Archive
Georgia’s Educational Neglect
I worked as a substitute teacher in a Newton, Massachusetts middle school a few months ago. I taught a wide range of kids, including some with behavior-related disabilities. A few of these children needed in-class aides and extra academic support, but they met their...
Who in Their Right Mind?
My immediate reaction to James Holmes’s 2012 shooting rampage at an Aurora, Colorado movie theater was twofold: horror and incomprehension. Who in their right mind could do such a thing? Who in their "right mind," indeed. This summer, a jury found Holmes guilty of...
The Only Game in Town
The stock market is down. It must be some crazy thing China has done. Those Communist countries just don’t understand how capitalism works. No, wait! The market just went up. Did China fix its capital markets already? Not really. More likely it’s that our Federal...
Hurricane Francis
Battles are raging over whether local government officials have a religious right to refuse to marry same-sex couples. And the federal government may shut down over a dispute concerning funding for Planned Parenthood’s non-abortion reproductive health services. As if...
My Brush with Elon Musk
About five years ago, a close friend of mine and I had an idea for a television news program. As luck would have it, my friend had gone to high school with a guy who, at the time, just happened to be the president of NBC. We arranged to have drinks at a fancy hotel...
Missing the Forest for the AC
Most of us care about conservation, at least a little. But sometimes we miss the forest for the trees — or in this case, the AC. Take the hostel I recently stayed at in California. All the lights in the hostel were compact fluorescents — those energy-efficient coils...
Thirty Bucks to Take on the Billionaires
For today's report, I have a bunch of statistics for you. Where are you going? Come back here and sit still while I drill these stats into your head! I realize that numbers can numb the brain, but this is a good story, and I promise that these statistics are easy to...
The Stock Market Breaks into Cold Sweats
Fiorina’s Dubious Cheerleader
You know your presidential campaign is in a heap of hurt when you need Tom Perkins to defend your "abilities, intellect, and talent." But there Perkins was in The New York Times recently, having bought a full-page ad attesting to the presidential worthiness of Carly...
Have Your Coke and Guzzle It Too
Good news about obesity: A new scientific organization is coming to grips with this bulging national problem. Called the Global Energy Balance Network, it comes at obesity from a unique perspective. According to them, the key to controlling one's weight isn’t cutting...
