Iris Vander Pluym is the online ‘nym of an artist, activist and writer living in New York City. She has a B.A. in Communications, having graduated cum laude from an East Coast state university of no particular note. Iris has written professionally on the subjects of music technology and production techniques, and has interviewed various recording artists for publications such as Keyboard and Electronic Musician. Raised to respect the adage that one should never opine on the topics of politics, religion or sex in polite company, it turns out that those are pretty much the only subjects she has any interest in discussing. A self-described unapologetic, godless liberal, Ms. Vander Pluym blogs regularly at Perry Street Palace. Follow her on Twitter @irisvanderpluym.
Recent Essays by Iris Vander Pluym
By Iris Vander Pluym on 02.14.16
[CONTENT NOTE: harassment, domestic terrorism.]
Q: Should Anti-Abortion Activists Be Allowed to Harass Preschoolers?
A: No.
THE END.
I hope this edition of Ask Iris has been helpful.
Have a nice day.
By Iris Vander Pluym, January 10, 2016
[CONTENT NOTE: mass shootings, domestic terrorism, description of a rape, domestic violence. No violent images.]
A longtime Loyal Reader™ sent us an image of a recent New York Daily News cover, which we found quite interesting.
The New York Daily News, in case you are blissfully unacquainted, is a New York metro-area tabloid that could perhaps best be described as the unholy offspring of the city’s two other daily rags, the New York Times and Rupert Murdoch’s bird cage liner The New York Post. Its editorial slant is yawningly predictable and pro-status quo; its coverage of the pope’s recent visit, for example, fawning. In a word: conservative. That is why it is extraordinary to see this headline in giant screaming letters: “GOD ISN’T FIXING THIS.” The “this” refers to the recent shoot-’em-up that left 14 dead in San Bernadino.
By Iris Vander Pluym on 12.13.15
As far away as Myanmar is from the US—and given the relative dearth of Buddhists here—see if any of this sounds oddly familiar to you.
Ma Ba Tha is a group of hardline, ultranationalist, racist Buddhist monks in Myanmar. The name Ma Ba Tha is an acronym for, roughly, “Association for the Protection of Race and Religion.” They are not the only Buddhist monks in overwhelmingly Buddhist Myanmar (also known as Burma), but they have seized an outsized amount of power and influence in the Southeast Asian country.