not be worth losing it.
Opinion After The Bailout October 9, 2008 • For $700 billion, every able-bodied American could have a chain saw, a solar-powered generator and a stake in a communal well and windmill. Also, red dirt and plum trees.
Opinion The Chemistry of Humanity November 26, 2007 • Commentator Andrei Codrescu reads the back-and-forth e-mail between himself and a chemist about a creature that eats its own brain. Codrescu gets deeper and deeper into a metaphor for humanity, and the chemist goes right along with him.
Opinion From Poetry to Web: Tools of Youthful Rebellion October 30, 2007 • Commentator Andrei Codrescu hears that Internet startups are like rock bands — a dream of powerless youth. Once upon a time, stand-up comedy served the same purpose. And before that, it was poetry. But today's Web sites are part of the mainstream, he says, and the rebellion is blunted.