Archive
Eavesdropping and Snooping for All
Branding School Lunches as Obamafare
Ah, progress. In the 2012 elections, Republicans cast themselves as budget-balancers by promising to whack welfare programs for the poor, snarling that such people are "takers" and "moochers." Such vindictive sourness didn't play too well with voters, and Republicans...
Hobby Lobby, Quit Your Needling
Hobby Lobby's position is really quite dubious: Using God to get into your uterus. It's needling its way into women's health. It's crafting strategies religiously stealth. The company's lawyers tell SCOTUS this amounts to abortion, And conservative justices believe...
Boehner’s Joke’s on Us
Said Boehner, "What the Hell is this, a joke?" Said Obama, "Oh no, not again with this bloke." The ACA sign-up deadline's extended To benefit millions as it was intended. The website snafu caused such delays, "We need the extension," the President says. Boehner is...
This Week in OtherWords: March 26, 2014
This week in OtherWords, Brett Fleishman writes about how Shell and ExxonMobil recently tossed some logs into the fossil-fuel divestment fire and Jill Richardson explains what's wrong with time-saving coffee pods. Do you want to make sure you don’t miss the latest...
A Fossil-Fueled Bombshell
Royal Dutch Shell buried a bombshell in its recently released 2013 annual report. Amid 200 pages of predictably and mind-numbingly dry text, the world's seventh-largest oil company foreshadowed something big. Here are the exact words, which Shell buried in the...
The Diplomatic Dance with Iran
A six-month diplomatic dance with Iran is underway — each step as dainty as a minuet because any misstep is weighted with danger. The issue is Iran's nuclear research program and the UN inspections that are taking place as a result. And while each side has its own...
A Tortured Twist on Ethics
George Orwell wisely observed that our understanding of the past, and the meaning associated with it, directly influences the future. And as the unprecedented public feud between the CIA and Congress makes clear, there are still significant aspects of our recent...
The Power Politics behind a Long, Gilded Life
Let us pause now to pay our respects to Bunny Mellon. She died in mid-March on her Virginia horse-country estate. But no tears, please. Bunny — nobody called her by her given name Rachel — lived a long and rich life. Very long. Very rich. One hundred and three at her...
The High Price of Laziness
I know I shouldn't be, but I am shocked by Americans' laziness. We look for the closest parking spot to the gym so that we don't have to walk those extra few steps. We indulge in watching more cooking shows, yet actually cook less than ever. We invented the...
