Archive
Usurping the Bush and Clinton Dynasties
Buddy, Can You Spare a Dime for a CEO?
Wall Street buccaneer Carl Icahn has pocketed billions for his himself over the years. But now he says he's passionate about helping others. In particular, the corporate-takeover specialist is pushing a charitable cause for people who, through no fault of their own,...
In OtherWords: January 13, 2016
This week in OtherWords, Jim Hightower sums up the logistical challenges behind building Donald Trump's dream wall along the U.S. border with Mexico, I explain why the GOP front-runner's pledge to "take their oil" is a terrible idea, and Donald Kaul observes that...
Winning the Fight for $15 in 2016
Millions of low-paid Americans rang in 2016 with a raise, as a handful of state minimum wage increases went into effect on the first day of January. Many of those raises are a barely noticeable 15 or 20 cents an hour — little comfort to people struggling to make ends...
A Formula for More Murder
Picture a world in which most of the people you encounter — on the street or at work, in stores or classrooms, at the movies or in church — are openly carrying guns. That’s the world Second Amendment absolutists are promoting when they repeat their mantra, "The only...
Throwing My Fez in the Ring
Most presidential candidates, with the glaring exception of Donald Trump, say Islam is no enemy of the United States. I agree wholeheartedly. And how could there be a better way to prove that point than for a Muslim cartoonist to lead this great nation? That’s why I’m...
The Year of Trump
Is 2015 over yet? Is it safe to come out now? What a bummer. Mass shootings, cops using unarmed civilians for target practice, the Middle East in rubble, terrorist attacks, Donald Trump. Trump wasn’t the worst of it, perhaps. But he certainly was the most irritating....
We Shouldn’t Take Their Oil
Donald Trump’s first presidential campaign ad pledges to “take their oil.” That’s what President (gasp) Trump would do after having “quickly cut the head off the Islamic State,” says the deep-voiced narrator. Along with political decapitation, there are many...
Outrage in Oregon
The armed men occupying an isolated federal building in a remote Oregon bird sanctuary say they won't leave until the federal government stops its "tyranny." Yet it's not clear what that tyranny is, exactly. One of the group’s leaders is Ammon Bundy, who, along with...
Our Toxic Failure
Now that it's already been phased out, the world can agree that a chemical used in Teflon — the famous coating on nonstick pots and pans — was toxic. A recent New York Times Magazine article told the story of the heroic victims who paid with their health and the...