Douglas Anthony Cooper

I have earned a reputation as the world's leading expert in a specific branch of Decapitation Studies. In particular, I am the go-to guy when it comes to travel-related beheadings in Mexico.

This is a dubious honour. It's a bit like specializing in 19th-century sloth racing --...

(This is the fifth part of Douglas Anthony Cooper's examination of PETA. The first is "PETA's Celebs: Naked in the Name of Mass Pet Slaughter." Part two is "Ingrid Newkirk's Death Wish." Part three is "The Humane Alternative to PETA's Pet Slaughter." Part four...

Because I live in Mexico, I get to see The Avengers before you do, which is why my life is superior to yours. Last night, however, the projectionist at our local cineplex -- always wondrously incompetent -- came close to ruining that life. The lights went out, and he accidentally...

(This is the fourth part of Douglas Anthony Cooper's examination of PETA. The first is "PETA's Celebs: Naked in the Name of Mass Pet Slaughter." Part two is "Ingrid Newkirk's Death Wish." Part three is "The Humane Alternative to PETA's Pet Slaughter." Part four...

(This is the third part of Douglas Anthony Cooper's examination of PETA. The first is "PETA's Celebs: Naked in the Name of Mass Pet Slaughter." Part two is "Ingrid Newkirk's Death Wish." Part four is "Katniss Fight: Could Jennifer Lawrence Take Down PETA?" Part...

(This is the second part of Douglas Anthony Cooper's examination of PETA. The first is "PETA's Celebs: Naked in the Name of Mass Pet Slaughter.")
_________

How does a saint become a butcher?

I am convinced that Ingrid Newkirk, the founder of PETA ("People...

There are so many reasons to criticize President Obama's decision to allow his daughter to spend her spring break down Mexico way in the city of Oaxaca. Some of these reasons are depressingly ignorant, but others are refreshingly stupid. Not knowing anything about Oaxaca is a good place to start.

(This is the first part of Douglas Anthony Cooper's examination of PETA. Part two is "Ingrid Newkirk's Death Wish." Part three is "The Humane Alternative to PETA's Pet Slaughter." Part four is "Katniss Fight: Could Jennifer Lawrence Take Down PETA?" Part five is

Democrats have been disgracefully uncharitable to Rush Limbaugh. He has apologized for calling a perfectly decent woman a slut and a prostitute; he deserves generosity in return. The man's fickle sponsors have been departing all weekend, like ships from a sinking rat, so I propose that Democrats demonstrate bipartisan moral...

I admit to sneering when I first encountered the vast international community of flashlight addicts. Who are these losers, I generously wondered. These "flashaholics." Perhaps the nerd equivalent of, say, those neurally healthy folk who have sex with plush toys? Only less interesting?

That was a month ago.

Since then,...

Fifty years ago, the Xoloitzcuintli -- the Mexican Hairless dog -- was on the edge of extinction. Now one sleeps in my bed. Whether this is an improvement in the creature's circumstance can be debated. Other bald news, however, is unquestionably good: After centuries honing its attributes as the world's...

I can't even remember when I last experienced the beheading of a close friend. Everyone assumes it must be a weekly, or even a daily event: after all, I live in Mexico. The truth, however, is that you are as likely to have your head removed against your will in...

The campaign manager of a congressional candidate in Arkansas returns home to find his children's cat bludgeoned to death. The creature's skull is caved in. The word "liberal" has been scrawled on the corpse. Why should you care?

It is easy to dismiss this as a small...

In 1886, an unpleasant man strapped to a bomb wandered into a novel; he had a detonator in his pocket. Thanks to him, we ended up with Hannibal Lecter. And the Unabomber. This was a new kind of human: the condescending scientist, with a peerless intellect and a slow athletic...

I have browsed the relevant entrails, and it will be an amusing if shallow year. In particular, I have weighed the Mayan prophecy of the Unrapture against a countervailing but potent sign: the mental health of Tom Cruise. No, I cannot verify that he has become a well-adjusted human being,...

In this four part series exclusive to Huffington Post, novelist and essayist Douglas Anthony Cooper examines the accusations of genocide that have been made against Israel by its critics. You can read Part One: "Genghis Khan with a Computer" here, Part Two: Murder by Numbers here,...

In this four part series exclusive to Huffington Post, novelist and essayist Douglas Anthony Cooper examines the accusations of genocide that have been made against Israel by its critics. You can read Part One: "Genghis Khan with a Computer" here, and Part Two: Murder by Numbers

In this four-part series exclusive to Huffington Post, novelist and essayist Douglas Anthony Cooper examines the accusations of genocide that have been made against Israel by its critics. This section is a continuation of Part 1: "Genghis Khan With a Computer?"

THE TOTAL NUMBER of Israelis...

In this four part series exclusive to the Huffington Post, novelist and essayist Douglas Anthony Cooper examines the accusations of genocide that have been made against Israel by its critics.

Might Israel be an evil nation? It is a question I admit to asking myself. Am I on the wrong...

I disliked Christopher Hitchens. I'm fairly sure of this. So why did the news of his death affect me as it did? Even though many of my friends knew him personally, I knew him only through his writing, where he came across always as amiable, literate, shallow, and wrong. That...