Lloyd Constantine

"America is better than that"

Why can't iPads and similar gadgets be made here, not in China?

For a moment last month, many momentous troubles and triumphs seemed to recede and our focus shifted to Apple CEO Tim Cook as he took to a San Francisco stage to introduce the newest iPad tablet computer. These periodic unveilings are highly choreographed performances, perfected by Cook's predecessor, the late Steve Jobs. Read More 

A modest proposal

The Weekender has been a bit ornery of late, heaping criticisms on elected officials past, present and also on the campaigning wannabes. It’s time for me to ratchet down the cynicism and start to “give back” by making a constructive proposal which would improve our society. Although this proposal may at first seem radical, when readers calmly and carefully consider it, they will conclude that it is beneficial, practical and in the truest sense modest. Read More 

"The sins of our politics"

From Carter to Santorum, disdain for what America represents

When it comes to divisive and mean-spirited injection of religion into American politics, things have reached a new low — at least from the vantage point of an observer who has watched every presidential election since Eisenhower vs. Stevenson in 1952.

The lowest point in this Death Valley was reached late last month when Rick Santorum, the darling of evangelicals and social conservatives, told us that John F. Kennedy's landmark 1960 speech about his commitment to honor the Constitution's separation of church and state made him "want to throw up." Read More 

Jimmy Carter began the nasty, divisive use of religion in modern American politics

When it comes to divisive and mean-spirited injection of religion into American politics, things have reached a new low — at least from the vantage point of this observer, who has watched every presidential election since the Eisenhower/Stevenson contest in 1952.

The lowest point in this Death Valley was reached last week when Republican candidate Rick Santorum, the darling of evangelicals and social conservatives, told us that John F. Kennedy’s landmark 1960 speech about his commitment to honor the Constitution’s separation of church and state made him “want to throw up.” Of course, Santorum had grossly distorted the meaning of both JFK’s promise and the Constitution by equating them with “say[ing] that people of faith have no role in the public square.” And Santorum’s lies and/or stupidity were merely the lowest and most recent in a race to the bottom among many of the Republican contenders in this election cycle, where daily we bear witness to polls measuring the suspicion of Mormons by Christian evangelicals and whether they would rather re-elect Barack Hussein Obama, whom they suspect is really Muslim, than elevate Mitt Romney, a proud and clearly professed member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Read More