Archive
Do-Nothing Congress Does Something to Hide Its Debt to Lobbyists
When I heard our Congress critters are taking an extended vacation for all of August and part of September, I had two incongruous reactions: gratitude and anger. Gratitude, because their vacation gives us a five-week break from the spectacle of right-wing mad dogs in...
This Week in OtherWords: July 16, 2014
This week in OtherWords, William A. Collins and I discuss the growing support for legal marijuana and Bob Lord points out that a single hedge fund manager makes about the same amount of money in a year as all the inhabitants of Springfield, Ohio. Do you want to make...
The Latest Crack in Our Broken Immigration System
In a bustling room at the Third Presbyterian Church in Albuquerque, New Mexico a group of white and Latino parishioners gathered for a workshop on immigration. They wanted to learn more about the issue. Julio Alvarez, a Mexican immigrant, was there to answer their...
Crafting a Hobby Lobby Doc Fix
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has promised to take action that will counter the Supreme Court's Hobby Lobby decision. Thanks to that ruling, big employers may deny birth control coverage to the female employees whose health insurance they must provide. In other...
Peace Wins in Colombia
June was a good month for Colombia. Its streak of World Cup wins suffused the country with a euphoric patriotism. The yellow-blue-red stripes of the Colombian flag appeared on apartment buildings, the front grills of trucks, and painted on people's cheeks. Even with...
Worth More: One Man or an Entire City?
A population of 100,000 is substantial. Five states don't even have one metropolis that large. Some cities that size, like Fargo, North Dakota, are their state's biggest. Others, like Lansing, Michigan, are state capitals. About 100,000 people live in Rochester,...
The End of Pot Prohibition As We Know It
How much longer will it take before the United States declares a truce in the Drug War? This latter-day prohibition is taking an immense toll. And the stakes ought to be low, given that most Americans don't want anyone jailed for being caught with small amounts of...
Shortchanging Our National Treasures
Fabulous vacations don't come cheap. Hotels often run at least $100 a night, if not higher. Add in airfare, a rental car, and restaurant meals, and a family vacation becomes a privilege for those with the cash to afford them. What's a more affordable option? Heading...
Cargill’s Integrity-Free Soybean Oil
Can you have your hypocrisy and eat it, too? I don't think so. But Cargill Inc. is doing its damndest to invalidate the old admonition that eating your cake today means not having it tomorrow. As a leading producer and user of ingredients that contain genetically...
Stone-Cold Immigrants
