A couple of days ago I ran into an acquaintance who happens to be a millionaire. I was curious about how he felt about our new president. The first word out of his mouth was “fascist.” I was astounded to say the least! I knew that he was ‘liberal,’ but most liberals seem to be…
Stuart Lyle The hit Broadway show ’Hamilton’ has enjoyed a meteoric rise. Less than a year ago, it opened off-Broadway, but quickly found traction and was on Broadway by midsummer. Now shows are sold out well into later this year. Few would have predicted that a show about founding father Alexander Hamilton would strike such a deep chord with a…
David and Jeanne Heidler If you’re looking for strange juxtapositions, you had a whopper this weekend. On January 16, 1919, the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified. In case you’re a bit fuzzy on the amendment numbers, that was the one prohibiting the “manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors for beverage…
W.J. Astore When I was a kid, I was a stamp collector. My dad, in contrast, saved old coins. He was not a collector; he didn’t file them away in special folders. He just tossed old silver coins into a cigar box. My favorite coin of his was also the oldest one he had: a…
W.J. Astore My wife and I watched the president’s speech last night. Overall, it was a solid, even praiseworthy, performance. First, we had to get past the NBC pre-speech fear-mongering. Lester Holt and Chuck Todd, the NBC commentators, were talking about how afraid Americans were, hinting that we all feared our holiday parties would be…
W.J. Astore There was a time when American democracy, however imperfectly practiced, and American ideals served to inspire peoples and independence movements around the world. Heck, even Ho Chi Minh in the 1940s confessed his admiration for Thomas Jefferson and the U.S. Declaration of Independence. But now it seems all that really matters in our…
The Contrary Perspective 