Jeffrey Gillespie: Blinded by the white
A recent letter in the Tidings from Ashland resident James Adams gave me pause. Adams is irritated by the fact that OSF has stated in a recent open letter that racist incidents are "happening daily in...
View ArticleJeffrey Gillespie: Citizen Kaine
With Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump at the forefront of the silly season in 2016, it’s not at all surprising that there has not been much oxygen left in the room for their vice presidential picks....
View ArticleJeffrey Gillespie: The Manafort conundrum
Just when you thought the Donald Trump campaign couldn’t get any weirder, his campaign chairman, the opaque but charismatic Paul Manafort, has become embroiled in a political intrigue the likes of...
View ArticleJeffrey Gillespie: Wilder at heart
If I were to tell you that Bertolt Brecht, that scion of 20th century epic theater, was a significant contributor to some of the best of Borscht Belt-style slapstick comedy during the latter part of...
View ArticleJeffrey Gillespie: The problem with Saint Teresa
It’s tricky, even in this day and age, to go after a figure so universally revered and wholly worshiped as the newly sainted Mother Teresa of Calcutta.So beatific is she in the eyes of guilty...
View ArticleJeffrey Gillespie: A confederacy of deplorables
As far as gaffes go, Hillary Clinton and her "basket of deplorables" (when read within the context of her full statement) isn't nearly as bad as conservatives might have you think it is. Unfortunately...
View ArticleHerb Rothschild Jr.: Peaceful patriotism
The Fourth of July prompts reflections on patriotism. We might discover something of worth if we can get past its association with war.The founders of our nation created something unprecedented: They...
View ArticleHerb Rothschild Jr.: 'Remain,' reluctantly
While writing my July 2 column on patriotism, I knew I would follow it up with reflections on Brexit, Great Britain’s narrow vote to withdraw from the European Union. One reason is the Brexit debate...
View ArticleHerb Rothschild Jr.: New developments
Most of the subjects of my column are ongoing concerns. They don’t go away just because I’ve had my say. So periodically I like to report relevant developments.Saudi Arabia: In my May 27 column I...
View ArticleHerb Rothschild Jr.: Different yardsticks
Last July I told you that I knew David Duke personally. He enrolled at LSU in fall 1968, three years after I joined the faculty and two years after I founded the local ACLU chapter. Several times he...
View ArticleHerb Rothschild Jr.: Tools of change
During this year’s commemoration of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, one event focused on civil disobedience as a tool of social change. The program planners scheduled it because we had as a...
View ArticleHerb Rothschild Jr.: A second movement
We’re now in the midst of a second civil rights movement. Just as the abolition movement ended slavery but not inequality for African Americans, so the first civil rights movement ended legal...
View ArticleHerb Rothschild Jr.: The Gülen extradition
Although he’s been living in the U.S. since 1997, Muhammed Fethullah Gülen isn’t a household name here. He may soon become one. In the wake of the failed coup attempt in Turkey last month, President...
View ArticleHerb Rothschild Jr.: Labor Day thoughts
Oregon was the first state to declare Labor Day an official holiday. That was in 1887, one year after thousands of U.S. workers went on strike and rallied for the eight-hour day. At the rally in...
View ArticleHerb Rothschild Jr.: Time to end the war
Early last year I published a column about the war on drugs. In its original version I asserted that the seemingly failed war hasn’t ended because the real motives behind it were to furnish pretexts...
View ArticleHerb Rothschild Jr.: Measure 97 explained
Measure 97 is the most significant measure on our upcoming state ballot. If passed, it will raise funds dedicated to education, health care and senior services by increasing the minimum tax on...
View ArticleHerb Rothschild Jr.: Corporate taxes
This is the second of three columns on Measure 97 which, if passed, will raise funds intended for education, health care and senior services by increasing the minimum tax on corporations with $25...
View ArticleHerb Rothschild Jr.: Measure 97, Part 3
This is the last of three columns on Measure 97, which proposes to raise funds for education, health care and senior services by increasing the minimum tax on a corporation’s annual sales of $25...
View ArticleHerb Rothschild Jr.: Revolution? Not really
The faculty member who taught Russian history during most of my years at LSU told me that when he first developed his course on revolutions, he wasn’t sure if he should include National Socialism. But...
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