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Paul Krassner
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Paul Krassner's latest book is an expanded edition of his 1993 autobiography, "Confessions of a Raving, Unconfined Nut: Misadventures in the Counterculture," available at paulkrassner.com, along with the Disneyland Memorial Orgy poster.

His most recent collections are Who's to Say What's Obscene: Politics, Culture and Comedy in America Today, with a foreword by Arianna Huffington; In Praise of Indecency: Dispatches From the Valley of Porn; and One Hand Jerking: Reports From an Investigative Satirist, with a foreword by Harry Shearer and an introduction by Lewis Black.

Krassner's FBI files indicate that after Life magazine published a favorable profile of him, the FBI sent a poison-pen letter to the editor, complaining: "To classify Krassner as a social rebel is far too cute. He's a nut, a raving, unconfined nut."

"The FBI was right," said George Carlin. "This man is dangerous--and
funny; and necessary."

When People magazine called Krassner "Father of the underground
press," he immediately demanded a paternity test. He had published
The Realist magazine from 1958 to 1974. He reincarnated it as a
newsletter in 1985. "The taboos may have changed," he wrote, "but
irreverence is still our only sacred cow." The final issue was
published in Spring 2001.

Krassner's style of personal journalism constantly blurred the line between observer and participant. He interviewed a doctor who performed abortions when it was illegal, then ran an underground referral service. He covered the antiwar movement, then co-founded the Yippies with Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin. He published material on the psychedelic revolution, then took LSD with Tim Leary, Ram Dass and Ken Kesey.

He edited Lenny Bruce's autobiography, How to Talk Dirty and
Influence People, and with Lenny's encouragement, became a stand-up
performer himself, opening at the Village Gate in New York in 1961. Ten years later--five years after Lenny's death--Groucho Marx said, "I
predict that in time Paul Krassner will wind up as the only live Lenny
Bruce."

Blog Entries by Paul Krassner

Paul Krassner's Tweets of 2012

(18) Comments | Posted December 25, 2012 | 9:30 AM

This is my first tweet. I have Writer's Block. I mean Twitter's Block. I'm waiting for a cure to be developed.

A minimalist summation of American culture in the Los Angeles Times on Conan O'Brien: "The Masturbating Bear will remain the intellectual property of NBC."

Perhaps Toyota should borrow a...

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Behind the Twinkie Defense

(23) Comments | Posted November 16, 2012 | 6:24 PM

The apparent demise of the Twinkie brings back memories for me...

A dozen police cars had been set on fire, which in turn set off their alarms, underscoring the angry shouts from five thousand understandably angry gays. This was in 1979. I had been covering the trial of Dan White...

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Are Rape Jokes Funny?

(53) Comments | Posted August 30, 2012 | 7:58 PM

Abortion was still illegal in 1970. At the time, as both an underground abortion referral service and a stand-up satirist, I faced an undefined paradox. Irreverence was my only sacred cow, yet I wouldn't allow victims to become the target of my humor. There was one particular routine I did...

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Predictions for 2012

(39) Comments | Posted January 5, 2012 | 5:52 PM

Politics: The electoral college will be replaced by a system where voters will choose the polling firm they trust the most. Barack Obama will be re-elected because his vice-presidential running mate Joe Biden will be replaced by Hillary Clinton, thereby gaining the women's vote. Failed Republican campaigners will all take...

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Sex, Corruption and the Kool-Aid Massacre

(6) Comments | Posted November 17, 2011 | 1:33 PM

November 18th marks the 33rd anniversary of the Jonestown massacre.

Jim Jones, founder of the 8,000-member People's Temple in San Francisco, once asked Margo St. James, founder of the prostitutes' rights group, COYOTE (Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics), how he could obtain political power.

She answered, sardonically, "Arrange for...

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My Letter to Obama

(53) Comments | Posted October 11, 2010 | 4:38 PM

Dear President Obama,

It seems that the theme emanating from the White House is "Eat, Pray, Be Disappointed." And yet, whenever I do feel disappointed, I always realize that the alternative was John McCain, with Sarah Palin just one Halloween "Boo!" away from the presidency, and then I always feel...

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Ruben Salazar

(1) Comments | Posted August 20, 2010 | 3:56 PM

The LA Times has been publishing articles about the files on Ruben Salazar's death being kept secret. Here's an excerpt from my autobiography:

No wonder Mae Brussell was so excited. The attempted burglary of Democratic headquarters at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C., in June 1972 had suddenly...
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Remembering Tuli

(26) Comments | Posted July 14, 2010 | 2:50 PM

Tuli Kupferberg is better off dead.

My friend and counter-cultural icon had been suffering from a couple of strokes, hospitals, breathing tubes, feeding tubes, anemia, infections, blindness, catheter, hearing aids, wheelchairs, psychosis, memory loss, diapers, constipation, anti-depressants, sleeping pills, fatigue and a chronically bed-ridden life that seemed to be no...

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Why Firing the General Was an Act of God

(108) Comments | Posted June 25, 2010 | 2:42 PM

The volcano in Iceland was considered an Act of God.

Smoke from the volcano caused countless flights to be canceled.

The Rolling Stone correspondent was stuck in Paris.

Embedded there, he hung around with talkative drinkers.

They revealed stuff while forgetting it was being told to a reporter.

He wrote...

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correction, please

(0) Comments | Posted April 17, 2010 | 11:20 AM

Re my blog, "Kent State Anniversary Blues," from Laurel Krause: just noticed the link for the Kent State Truth Tribunal is WRONG, we have a wonderful new website...the CORRECT link is: http://TruthTribunal.org

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Kent State Anniversary Blues

(19) Comments | Posted April 16, 2010 | 1:29 PM

In my book, Magic Mushrooms and Other Highs: From Toad Slime to Ecstasy, Freddy Berthoff described his mescaline trip at a Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young concert in the summer of 1970 when he was 15. "Earlier that spring," he wrote, "the helmeted, rifle-toting National Guard came up over the...

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Minimalist Modest Proposal

(5) Comments | Posted March 10, 2010 | 3:08 PM

Perhaps Toyota should borrow a slogan from McDonald's: "You deserve a brake today."

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Oxymoron of the Day

(0) Comments | Posted January 22, 2010 | 11:46 AM

Finally, a minimalist summation of American culture excerpted from the Los Angeles Times' article on Conan O'Brien: "...the Masturbating Bear [will] remain the intellectual property of NBC."

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Polanski, My Daughter and Me: A Very Short Story

(133) Comments | Posted October 23, 2009 | 10:58 AM

In the summer of 1977 I got a magazine assignment to cover the trial of Roman Polanski. My daughter Holly was then thirteen—the same age as the girl Polanski was accused of seducing (I didn't know yet it was actually rape)—and Holly had decided to come to Santa Monica with...

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Baby Boomers and Hippies Were Not the Same

(3) Comments | Posted September 2, 2009 | 6:07 PM

This is a minor response to Chez Pazienza--the Guitar Hero with feet of claymation--and his post, "What a Long, Strange, Thoroughly Obnoxious Trip It's Been," a delusionally subjective, condescending blog, filled with hostile generalizations and a million exaggerations.

These days--despite the wingnuts media binge and the major disappointments of...

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On the 40th Anniversary of Woodstock

(69) Comments | Posted August 14, 2009 | 10:19 AM

Four decades ago, along with 499,999 others on a countercultural pilgrimage, I was headed for the Woodstock Festival of Music & Love. I was wearing my yellow leather fringe jacket for the first time. In one of the pockets there was a nice little stash of LSD. If you happen...

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The Mystery Behind the Manson Murders

(43) Comments | Posted August 10, 2009 | 1:12 PM

Charles Manson was never a hippie. His real family included con artists, pimps, drug dealers, thieves, muggers, rapists and murderers. He had known only power relationships in an army of control junkies. Manson was America's Frankenstein monster, a logical product of the prison system -- racist, paranoid, violent -- even...

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My Acid Trip with Squeaky Fromme

(62) Comments | Posted August 6, 2009 | 5:02 PM

This month, Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, a member of the Charles Manson family, is scheduled to be released on parole from a federal prison in Texas after serving 34 years behind bars for the attempted assassination of President Gerald Ford in 1975. Squeaky did not participate in the Tate/LaBianca killings, which...

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Exclusive Interview with Michael Phelps

(2) Comments | Posted July 10, 2009 | 10:14 AM

This satiric interview was originally published in High Times Magazine.

Q. What've you learned from this whole nuclear bong explosion?

A. I learned how fast you can go from being an international hero to being a reference in a joke on a late night talk show. I heard Jay Leno...

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Behind the Fake Report of Jeff Goldblum's Death

(11) Comments | Posted July 7, 2009 | 10:16 AM

A friend of mine received an e-mail from Global Associated News, complete with a professional-looking logo of the globe. Their "Breaking News" was about the death of Jeff Goldblum. She forwarded it on to others, including a reporter. Later, when she learned that it was an untrue report, she felt...

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