We have appointed Michael Murry as the Contrary Perspective’s “poet laureate” and have decided to bring his ” Polemical Poetry” to our readers as a regular feature that will appear every month. From time to time established poets have written verse that is political and verges on the polemical but Michael has brought his poetry…
By Bill Dyer Forty five years ago this month, American troops engaged in an 11 day frontal assault on a hill over looking the A Shau Valley, thought to be a major supply and staging area for the North Vietnamese Army, operating under the cover of triple canopy jungle and thickets of elephant grass. The…
By Don Rose. Introduction by William Astore. “Never believe anything that you read — and only half of what you see.” My father taught me that saying, an expression of healthy skepticism that is much needed when reading and watching today’s media productions. Watchdog journalism has been replaced by lapdog journalism as our media “elites”…
Glenn Greenwald. Introduction by William Astore. What is a patriot? To my mind, someone who stands up for the best of America. Someone who remembers that the government serves the people and not vice-versa. Someone who knows that democracy and freedom are based on transparency and honesty. And someone who is willing to sacrifice, even…
By Anonymous Everyone knows that one has to go to school to receive a formal education and formal credentials. But schools are also social institutions. As institutions, schools often stand in the way of education. A competitive education driven by credentials is often responsible for lowering the self-esteem of both students and teachers as a…
Richard Sahn. Introduction by William Astore. Being a college professor is supposed to be a grand profession. Assuming we’re not underpaid adjuncts with neither benefits nor job security, our pay is decent, our autonomy is considerable, and we get a fair amount of time off in the summer. How dare we whine about hardships! But…
Michael Gallagher Maureen Dowd, in her recent New York Times column (“A Saint, He Ain’t”), was, unfortunately, one of the few commentators on John Paul II’s canonization bold enough to voice a dissent. I, for one, wholly agree with her misgivings. My only problem is that she should have expressed a few more. As heinous,…
b. traven Who is the real aggressor in Ukraine? The U.S. appears to be playing the democracy card again, this time to save Ukraine from big, bad Putin. But is there a joker in the deck? Is it possible that our President, our Vice President, and our eminent Secretary of State, emboldened by their claims of…
P. J. Sullivan What is the most urgent problem facing our planet? Our country? Is it warfare? Nuclear proliferation? Oil depletion? Hunger? Epidemics? Air and water pollution? Degradation of our food? Soaring housing costs? Global climate change? Species extinctions? Deforestation? All of these are important, but what is it that they all have in common?…
By Todd Miller. Introduction by William Astore. About twenty years ago, I received emails from a conservative friend that depicted an ongoing invasion of Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and California by a flood of Mexican immigrants hellbent on reversing the outcome of the Mexican-American War of the 1840s. I laughed at the time at the…
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