2013 - Richard M. Langworth

Bill Tilden 1935-2013: Tribute to a Friend

20 December 2013 Comments 1 Comment

Written for the Society of Automotive Historians Journal

U.S. Coast Guard Base, Gloucester City, New Jersey, July 1965: A call from the Ops office—“Sir, there’s a civilian here asking for you. He’s driving the weirdest car I’ve ever seen.”

It was Bill, of course. We clicked from the start. Within a week he hied me off to north Philadelphia to help strip the oddly attractive, faux lizard skin upholstery out of a rusty old car. It turned out a bad mistake—we’d junked an ultra-rare 1951 Kaiser Emerald Dragon. They built maybe six….

Bill’s automotive tastes were catholic, ranging from the E-type Jaguar he bought new and raced—probably the oldest in the hands of its original owner—to a 1941 Cadillac Sixty-Special, several Continentals and late-model Mopars, which he acquired as “future collectibles” from Chrysler, where he then worked, building dealerships.…

Churchill and Health Care (2): An Ongoing Discussion

30 October 2013 Comments 0 Comments

"A question Churchill had to face in his time was: if you are for the social safety net, including health care, how do you prevent that from building a society of "drones" (his word), ultimately dominated by a bureaucratic elite? Churchill answered that question in many ways: the social safety net is simple justice, he said; without it the 'people will set their faces like flint against the money power' A constitution should protect the people against this tendency."

Syria: Stop the Churchill Comparisons!

10 September 2013 Comments 0 Comments

Mr. Brent Budowski adds to the long list of Churchill comparisons over the Syria tragedy by comparing President Obama to Sir Winston (The Hill, September 13th). Senators Ted Cruz (R., Tex.), and Rand Paul (R., Ky.), and Rep. Alan Grayson (D., Fla.) “literally offer no policy and no ideas about how to stop the slaughter of innocent people with chemical weapons.”

Obama by contrast “has made the hard call and proposed the strong action that would take a real stand and make a real difference.” Just like Churchill in the 1930s, “when the Spanish fascists with support from Hitler and Mussolini began their attacks against the Republican government of Spain.”…