Archive
The Days of Lying to Protect Killer Cops Are Numbered
Right around Thanksgiving, the city of Chicago released a dash-cam video showing the cold-blooded murder of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald at the hands of a Chicago Police Department officer. The very next day, the Chicago Urban League — supported by my organization, the...
Broadband Rates Are Too Damn High
As the digital revolution hurtles ahead, low-income communities across the United States aren’t reaping many of its benefits. The less you make, the less likely it is that you’re hooked up at home. This is especially true if you lack a high school diploma. And the...
Martin Shkreli: My Person of the Year
It’s time — past time, really — to name the person of the year. (TIME Magazine does it. Why not me?) There were many worthy candidates in 2015: the Pope, the Donald, and Luke Skywalker, to name just a few. But only one symbolized the spirit of the year. I speak, of...
Enstrictly Speaking, 2016 Could Be a Trailrazer
My 9-year-old daughter hunkers down for hours with the Warriors books. She’s on her fifth run through the dozens of tomes in this series that our local libraries keep handy about clans of cats who want nothing to do with people. Poring over them does wonders for my...
The GOP Candidates Know Nothing about Syria
Like many political animals, I was glued to the latest Republican presidential debate. For the most part, there were no surprises: Donald Trump railed against Muslims, Chris Christie lamented that the NSA can’t intercept Americans’ phone calls and emails as easily as...
When Life Makes Resolutions for You
Last year, I didn’t make any New Year's resolutions. But it appears that life made them for me. Two changes occurred in my life, and I responded. In retrospect, 2015 produced more personal growth than perhaps any other year of my life. The first change occurred...
For-Profit Colleges Are Scandal Machines
The nation's for-profit, private college industry is a study in horror. Start with the fact that it actually calls itself an "industry." Excuse me, but education is a social investment — not an industrial product. Next, this so-called "private" industry depends almost...
A Chip Off the Old Pharmaberg
The Trans-Pacific Trade Scam
Last spring, President Barack Obama got downright crabby about people criticizing the mammoth Trans-Pacific Partnership he's trying to sell to Congress and the public. More and more Americans are learning that the TPP would undermine America's very sovereignty, giving...
Partnering with the Devil
As a raker of muck, it's my job to root out the nefarious doings and innate immorality of the corporate creature. But these days I'm being rendered obsolete by how ordinary corporate nefariousness has become. The wrongdoings of major corporations, and even entire...
