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1984

Letters to the editor

Jim Newton Itasca Ronald Reagan vs. Walter Mondale was an election for the ages. In my nostalgic mind, I found both men capable, even likable during the 1984 presidential campaign. They didn’t instinctively hate each other over policy differences. Despite its book-title implications, 1984 wasn’t that bad. America’s economy was recovering from the 1981-82 recession and optimism was growing. I think we can forgive “1984” author George Orwell for being 40 years early on his otherwise prescient vision. For me, that vision began during the 1988 George H.W. Bush vs. ...

Code Noir a reminder for states to clean up antiquated laws

Our View

In yesterday’s edition of The Express, we published a story about the French National Assembly’s unanimous decision to repeal the country’s long-dormant Code Noir, or Black Code. Enacted in 1685 under King Louis XIV, this decree was designed to regulate slavery across France’s colonial empire. The law, which quietly remained part of the legal code for 178 years after the country’s abolition of slavery, classified human beings as property and permitted them to be worked, beaten, sold, raped and murdered. In France and around the world, many were disturbed by the realization ...

Dear Annie: Mocktails today, martinis tomorrow?

Columns

Dear Annie: My granddaughter allows her son to order mocktails — drinks that sound like the adult version but don’t have liquor in them. Even though they are virgin drinks, I’m afraid this will lead him to drinking real alcohol at a young age. What do you think? — Concerned About the Message Dear Concerned: Your worry comes from a loving place. To you, these mocktails feel like “training wheels” for real drinks, making alcohol seem glamorous before your great-grandson is old enough to understand it. Still, a Shirley Temple with a cherry in it is not the same as handing ...

Dear Annie: Left out of the family picture

Columns

Dear Annie: My stepson of 15 years, “Toby,” is getting married. I’ve always had a great relationship with him and his bride-to-be, and I’ve treated her like she was already family. Here’s my dilemma: Toby got angry with me because my sister, who worked at his and my husband’s company, decided to quit and move on. He blamed the whole ordeal on me, even though I had nothing to do with her decision. My husband — his father — even told him that directly. Recently, the bride sent out the wedding and rehearsal itineraries. She excluded me from everything and also wrote ...

A nation of suspects

Columns

Some of the recent legal challenges to the use of surveillance by the Department of Homeland Security upon Americans have resulted in the revelation of truly terrifying behavior by the government, in direct defiance of the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution. We now know that the federal government spies on innocent Americans without suspicion and without warrants. The spying seems to fall into several categories. The National Security Agency, which is in the Department of Defense, employs about 60,000 domestic spies. These are the folks who want us to believe that they go through the ...

One ballot measure extends California’s taxing power. Another limits it. Stay tuned.

Columns

Californians will face two competing tax measures this November. The first is the Billionaire Tax Act, a onetime, 5% levy on the accumulated net worth of the state’s richest residents. Lesser known is the Retirement and Personal Savings Protection Act, which would draw constitutional lines around what Sacramento can and cannot tax, prohibiting new levies on retirement accounts, personal savings and individually owned assets and banning retroactive taxation. Everyone with even just a little bit of money set aside — not just the California billionaires targeted by the wealth tax — ...