Archive
Do You Want Some Hogwash with That Burger?
Burger King bills itself as "home of the Whopper," a name intended to convey to burger eaters that this one is a whale of a deal. But "whopper" also means a prevarication, a crock, a tall tale — hogwash. Both meanings apply to Burger King's current effort to take over...
Taming Modern Monopolies
Analysts at the OECD, the Paris-based research agency, have just shared a grim prediction: If current trends "prevail," all developed nations will show by 2060 "the same level of inequality as currently experienced by the United States." If we let those current trends...
The King of Tax Dodging
Mission Never-Ending
Ready or not, here we go again. The Pentagon is barreling back into the chaos of Iraq. Apparently, "Mission Accomplished" is "Mission Never-ending." The government says that, for now, America will only provide jet fighters, drones, weaponry, humanitarian airdrops,...
In OtherWords: August 27, 2014
This week in OtherWords, Marjorie E. Wood explains how the Affordable Care Act has quietly begun to rein in runaway CEO pay and Jim Hightower says you shouldn't be tricked into thinking that Rick Perry's indictment is no big deal. Do you want to make sure you don’t...
Let’s Give Workers Something to Cheer About
Labor Day is supposed to be a celebration of workers, but it's been a long time since workers have been celebrated — or for that matter, have had a reason to celebrate. That's because the union movement that gave us this holiday is, at least numerically, a shadow of...
How to Save the Life of the Next Michael Brown
Michael Brown. Jordan Davis. Sean Bell. Trayvon Martin. The list of African-American boys and men gunned down at the hands of police officers and vigilantes just gets longer and longer. It makes me numb. I don't want to feel the full weight of grief and turmoil from...
A Prescription for Treating Runaway CEO Pay
You've surely heard many things about the Affordable Care Act, including the website headaches that embarrassed the Obama administration during the new program's rollout. But you probably didn't realize that when you pay your premium today, you can rest assured that...
Greasing the Path to Military Intervention
What explains the never-ending justifications for U.S. involvement in Middle Eastern conflicts? In a word: oil. Sure, President Barack Obama may have dropped food and water on that desolate Iraqi mountaintop out of humanitarian concern for the persecuted Yazidi...
Perry Hams It Up
Lawyers will tell you that any good prosecutor could convince a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich. Well, meet that ham sandwich: Governor Rick Perry. He's a real ham — only not as smart. A Texas grand jury indicted Perry, charging the Republican with official abuse...
