When I was a student reading Thorstain Vebler’s The Theory of the Leisure Class, the phrase conspicuous consumption was the catalyst for such discussion and disagreement. I knew it existed…conspicuous consumption, that is. I had read of William Randolph Hearst’s San Simeon…and as a kid in Teaneck, New Jersey we drove on Windson Avenue to look at the massive Tudor houses that suggested there were people in our midst who lived quite extravagantly, different from those families that were...
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In the superb new movie, Sugar, a young Dominican man is trained and convinced that the fulfillment of his dreams would be to play major league baseball. He is a talented, sensitive athlete and his prospects are good…as he enters a training program which slightly resembles a cult.

Young men at the brink of manhood are grilled, drilled and prepared to move to the United States and become prosperous athletes, bringing pride and dollars to their families and country. It’s about dreams – som...
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March came in like a lion and went out like a lion. April hasn’t proved to be much better. The weather seems determined to reflect the news. A little sunshine might alleviate the gloom that permeates the nation…in fact the world. Unemployment, reports of tent cities, Hoovervilles, if you will, and a determination of right wing ideologues to undermine every effort to pull us out of this morass.

I grew up in an aura of American invincibility. We fought and won WWII because God was on our sid...
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A couple of times each week, I tune into Fox News. It’s like getting the Post without paying 50 cents. I know that it will get my blood pressure up…but it’s important for me to understand or at least recognize the thinking of some citizens whose perspective I find baffling and often offensive. They are there and they always HAVE BEEN. Rush Limbaugh didn’t invent it. Before him there was Father Coughlin, Westbrook Pagler and a host of others.

Fox rarely disappoints. This week O’Reilly...
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Mayor Mike Bloomberg, speaking for 2% of the richest Americans, was reported to be in opposition to the tax increase for the most comfortable of his fellow citizens. He suggested that it would have a negative trickle-down effect…meaning less money being spent by the entitlement people. That would translate into fewer jobs for the little people – the teensy, weensy people who work a 40-hour plus week for much less money that the 2-percenters. Mayor Mike’s theory is that there just wouldn...

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