Volume 266 | No. 16

Sun, April 24

2020—The lead item on all news broadcasts: the manufacturer has announced that, contrary to what the President has said, people should not inject themselves with Lysol. 1980—Eight Americans die and five are wounded trying to get American hostages out of Teheran. 1967—“The military situation [in South Vietnam] is favorable,” says Gen. Wm. C. Westmoreland, but protests at home might lose the war. 1967—Soyuz 1’s chutes fail; misfiring retro-rockets incinerate the remains of Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov. 1959—Michigan native Capt. John S. Lappo, piloting a six-engine RB-47, flies under the Mackinac Bridge at 425 mph; clearance: 155 feet. 1953—A B-29 with an F-84 bolted to each wingtip …

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Those Stabby Invisible Hands

It’s shocking, this cartoon—let’s admit that right up front. Sadly, it’s also accurate. Some might say it’s offensive to depict the revered personification of our great nation being stabbed in the back. Most likely to voice that objection, we’d wager, would be those who wielded the blades to begin with. If they were to be honest—some imagination is required here—these people would say that the old buzzard has outlived his usefulness. God knows there’s a certain cohort of people in this country—we’d use the term “class,” but that’s verboten—who have worked Uncle Sam like a rented mule. Their next move will be to take him …

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Jackie Robinson Was A Radical

by Peter Dreier In our new book, Baseball Rebels: The Players, People, and Social Movements That Shook Up the Game and Changed America, Rob Elias and I profile the many iconoclasts, dissenters and mavericks who defied baseball’s and society’s establishment. But none took as many risks—and had as big an impact—as Jackie Robinson. Though Robinson was a fierce competitor, an outstanding athlete, and a deeply religious man, the aspect of his legacy that often gets glossed over is that he was also a radical. The sanitized version of the Jackie Robinson story goes something like this: He was a remarkable athlete who, with his unusual …

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