I  heard it again today.  “Oh, I never read fiction.  I prefer non-fiction.” My molars dug into the side of my cheek so that I could hold my tongue. People who make this remark seem to imagine reading fiction is a frivolous pastime.  In my experience, men most often hold this

About the superrich and taxes, Leona Helmsley, deceased New York real estate tycoon, was candid.   “We don’t pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes.” Donald Trump, our 45th President and a real estate mogul of a later generation, admits the same.  What’s more, the newe

In the 1960s, Peter Weiss stunned the world with his play, The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade. The story depicts a French asylum in 1808 in which the inmates re-enact 

Want to know if you have an empathy deficit?  Try this experiment.  Without looking into a mirror, draw the letter E on your forehead.  If you print the letter as it might appear on the back of your eyelids, rather than the way someone else might read it, you may want to consider a

Was it madness or was there method in it?  That is a question political historians far into the future will ponder as they assess the conduct of America’s 45th President.  Several months ago, I raised the potential for his madness on a local talk show, comparing Donald Trump’s p

I know what it’s like to slam my finger in a car door.  The pain is intense.  Yet, at the same time, I curse myself for being stupid. That’s how I feel whenever I watch the 45TH American president on television.  I suffer when he lies; I curse the embarrassment we’ve heaped u

In the opening scene of the film, The Graduate, the operative word was “plastics.”  Today, Dustin Hoffman is all grown up, though that scene remains a movie classic.  For billionaire Jeremy Grantham the new word for this era is “topsoil.”  Necessary to feed a burgeoning glo

An interesting poll came out the other day. (“Poll Watch,” The Week, Feb 8, 2019, pg. 17)  Fifty-five percent of Americans favor receiving a health care plan through Medicare, but only 37% would be willing to raise taxes for it.  Presidential aspirant, Kamala Harris, and Senator

Recently, the super-rich and super powerful gathered for the annual economic summit in Davos, Switzerland.  There, they received a report from Oxfam.  It said the 26 richest people in the world own as much wealth as half the human race. (“Davos: Skiing past a world in crisis,” T

“Tax the rich.” The chant gets louder as the liberal left begins to flex its muscles  Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) cites history as evidence the rich could pay more taxes.  She reminds us at one point in our history the tax rate was as high as 70%. I’m no economics major, as