Archive
That Gosh Darn Minimum Wage
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell wanted to share his long-repressed feelings about a traumatic event. "It was," the Kentucky Republican confided, grim-faced, "the worst day of my political life." Was he talking about the 9/11 terrorist attacks on America? No....
When All You’ve Got Is a Hammer
You Can’t Make This Stuff Up
Just in the United States, the cosmetics industry pulls in some $70 billion a year in sales of what's commonly called "makeup." But lipstick, mascara, eye shadow, and the like aren't the only kind of makeup the cosmetic giants are peddling. For years, their lobbyists,...
In OtherWords: September 3, 2014
This week in OtherWords, Jill Richardson explains why the use of flame retardants in tents, furniture, and countless other products probably hurts more consumers than it saves and Jim Hightower weighs in on Burger King's plans to exile itself (for tax purposes only)...
Golden Weapons of Destruction Take Aim at El Salvador
An obscure tribunal housed at the World Bank in Washington, D.C. will soon decide the fate of millions of people. At issue is whether a government should be punished for refusing to let a foreign mining company operate because it wants to protect its main source of...
Staving Off Traffic Jams Along the Information Super-Highway
There was no vacation for the Internet this summer. While many Americans slipped away to the beach, Internet users were busy defending the openness of a network that has become this era's engine for free expression, ingenuity and just about everything else. The threat...
Against the Wind
Shortly before Congress left for its long summer vacation, Senator Barbara Mikulski tried to block a 150-megawatt wind farm. The Maryland Democrat's move would delay Pioneer Green Energy's construction of the project in her own state until an independent study from...
Playing Toxic Whack-a-Mole
Popular activities like hiking, camping, and backpacking come with all kinds of risks. You can get heat stroke or hypothermia, run out of water, fall off a cliff, and bump into cougars or grizzly bears. If you get close enough to an infected ground squirrel for one of...
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...
