Archive
Toxic Teflon
Teflon, you might have heard, may cause cancer. The culprit was a toxic, now retired compound called PFOA. Also known as C8, the chemical became the subject of a major lawsuit accusing DuPont — the manufacturer of the popular nonstick coating — of sickening thousands...
There Are No Words Left for the GOP Charade
Help! We political wordsmiths are in urgent need of assistance from lexicologists. The Republican presidential primary has gone so far out, so beyond accepted boundaries of civic and civil behavior, that we've run out of words to describe the extreme weirdness. Words...
Clear-Cut Paternity Case
What Are We Paying Mitch McConnell For?
Why should you and I have to keep paying Mitch McConnell's salary? The Kentucky Republican is the Senate majority leader, but he doesn't lead much. In fact, he really doesn't do much of anything. McConnell says “no” to every task at hand. Repair and replace the...
In OtherWords: March 2, 2016
This week in OtherWords, Donald Kaul gets dramatic with Hillary Clinton’s astronomic Wall Street speaking fees, Marc Morial hails the re-enfranchisement of thousands of formerly incarcerated Marylanders, and I explain why Al Gore has cheered up. If you haven’t already...
Paying for Low-Wage Pollution
Imagine if a corporation set up shop in your community and immediately dumped toxic sludge in your local waterways and buried radioactive waste next to your biggest playground. You and your neighbors, I bet, would demand full compensation from that corporation to pay...
A Voting Rights Victory in Maryland
Thousands of Marylanders will regain the right to cast their ballots this election year, thanks to the state’s lawmakers. The Maryland House and Senate recently voted to override a veto by Governor Larry Hogan to ensure that ex-offenders will automatically get their...
The Cocktail Option
Over half a million people in the United States will die of cancer this year — more than 1,500 a day. It’s so common that we’ve grown numb to the risks. But this could change sooner than you might think. President Barack Obama has put Vice President Joe Biden in...
The Elephant in the Race
The audience in the theater takes its seats and slowly settles down. The curtain rises on a conventional living room in a conventional American home, neither squalid nor opulent. Middle class, it whispers. A woman of a certain age sits in a chair in the middle of the...
Al Gore Moves to the Bright Side
Remember An Inconvenient Truth? In addition to proving that people will pay good money to watch a movie costarring Al Gore and a PowerPoint presentation, that Oscar-winning documentary elevated climate change to an issue that everyone should fret about. In the decade...
