The Supreme Court has ruled in favor of problematic drugs for lethal injection. The Charles Dickens of “Oliver Twist” would be appalled.
Sign up for my weekly newsletter
Tag Archives: Oliver Twist
GOP Budget Proposes Gruel Cuts
Mean-spirited legislators who seek to cut food stamps and other programs for the poor bear more than a little resemblance to the workhouse authorities in “Oliver Twist.”
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Charles Dickens, food stamps, GOP, GOP budget, Medicaid, Paul Ryan, poverty, Scott Walker, Tom Cotton Comments closed
Gingrich Auditions for a Dickens Villain
Newt Gingrich’s proposal that poor children be allowed to serve as janitors in their schools calls for a Dickensian response.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Charles Dickens, Newt Gingrich, politics, poverty Comments closed
Warren Buffett, Dickensian Philanthropist
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.”
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Charles Dickens, Christmas Carol, Economic hard times, politics, Taxes, Warren Buffett Comments closed
Fighting Crime through the Classics
Reader Farida Bag sent me a link to an article from the London Guardian about literature being used to rehabilitate prisoners in Texas. The program, called Changing Lives through Literature (here’s the link to their website) has been racking up impressive results: Of the 597 who have completed the course in Brazoria County, Texas, between 1997 […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Changing Lives through Literature, Charles Dickens, Ernest Hemingway, Old Man and the Sea, Prison Comments closed
Is Father-Son Conflict Inevitable?
I had an interesting conversation with my two sons yesterday as we drove them and my daughter-in-law to the Portland airport, marking the beginning of the end of our summer vacation. The conversation began with me wondering why there weren’t works of literature that accurately capture the kind of father-son relationship that I feel that […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens, Cormac McCarthy, Daniel Defoe, David Copperfield, fathers and sons, Great Expectations, Hamlet, Henry IV, Homer, Human Stain, Lawrence Sterne, Nicholas Nickleby, Odyssey, Oedipus, Philip Roth, Road, Robinson Crusoe, Shakespeare, Song of Solomon, Toni Morrison, Tristram Shandy Comments closed