W.J. Astore I’m a Catholic, so of course I know all about Original Sin. For disobeying God and tasting the forbidden fruit, Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden of Eden. Eve would suffer the pains of childbirth, and both she and Adam would age and die, their earthly bodies returning to the…
W.J. Astore Once again, Hillary Clinton is in the news for the wrong reason. She used a private email account while she was Secretary of State, rather than an official government email account. As a result, not all of her (unclassified) emails are part of the public record. Many may be “lost,” consigned to the…
Michael Brenner The roulette wheel that is Presidential politics is spinning faster now that we are only one year and eight months from election day. Bets are being placed as the main stakeholders look to their future financial and career investments. The media play to the hilt this longest running spectacle that our pop culture…
Matthew Jacobson. Introduction by William Astore. America has always postured as being open to immigrants – of the right kind, that is. Posturing becomes imposture when those immigrants are judged to be the “wrong kind” by prevailing groups. Matthew Jacobson reminds us of this in this satirical list, and poses a telling question at the…
Richard Sahn I was appalled by Jeffrey Toobin’s analysis of the decision of the grand jury in the Darren Wilson indictment hearings. Toobin, a legal analyst for CNN is a former prosecutor as well as defense attorney. The reason the DA, Robert McCulloch, did not prosecute Darren Wilson during the hearings was because, Toobin says,…
W.J. Astore In 2006, I presented the following talk on Jewish resistance to the Holocaust. It’s a dangerous myth, and sadly a common one, that Jewish people did not resist the Nazis in meaningful or effective ways. From this myth stems a far more insidious one: that Jewish people were somehow complicit in the murderous…
b. traven and W.J. Astore Thank you, thank you, thank you. In only eighteen months since starting this blog, we’ve reached the 100,000 “hits” milestone and are approaching 300 followers. We also have nearly 200 “likes” on our Facebook page without the benefit of paid advertising. To readers of and contributors to The Contrary Perspective blog:…
P.J. Sullivan The controversy over health care in America misses an important point, that the human body is a self-healing organism. Americans think that doctors and medicines are the only options for the sick. They are not. There will always be a role for doctors, but the majority of illnesses are preventable and curable without…
W.J. Astore Out shopping today at my local used bookstore and came across an early paperback copy (from 1952) of George Orwell’s 1984. A little overpriced at $15.00, but the cover called to me. What a classic! If you click on the picture, you can just make out, if you look closely, the slogans on…
W.J. Astore It’s good to have a day like the Fourth of July, a day to celebrate the promise of our country, and a day to reflect on our blessings. It should be an apolitical day, a day to be with loved ones, and a day to remember how lucky we are, even if it’s…
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