Volume 270 | No. 8

Mon, Dec 29

2006—The UK pays off its $100,000,000 WW II debt to the U.S. 1975—Eleven people are killed and 74 wounded when a bomb explodes in a storage locker at LaGuardia Airport. The crime remains unsolved. 1973—The HMO Act privatizes healthcare and introduces for-profit medicine. What could go wrong? 1972—Operation Linebacker II, which Richard “Dick” Nixon will call “my terrible personal ordeal,” ends. U.S. losses: 15 downed B-52s, 12 other aircraft, 43 KIA, & 49 POWs. 1930—Fred Newton arrives at New Orleans after swimming 1,826 miles down the Mississippi River. 1916—Poisoned, stabbed, beaten, shot three times, and thrown unconscious into the freezing Neva River, Tsarina Alexandra’s faith-healer …

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Sun, Dec 28

2013—Congress ends long-term unemployment benefits to 1.3 million Americans, damaging the economy to the tune of an estimated 240,000 jobs. 1986—Terry Dolan, closeted, anti-gay GOP activist, dies of AIDS. 1983—Dr. George Graham, of President Reagan’s Task Force on Food Assistance, says Black children are “probably the best-nourished group in the U.S.”—citing athletes as proof. 1973—In space, the crew of Skylab goes on strike to protest over-work and micro-management. NASA meets the demands of the astronauts. 1973—The Akron, Ohio Chamber of Commerce denounces the Soap Box Derby as a cheat and a fraud. 1971—At the White House, 88 ’Nam vets are busted for protesting their war. …

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We’ve All Done It

[Who among us has never written a check, early in January, and written upon it the previous year’s date? The same pitfall awaits publishers. In 1886, our predecessor, Washington Freeman, fell victim to it. We did the same one year, we can’t recall exactly when. — The Ed.] The police of Detroit, Mich., formed themselves into a mob on the night of Dec. 29th, and destroyed the office of the Sunday Sun, a sensational newspaper which had criticized their conduct. The streets of Lawrence, Mass., are now lighted with the Edison incandescent electric light. Judge Yates, of Peoria, Ill., has gone to Canada after stealing …

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Republicans in Disarray

To the Editor: In looking at the results in Georgia and Miami, Florida, the Republican Party is in a complete meltdown. For the first time in 30 years, a Democrat will represent the City of Miami. In Georgia, a Democrat won a seat in the Georgia House of Representatives. It should be noted that the Republican Party gerrymandered the seat, for the record. The 2025 elections are a warning sign for the 26 elections. Even in the strongholds where the GOP does well, nowhere is safe. If the trend holds (which is a strong possibility), the GOP will be wiped off the map, the likes …

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Serving Our Nation and Protecting Our Freedoms

by W.D. Ehrhart I recently received an invitation from my Congresswoman, Mary Gay Scanlon (D, Pa. 5th Dist.), to participate in something called the Veterans History Project. Her letter begins: “Our veterans and fallen service members put their lives on the line to serve our nation and protect our freedoms, so it is important that we preserve their stories for our nation’s history and to foster community among our veterans. That is why I am pleased to announce my office’s participation in the Veterans History Project (VHP) run by the Library of Congress.” The problem here is that most veterans since at least the end …

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Perhaps This Was Not Such a Great Idea

Roughly 8.2 billion humans are alive today. In some ways they are all identical, in others unique. Their variability is astonishing:  a Canadian woman spent 37 years in a coma. On the other hand, we have Shohei Ohtani. Over the 300,000 years we have wandered on this planet, we have repeatedly organized ourselves into hierarchical structures. Every hierarchy requires someone or something at the top: a king, a triumvirate, a troika, a prime minister, a dictator, a Führer… whatever. The power of this position may or may not be limited by other structures: a council, a parliament, the courts, and so on. Geography, as much …

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