Archive
These Chickens Don’t Need to Hedge Their Bets
Upper-class, über-rich Brits pay a price. In exchange for being blessed with wealth and social standing, they're expected to be at least slightly amusing to the general public, offering some combination of doofus, daffy, and scandalous. Crispin Odey fits this bill. He...
Fighting for the Right to End Inequality
Fast-food workers in hundreds of cities across the country and the world went on strike in mid-May to demand higher pay and better working conditions. These workers targeted the richest and most powerful fast-food corporations such as McDonald's and Burger King....
Free to Eat Whatever You Want
My neighbor just left to spend the entire summer in Europe. He's the guy with a highly restrictive diet I recently wrote about, with countless food intolerances that his "nutritionist" detected using dubious testing methods. I haven't had the heart to tell him she's a...
Recipe for Ripoffs
President Barack Obama is a surprisingly devout disciple of so-called "free trade." During his first presidential bid he promised to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), indicating some concern over the U.S.-Canada-Mexico pact. A month after...
Illegal Ingredients
Success in Seattle
At last, our political leaders in Washington are taking action for low-wage workers and the middle class, striking a bold blow for America's historic value of economic fairness. Gosh, I hope you don't think I meant Washington, D.C. No, no. The same old corporate...
Remembering Dr. Maya Angelou
I was traveling when Dr. Maya Angelou died, away from my poetry community in Washington, D.C. But my Facebook feed was crowded with tributes and powerful remembrances, as writers, survivors, and truth tellers chronicled the impact of Dr. Angelou's life and words on...
This Week in OtherWords: June 4, 2014
This week in OtherWords, Mary Anne Hitt applauds the Obama administration's effort to reduce climate-damaging emissions and Raul A. Reyes urges GOP leaders to stop blocking a bill that would give undocumented immigrants who grew up in the United States a path to...
Walmart’s Top-to-Bottom Taxpayer Subsidies
Low-income families weren't the only ones hurt by cuts to food stamps last fall. Top Walmart executives also took a hit. The cutbacks ate into the discount giant's sales because so many of its low-income customers rely on this public assistance program to help pay for...
Stalled at the Starting Line
"Gentlemen, start your engines." That message, played repeatedly in a commercial beamed on the Jumbotron at this year's Indianapolis 500, had nothing to do with racecars. A coalition of faith, business, and law enforcement leaders used the iconic event to launch their...
