Here are the 10 Throwback Wednesday columns that attracted the most readers in 2023.
Enjoy!
10. A Quarter-Century of Climate Silliness
“Hansen’s sweaty certainty, offered before a dais of fedpols and gaggle of reporters, garnered global warming the solemnity it had long sought. And in case there was any doubt about the implications of the ‘science,’ a fellow panelist spooked senators with a grim analog. Global warming, the Woods Hole Research Center’s George M. Woodwell intoned, ‘has the potential for turning the world into a form of chaos not greatly different from that produced by global war.’”
9. Skipping College? 10-4, Good Buddy
“Truckers move nearly 70 percent of all domestic freight, and in 2014, the industry’s revenue topped $700 billion. It’s an essential part of our globalized economy, and thanks to Jimmy Carter, barriers to entry are tiny. Yes, it was one of the conservative entertainment complex’s favorite whipping boys who signed the Motor Carrier Act of 1980.”
8. Does the ‘Ghost Cat’ Prowl Connecticut?
“Even scoffers admit that theoretically, the amazingly adaptable mountain lion could thrive in the New England of the 21st century. It’s foolish to question the cat’s stunning ability to survive in widely varied environments. In the Rockies, it lives at high altitudes. (Hunting pumas is legal in most western states — thousands are killed every year — but California voters banned the practice in 1990.) In the Southwest, it lives in deserts. In Central and South America, it lives in jungles, where it competes for prey with the leopard.”
7. Good Riddance to ‘The Conscience of the Senate’
“Adherence to the moral tenets of orthodox Judaism wasn’t a priority for the twice-married Lieberman, but the senator never tired of peddling the claptrap that that the U.S. will never be safe until the Jewish State’s enemies are vanquished. In his shilling for Israel — a country Lieberman wasn’t born in, and is unlikely to immigrate to — no tactic stooped too low. As columnist Glenn Greenwald observed in 2010, the senator and fellow Israel Firsters ‘cynically exploit extremist Christian Rapture dogma for greater American fealty towards Israeli actions.’”
6. Solving an Astronomical Problem
“Hopkins Observatory, Harvard College Observatory, Cincinnati Observatory, Georgetown University Astronomical Observatory, Detroit Observatory, Lick Observatory, Mount Wilson Observatory, Lowell Observatory, Palomar Observatory, Griffith Observatory. They weren’t products of ‘public investment,’ but the generosity of deep-pocketed men. (Griffith remains ‘a free-admission facility.’)”
5. ‘Hope and Change’ — It Only Looks Dead
“The Republican nominee can rely on more states, but not many people live in Alaska, Idaho, Nebraska, and West Virginia.”
4. A Hero — and Victim — of the Cold War
“Adolph Tolkachev was a hero in the crusade against totalitarianism. He was also a victim of Washington’s self-appointed, and frequently deadly, mission to bring down what one CIA operative called ‘a country that can’t even make toasters.’”
3. Waging a Class War on America’s Pets
“The publication found that between 2007 and 2011, average annual household expenses on pets rose from $430.80 to $502.05. No category saw a decline — not food, not supplies, not services, not vet bills.”
2. God’s Man in the Caligula Administration
“The cool-headed, guitar-strumming churchgoer from Squaresville, U.S.A. and the bombastic New York ‘businessman’ with the habits of a rutting bull elk joined forces, and pulled off perhaps the greatest presidential upset in American history.”
1. A Useful Idiot for Big Government’s Status Quo
“Either way, he’s used his media-darling, Serious Public Servant standing to legitimize the continuance of high taxes, a massive military-industrial complex, and unworkable, European-style healthcare and pension programs.”