"In this way, in increments both measurable and not, our childhood is stolen from us -- not always in one momentous event but often in a series of small robberies, which add up to the same loss." -- John Irving

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The Republican Hat Trick

As a child, I never really liked “Alice in Wonderland.” Psychopathic playing cards, disappearing cats, time-challenged bunnies and mad hatters—it was all too much for me, and far too abstract. I was more of a Curious George person. A monkey in a room with a can of paint—this was something I could comprehend and relate to. Lately, though, I have found myself revisiting Alice’s Wonderland to gain some perspective on the current state of US politics. Most of the time I feel as though I, like Alice, have fallen down a rabbit hole and am now in some alternate reality where up is down, black is white and Republicans are for the working class while Democrats are for the effete, rich, snobbish elite. See? It makes no sense. Oh, there goes the rabbit! For a book I was researching once, I studied the confidence games used by hucksters throughout the centuries to separate the rubes from their money. Now, I stand at the edge of a crowd gathered around the grifter as he moves the shells b...
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