Friday Quick Notes

From Socialist Worker:

As for Abdelhadi, a queer Muslim activist, she probably didn't feel better two days later when the cover of the New York Daily News featured a photo of a dashing Marine holding a machine gun in Iraq with the headline: "No civilian should own this gun."

That headline was probably intended as a liberal challenge to the conservative fanatics who care about no part of the Constitution so much as the "right to bear arms." But it also embodied a logic, embraced by conservatives as well, that has been promoted by every imperial power since Rome: Violence is meant to be used over there on them, not here on us.


A review of The Last Weekend, which you should totally buy. It reads, in part:

Mamatas has lots to say about the nature and struggles of being a writer, as well as alcoholism and depression. This all gets wrapped up in a dark sheen of cynical, black humor, occasional bouts of wicked violence, and an interesting detour through the history of the 49ers gold rush, SanFran cemeteries and burial rites. And here's a link to the audiobook, which is the actual subject of the review.

Year's Best Weird Fiction is reviewed in Locus:

The counterpoint to Machado’s poignant tale is Nick Mamatas’s ‘‘Exit Through the Gift Shop’’, a wonderfully snarky account of how a Massachusetts town in need of tourist commerce milks a concocted urban legend perhaps a little too aggressively.