ABC's Cavemen: Degradation or Enlightenment? This piece was written in the summer of 2007; the television show premiered that fall, so the piece speculates on the nature of the show, noting that the "cavemen" appear countercultural, and discussing some of the history of hippie-as-subhuman in the mainstream media.
The Fortieth Anniversary of the Summer of Love--Celebrating Four Decades of Hippie Ethnicity: This column addresses basic objections to hippie culture and its importance, such as its being dead, hippies being all drug abusers, etc. It then lists four of the counterculture's many substantial accomplishments: 1) It's crucial role in the creation and development of the personal computer, 2) It's role in the development of a natural-foods industry, 3) It's role in creating and re-inventing "alternative" medicine, and 4) It's impact on the environmental movement, from recycling to "green" building.

Media Stereotyping: Hippies as Bad Guys: Ever noticed how a disproportionately large numbers of the villains in today's television programs and movies are white males with ponytails? In conjunction with Arabs and Arab-Americans (who these shows often show us as being in cahoots with, partners in "terrorism"), hippies have become America's preferred bad guys.

This column looks in particular at the now-defunct television series Baywatch and at the now-popular television series Fox's 24, including its apparent promotion of the torture of hippie-Americans.

Written in December of 2006, Peace Signs in Pagosa Springs: Sympathy for the Devil? tells the tale of a southwestern-Colorado couple persecuted for displaying a peace sign, which is accused, among other things, of being "Satanic." So, why is it so many gullible people believe the peace sign is "anti-God"? Why is it so many believe "the counterculture" itself is wicked and in league with the Devil? This, we think, fun and funny piece will explain why.

The Case of Jeffrey MacDonald: "Helter Skelter" Meets "The Ballad of the Green Berets": His wife and two daughters were murdered in 1970; MacDonald claims the murderers were hippies high on LSD. Later convicted, MacDonald now languishes in prison, his paroles denied. Several books, including Joe Mc Ginness' Fatal Vision, have been written about MacDonald and the infamous and controversial case.

We feel this piece is important not only for what it says about how much of America, particularly neoconservative America, views the counterculture but because it seems an original approach to that case, offering an often-missed perspective on the murders and the the unlikely role of LSD in them.

Incidentally, there wasn't space to fit this into the column, but there are other reasons why MacDonald's story seems unbelievable: First, the hippies in MacDonald's tale are cartoonish and nonsensical:So, this group of countercultural young people are going to drop acid one night and then go onto a military base--a place where they might be in danger, anyway, sticking out like proverbial sore thumbs--and then attack a family whose father is likely trained in hand-to-hand combat and killing techniques and may well have firearms and other weapons in the house. Well, not unless they were suicidal.

Secondly (the significance of this will be clearer after you've read this piece), MacDonald has claimed that drug takers often don't know what drug they've actually taken, "But they always say LSD" (McGinness, 132), this based on his emergency-room experiences. We find this unrealistic; novice drug takers may on occasion refer to some other hallucenogen they've bought as LSD, but that's about it. No one confuses speed with LSD with depressants with marijuana with heroin. Drug takers themselves have usually spent money for a specific product--they want a particular substance and high, which they are usually somewhat knowledegable about, not, "Hey, just give us some drugs; we don't care what kind." So, if someone says they're on "acid," it's probably safe to assume they are indeed under the influence at least some kind of hallucenogen. (And the particular hippie who MacDonald says is the female killer of his family, Helena Stockley, was --as McGinniss shows--very experienced with a broad array of drugs. So, if she actually said she was on "acid" ("Acid is groovy . . ."), there's every reason to believe she was.)

So instead of giving us a believable scenario, MacDonald's defense would seem to rely on a stereotype of hippies and of LSD users which seems to say, "Hey, the killers' motives and behavior doesn't have to make any sense: they were just a bunch of Establishment-hating hippies out of their minds on drugs."