Donald Trump is popular with certain fans not despite but because of his outrageousness. Mark Twain has a humorous piece, “The Presidential Candidate,” that captures how much fun such outrageousness can be.
Monthly Archives: September 2016
Twain Anticipated Trump’s Crazy Talk
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Mark Twain, Presidential Candidate Comments closed
i sing of Kaepernick glad and big
The case of NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick not standing for the national anthem brings to mind E. E. Cummings’s “i sing of Olaf,” where an American conscientious objector refuses to honor the flag and is tortured.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "i sing of olaf", Arthur Miller, censorship, Colin Kaepernick, Crucible, e. e. cummings, first amendment, football NFL, SCOTUS Comments closed
Schlafly, Model for Atwood’s Serena Joy
Recently deceased Phyllis Schlafly served as the model for Serena Joy in Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel “Handmaid’s Tale.” Because Serena Joy gets the society she says she wants, however, her life turns bitter. Schlafly was lucky to live in a society that allowed women to have their own careers.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged anti-feminism, Feminism, gender repression, Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood, Phyllis Schlafly, Sexism Comments closed
Work Makes Us Soar, Money Not So Much
In her novel “Leaps fo Faith,” Rachel Kranz helps us understand what work means to us. Citing Marx, she notes that work helps us express our essence but that, when it becomes part of the cash nexus, we find ourselves alienated from it.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged class struggle, Labor history, Leaps of Faith, Rachel Kranz, Work Comments closed
The Singing of a Flute Came from the Sea
Summer, with its memories of water and sun, may be ending, but this Frithjof Schuon reminds us that the real summer is within.
Satanic Trump Unleashing Dark Forces
When Donald Trump excited the alt-right with his Wednesday night speech promising to deport all undocumented immigrants, he reminded me of Milton’s Satan inspiring Sin and Death after engineering the Fall.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Immigration, John Milton, Paradise Lost, politics Comments closed
