<...In a 1940 issue of College Life magazine, their is an amusing article about the Communist parties attempts to seduce young men into joining. It seems the communists had several women on each major campus who would provide a 'rewarding experience' for every young man who would sign up. Supposedly thousands of communists were signed up in a short period of time on many campuses.

There are more than a few guys who ended up in the 1960's campus protest scene for similar reasons... ;)

...One of the fifties flaws the US made, was allowing General Motors to dismantle the railroads and destroy much of the rail infrastructure. The railroads, should still be a fundamental alternative to autos.

Don't blame GM, at least not in this area. The two main reasons railroads are not prevalent now are:

- Roads were tax-subsidized, while railroads were not. A big factor. GM (and other car companies) may be partially to blame for this insofar as they may have been a heavy lobbier for tax-supported roads. I don't know if this was actually the case, but it sounds likely.

- People preferred driving (and later taking airplanes) to railroads.

Another example of terrible kids books is the recent book 'No David!' (or is it David, No!' ?) Which stars a kid with all fangs who misbehaves. This book subtly glorifies kids misbehaving. The art in this is also elaborately awful. I think this book was on a recent issue of 'READ'. Books like this are glorified and contribute little to the child's knowledge base other than to laugh and see David run buck naked down the street.

Sorry, can't agree here. Books showing kids getting away with terrible mischief have been fun and popular with kids since they were pressing books into clay.

If you have kids, check out ANY book written by Robert N. Munsch.