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When Congress Serves the Other NRA
This Week in OtherWords: April 16, 2014
This week in OtherWords, Jill Richardson tells "vegangelicals" they'd become better missionaries for a healthy-eating lifestyle if they just stopped preaching and Amanda Ufheil-Somers suggests that the United States and Saudi Arabia end what she calls a "loveless...
Milking Public Education
The building stood facing me, the windows staring ahead like hundreds of scrutinizing eyes. It was larger than I thought it would be. I looked around as I dug my hands into my pockets, struggling to retain heat. Across the street was a public housing development that...
A Loveless Diplomatic Marriage with No Future
Among the would-be therapists of the foreign policy world, the alliance between the United States and Saudi Arabia is a textbook case of a "loveless marriage." Though the values of the two states are at odds, or so the thinking goes, the great democracy and the...
Of High-Speed Fastballs and High-Speed Trades
The sweet-swinging Detroit Tigers infielder Miguel Cabrera may or may not turn out to be, by the time he retires, the best hitter in baseball history. But Cabrera already holds a historic distinction Just before the opening day of the 2014 baseball season, the...
Bacon Is Not a Vegetable
As a vegetarian, I have to walk a fine line. Really, I'm not judging you. But I often find it necessary to establish myself as "not a threat" to meat eaters. I also occasionally bump up against militant vegans. Consider this collision I had the other day with a devout...
Ryan’s Joke Is on Us
My guess is that Rep. Paul Ryan, the Republican Party's highly touted budget guru, doesn't have a very tight grip on the concept of irony. Otherwise, why would he choose April Fools' Day to release the latest version of what the GOP intends to do to federal programs...
Death by Stalling
Compassion for the dying is gaining traction. It's about time. In 1948, 37 percent of Americans supported the idea behind the “death with dignity” movement. Last year, 70 percent of us did. While that number leveled off two decades back, how big a majority does an...
When Campaign Cash Equals Speech
Wall Street’s MIA Ethics
Let's review the rap sheet of Wall Street banks: defrauding investors, cheating homeowners, money laundering, rigging markets, tax evasion, credit card ripoffs… and so sickeningly much more. At last, though, some of the cops on the bank beat seem to be having...