Archive
When Corporate Foxes Mind Internet Coops
The Military-Industrial Complex Blasts Its Way into the Civilian Market
Don't look now, but the overbearing power of America's military-industrial complex has probably snuck into your town. The multibillion-dollar global armament giants have discovered a hot new growth market here at home: police forces. The people of Ferguson learned...
In OtherWords: October 29, 2014
This week in OtherWords, Bob Lord explains what's wrong with Mitt Romney's monster-sized IRA and Raul A. Reyes zeroes in on something that's amiss in Kansas. Do you want to make sure you don’t miss the latest from OtherWords? Subscribe to our free weekly newsletter or...
Taking Anti-Immigrant Fervor Too Far
What's the matter with Kansas? A decade ago, a best-selling book of that title examined how Kansas veered rightward after a long history as a left-wing hotbed. It looks like Kansas may be shifting course again. Not only does the state have one of the country's most...
What Would the Founders Do?
The soldiers who fought the Revolutionary War were our first veterans, the only cohort of U.S. warriors who took up arms to create rather than defend a country. If they lost, it meant treason. Having won, the nation treated them with a special reverence, right?...
A Free Fruit-for-All
I got back from the airport just in time for the last half hour of Cider Fest, one of the Bloomington Community Orchard's large public events. This publicly owned and volunteer-run organic orchard occupies a single acre. Entering its fifth year, it has become an...
The 0.01 Percent’s ‘I Reap All’ Accounts
Do you remember when Mitt Romney's IRA made headlines during his failed 2012 presidential campaign? That outsized retirement stash estimated at between $20 and $102 million probably led President Barack Obama to propose limiting the buildup of IRA values. It turns out...
Denton Tells Big Oil to Frack Off
The University of North Texas, best known for its top-notch jazz program and sometimes for its "Mean Green" football team, might soon become known as Frack U. UNT (where I went to college back in the Paleocene Epoch) and the good people of the surrounding city of...
A Difficult Season
My brother would have turned 29 the other day. Thus begins the season of difficult anniversaries. Six years ago, my baby bro turned 23. It was 2008, a week before Barack Obama's first presidential election. Hope and change were in the air. I had a new job and a new...
Driving Government Out of Business
Republican operative Grover Norquist used to quip about shrinking government to the point where it would get small enough to drown in the bathtub. You probably thought he was kidding. His joke could be on us all soon enough. Pollsters say the Republican Party is...
