| Jan 21, 2015 | Environment / HealthMy social circle was shaken a few days into the new year with an upsetting blog post. A friend I will call Mary is seriously ill. The blogger requested loving messages to her to be sewn into a quilt. This bombshell began a flood of phone calls, emails, and Facebook...
| | Economy / BusinessHave you ever wondered what inequality costs the average American family? That is, what price do we pay — in actual dollars and cents — for tolerating an economy fixated on pumping our treasure to the top? That question has no simple answer. How much, for instance,...
| | Rights / DemocracyI recently addressed a rather odd topic for an audience of political progressives: “Who was your sports hero growing up?” Of course, sports today is very political — from billionaire team owners demanding that taxpayers build sports palaces for them, to...
| Jan 20, 2015 | Food / FarmingArmed with hefty grants from the Pentagon, squads of food technologists are on a mission to supplant nature with a great leap forward into the Brave New World of synthetic foodstuffs. Not satisfied merely to tinker with the genetic makeup of nature’s products,...
| Jan 14, 2015 | Environment / HealthI can only imagine the fear that must grip a parent when his or her child suffers an asthma attack. And I can scarcely fathom how much time and energy they spend doing everything they can to avoid triggers for these potentially deadly attacks. A major asthma trigger...
