Michael Murry The government of the United States still demands that all American males between the ages of 18 and 24 register for military conscription – i.e., the Draft – even though that same government maintains that no such system of military conscription any longer exists. To enforce this Draft Registration, various penalties accrue to…
W.J. Astore Did Jesus have a wife? Or, if not a wife, did his mention of “wife” symbolize a greater role for women as disciples? I’ve always wondered about the proudly patriarchal Catholic church and its marginalization of women. WWJD? Would would Jesus do about a church that is so male-dominated? So proud of its…
Michael Murry “Never trust your interpreter. He’s the one selling your secrets to your competition.” So said a Chinese business acquaintance I met while employed for six months in the People’s Republic of China during the fall and winter of 1994-95. I worked for a Thai-Chinese company that installed bowling centers at airports and amusement…
W.J. Astore When Hannah Arendt, the famous German-American political philosopher, criticized American involvement in the Vietnam War, she said that our foreign policy “experts” fell prey to using excessive means to achieve minor aims in a region of marginal interest to the United States. You could say the same of most of America’s foreign interventions…
W.J. Astore Truthout has a powerful story on the GM ignition switch design flaw, the one that killed at least thirteen people, and possibly as many as 29 (or more). If many are so eager to support capital punishment for mass murderers, why not the death penalty for GM? GM knew about the problem with…
W.J. and J.A. Astore My Dad, Julius Anthony Astore, was a child of the Great Depression. Born in 1917, he had to quit high school in 1933 to help support his family. In 1935 he joined the Civilian Conservation Corps, or CCC, working in forestry and as a firefighter in Oregon until he left in…
Richard Sahn How often one hears these days the following line: “Why should I care about government surveillance. I haven’t done anything wrong.” But “wrong” does not mean what it used to mean when I was growing up. “Wrong” today means saying the politically wrong things, expressing ideas and desires which can be interpreted to…
W.J. Astore A visitor to my home today saw my retirement plaque, which marks my twenty years of service in the US Air Force. He immediately thanked me for my service to my country. I appreciated his thanks because I took (and take) some pride in having served honorably in the military. But people who…
Michael Murry In my youth, I used to hear people say, when looking upon the abused and destitute of this world: “There but for the grace of god go I.” Which always sounded to me like another way of saying: “There and by the curse of god go they.” The concept of omniscient omnipotence, whether…
Michael Gallagher. Introduction by William Astore. It was called mutually assured destruction, or MAD for short. In the Cold War, the U.S. and the Soviet Union threatened each other with mass murder. If the nuclear missiles had flown, perhaps 100 million souls would have been vaporized in thirty minutes. Perhaps the human species (and most…
The Contrary Perspective 