W.J. Astore Frederic Remington understood the color of night, and he also understood something of the uniqueness of the Native Americans he painted. This lesson was brought home to me by David Heidler, a good friend and a leading historian of American history. Visiting an exhibition of Remington’s nocturnes, Heidler had this to say about how…
W.J. Astore “[W]ar is a distressing, ghastly, harrowing, horrific, fearsome and deplorable business. How can its actual awfulness be described to anyone?” Stuart Hills, By Tank Into Normandy, p. 244 “[E]very generation is doomed to fight its war, to endure the same old experiences, suffer the loss of the same old illusions, and learn the…
By Daniel N. White. Introduction by William Astore. The current count of American service members killed in the Afghan War stands at 2245. What did they die for? For most Americans the answer remains unclear. Also unclear is why, nearly twelve years into this war, the U.S. military continues to maintain a large (and…
W.J. Astore I have a friend who speaks with great authority on life. Not only is he a topnotch historian, but he’s lived a life rooted to reality, a life in which he’s demonstrated great generosity of spirit. He wrote recently to me about what he considers to be the acid test of a person’s…
W.J. Astore I have conservative friends (Yes, I do!) who express disfavor with higher education. They see higher ed as being in lockstep with liberal/leftist agendas. Things like gay marriage, aggressive feminism, multiculturalism, and diversity that focuses not on wide-ranging political views but on the politics of gender and race. They further see higher ed…
A friend of mine knew the big wigs at a leading manufacturer of agricultural equipment back in the late 1960s. He recalls reading an article back then in the Wall Street Journal about the company being sued for the deaths of farmers. The gas tanks on some of their tractors were exploding because they were…
Litsa Binder. Introduction by William Astore. “Peace is our profession” was the official slogan of the U.S. Air Force’s Strategic Air Command (SAC), a goal they were willing if necessary to enforce by thermonuclear weapons and mutually assured destruction (MAD) with the Soviet Union. In the Reagan years, the costly MX intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM)…
By Don Rose. Introduction by b. traven. Don Rose is the quintessential Chicago political consultant and insider. His analysis of the rule of Obama’s former Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel over Chicago as Mayor may tell us a lot about the real agenda of the current presidential administration. Next to Rahm Emanuel, Arne Duncan as…
Richard Sahn The other day I was jogging through the streets of Williamsport, PA (home of the Little League World Series) and noticed in one neighborhood three Pittsburgh Steelers flags. Although I’m not a sports fan now—I was when I was a teenager—I occasionally flip through the channels of my TV and watch a few…
b. traven That old black magic has us in its spell, that old black magic that we know so well. Yes, that old black magic called SEX! With Anthony Weiner (AKA “Carlos Danger”) and his “sexting” now in the spotlight again we have to ask why that old black magic often works differently for liberal Democrats…
The Contrary Perspective 