Tag Archives: Christmas Carol

Dickens Returned Christmas to Its Roots

By Robin Bates | Published: December 23, 2014

Dickens’ “Christmas Carol” returned the Christmas celebration to its medieval folk roots.

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Dickens, We Need You (and Also FDR)

By Robin Bates | Published: December 24, 2013

With unemployment insurance set to run out next week, it’s time to invoke Charles Dickens’ “Christmas Carol.” FDR did so.

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Are There No Emergency Rooms?

By Robin Bates | Published: August 7, 2013

Scrooge asks, “Are there no workhouses?” Today’s GOP asks, “Are there no emergency rooms?”

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Compassion for the Poor Is Not Enough

By Robin Bates | Published: August 6, 2013

Speaking with the head as well as the heart against oppressive class conditions is necessary in novels as in public policy.

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Deficit Plan: No Food Stamps for the Rich

By Robin Bates | Published: December 14, 2011

The “New Yorker’s” Hendrik Herzberg has a perfect Anatole France quotation for Republican plans to pay for extending the payroll tax exemption.

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Warren Buffett, Dickensian Philanthropist

By Robin Bates | Published: August 18, 2011

Warren Buffett’s op-ed article that the wealthy should pay more taxes is reminding me of Charles Dickens’ benevolent philanthropists, especially Mr. Brownlow in “Oliver Twist.”

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Obamacare to Tiny Tim’s Rescue

By Robin Bates | Published: December 29, 2009

Paul Krugman made clever use of Dickens’ Christmas Carol in a column last week.  The New York Times columnist and Nobel prize winning economist addresses opponents of the health care bills that have emerged out of the House and Senate, arguing that progressives should be pleased, despite the bills’ limitations.  Arguing that politics is the […]

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