It’s 2015, you know, and a tea party fantasy looks to be realized. No, we’re not talking about Republican control of both houses of Congress. We’re talking about the fantasy that begat a sequel to “Back to the Future.” If you recall, the last lines in this first movie came from old Doc…
DetailsThe dryer went kaput. We ordered a new one, but the pile of laundry couldn’t wait until a way-past-New Year’s Eve delivery. So my bride and I ushered in 2015 at the laundromat. I wished Mitt Romney could have been with us, there among the people who pay a penalty every day for…
DetailsThe Cuba embargo sounded like a good thing in 1960. So did the hula hoop, and Bobby Darin. You can still find a hula hoop, but it has long since stopped being state-of-the-art childhood fare anymore — except maybe in Cuba, where the 1959 Chevy remains king of the road. Sadly, life…
DetailsIf a war on Christmas actually exists, it began with Bing Crosby and a Jew. Crosby and composer Irving Berlin didn’t mean to wage war on Christmas. They meant to have a hit song. “White Christmas” was that. In a PBS documentary about Crosby, biographer Gary Giddens calls the song, the most popular…
Details‘Tis the season. Long before “holiday giving” became a catch phrase, a group sought to slow down America’s No. 1 infectious killer, one penny at a time. So began Christmas Seals – the campaign which in 1907 set out to conquer the “white plague.” A few readers will guess what that plague was,…
DetailsPolice did not kill Michael Brown. One policeman did. Black people did not burn down buildings in Ferguson, Mo. A few idiots did. It is our sad nature to assign the acts of one, or of a few, to the many (see: Islam) and that’s one reason why we appear to be going…
DetailsMaybe the most insidious modifier in the ongoing disservice we call education reform is “outcome-based.” As in, “To make students voracious readers, use this method.” As in, “To prepare students for four-year colleges, use this method.” Usually “outcome-based” methods are described as “evidence-based.” Bring out the charts and graphs. “Outcome-based” sounds…
DetailsI realize that we in the media constantly ladle concerns on top of worries. You are worried plenty, for instance, by news that Black Friday at most major retailers now will start at 5 a.m. July 5. Today, however, a much greater concern presents itself. It has to do with holiday-themed ice cream. …
DetailsThe Indianapolis Star has apologized, but surely some of its readers ask: Why? The cartoon that it published carried the sentiments of every American who is horrified – horrified, I tell you — about President Obama’s directive on deportations. Drawn by Gary Varvel, it depicts a white family whose Thanksgiving peace is…
DetailsWatching the indescribable sacrifices of America’s infantry in the trenches of World War II, legendary war correspondent Ernie Pyle made a plea in print. Pay for enlisted men overseas made no distinction between those dodging bullets and those in the typist pool. That was wrong, he wrote. Those with mud on their faces…
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