‘AMERICAN RESISTER’ Thoreau, His Journal, and Walden Pond A recent essay by Holland Cotter in the New York Times calling attention to the Thoreau exhibition at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York. Cotter is the co-chief art critic for the Times. Numerous photos and illustrations mark the show. Henry David Thoreau was a magnificent American, an environmentalist … [Read more...]
Firms Bow to Chinese Censorship for Profit
Eds note: This is one of two columns submitted to the Tribune by longtime columnist Jake Highton after he died last week. His final column will be published next week. Business is business. The aim of business is to make heaps of money. You would think principles would override approval of censorship in order to make dough. Not so with Apple and Amazon. They are … [Read more...]
Trump decisions ‘worser and worser’
That headline is ungrammatical but it perfectly illustrates the stupid decisions made daily by President Trump. With a single Tweet, he recently demolished gay rights, gay marriage and transgender rights, reversing President Obama’s liberal policies. Trump said transgender people should not serve in the military because they are “disruptive and a tremendous medical cost … [Read more...]
‘The Man of Conscience’ mistreats reformer Luther
Two DVDs of “A Man for all Seasons” show the powerful moral conscience of Thomas More and his deep commitment to Catholicism. But reading a book by Alister McGrath, “In the Beginning,” I would not elevate More to sainthood because of his scatological comments made about Martin Luther. The subtitle of the McGrath book is: “The Story of the King James Bible and How It … [Read more...]
Global warming poses threat of future calamity
Despite pooh-poohers like President Trump, global warming proponents keep piling up evidence to support their case that mankind is polluting the environment. Recent evidence. First, Sparks and Reno temperatures have soared to 100 degrees, or nearly so, for five straight weeks—an unprecedented hot spell. Far more convincing is a three-trillion-ton iceberg in the … [Read more...]
Kennedy most powerful U.S. public official
News out of Washington about the Supreme Court is good. Justice Anthony Kennedy will serve at least one more term. Why is such trivia good news? Because Justice Kennedy is the “swing” vote keeping the Roberts Court from reactionary rule. Kennedy is 81. He has served 30 years on the Supreme Court and might well have retired. Fortunately, he didn’t. Here are some cases … [Read more...]
Arch-reactionary Trump wrongly called populist
No word in the English language is more misused and abused than populist. Sloppy use of the language these days has some writers calling President Trump and Marie Le Pen of France populists. Both are arch-reactionaries. All writers planning to use the word populist or populism in articles should first read “Populist Response to Industrial America” by the late Norman Pollack. … [Read more...]
The hazards of military worship
By Danny Sjursen Army strategist and former instructor at West Point as told to Truthout, online news agency: “Commanding a small cavalry troop of 85 men in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan, in 2006-2007, I asked for more troopers, more Special Forces advisers, more Afghan police, more air support, more supplies and more money. “I wanted these resources to protect the … [Read more...]