Hoyt Hilsman

I'm not crying crocodile tears over the decision by the Justice Department to sue Apple and the major publishing houses for price-fixing, especially since it will benefit not only readers, but also authors. But I am bewildered by the hue and cry from the publishing community by the argument that...

President Obama's visit to the Summit of the Americas in Colombia underlines America's failures to confront global and economic challenges as we focus inwardly on our own political squabbles and endure partisan gridlock. It also demonstrates our blindness toward developments around the world -- particularly in our own hemisphere --...

A very clear argument is emerging in this year's presidential campaign: higher taxes for the wealthy and investing in the middle class versus lower taxes for the rich and cutting middle class entitlements. The Republicans argue that lowering taxes and cutting entitlements will stimulate growth -- a dubious proposition at...

President Obama recently characterized the Republican governing philosophy as nothing but "social Darwinism."

"If you get sick, you're on your own," Obama said. "If you can't afford college, you're on your own. If you don't like that some corporation is polluting your air or the air that...

It now looks like the Supreme Court will do what the rest of the country has been doing for a hundred years -- kick the health care can down the road. If the Court -- as it now appears it will -- rules the individual mandate unconstitutional, but...

While the Supreme Court wrestles with how to untangle the constitutional complexities of the Affordable Care Act, the politics are becoming crystal clear -- and they may ultimately benefit those of us who would like to see affordable, high-quality health care for all Americans.

As we have learned from...

One of the most difficult emotions to portray onstage is boredom. And yet boredom -- or world-weariness -- is as complex as any human emotion. It mixes elements of anxiety, fear, depression and longing into an existential theatrical stew that is rarely attempted by dramatic writers, and usually with...

While the rise of Rick Santorum in the national polls of Republican voters may cheer many Democrats, who believe that he would be a weak general election candidate, there are some signs that Santorum may be a more formidable opponent than most people think. There are a couple of reasons...

Would you support the death penalty for bankers or corporate executives who cheat clients, customers or the government out of millions, or even billions, of dollars? That's the question that is raging through China these days as 30 year old multi-millionaire Wu Ying, once one of the richest women in...

Journalist Pamela Druckerman's new book Bringing Up Bébé, which generally praises French child-rearing techniques, is causing quite a stir. Druckerman, who lives in Paris, writes that French children sleep through the night at three months, eat well-rounded meals at regular hours (no snacking) and are generally much better...

The recent dust-up between the Hollywood studios and Internet companies reveals how out of touch Hollywood has become with its own customers. The idea of punishing consumers for ignoring Hollywood's business model is a futile strategy, as the music companies have learned over the past decade.

As Chris Anderson...

Thorton Wilder's play is arguably the greatest work in American dramatic literature. It combines elements of the mundane and universal, the quotidian and the divine, the parochial and the eternal. Director David Cromer has reassembled the award-winning production that had a successful run at the Barrow Street Theatre in...

The Actors Gang, founded in 1981 by Tim Robbins and a group of LA actors, and whose members include Jack Black and John Cusack, has become a staple in the Los Angeles theater scene. While the company has had its ups and downs, it is now on firm footing, presenting...

With the decline in funding for arts education, one of the most pressing needs in our nation is for the development of young artists in the visual, performing and literary arts. Since 1981, YoungArts, the core program of the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts (NFAA)...

A new musical from the creators of Avenue Q, In the Heights, Next to Normal and other hit shows just opened in LA and it is a smash-mouth cheerleading sensation, with dazzling choreography, standout performances and even a couple of provocative ideas to chew on. What more could you want...

You would think that a wholesale customer revolt against the big banks, including Bank of America, Chase and the others, might wake them up to the error of their ways in soaking their depositors with fees for everything from checking accounts to ATMs. But bank transfer protests and demonstrations...

The Shakespearean authorship controversy has spawned its own genre of books, films and plays, most recently the movie Anonymous, which dramatizes the theory that Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, was the author of the Shakespearean canon. The "Oxfordian" theory is just as weak as any...

The prospects for President Obama's re-election have dimmed considerably in the past few months, but it is worth considering -- especially for his supporters -- what an Obama second term might look like. While the President's failings in the first term have been well chronicled, most recently in Ron Suskind's...

A few years ago, as I was preparing to run for Congress in California, one of my first steps was to hire a campaign treasurer. My friends who were elected officials recommended Kinde Durkee -- without any reservation. Durkee, who had represented dozens of Democratic officials and organizations, seemed...

In his recent book, Pinched, about the Great Recession, author Don Peck points out that the top 1 percent of Americans possess as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent. In terms of income growth, two out of every three dollars in growth goes to the top 1 percent,...