Archive
A Better Grip on Climate Change
Earth to climate change deniers: The vast majority of Americans are worried enough about global warming to want our government to help stop this scourge. This good news for people who believe science should drive our climate policy comes from a series of surveys...
Attack of the Budget Slashers
The Fight for Control over Our Own Dinner Tables
Nicholas Kristof, a New York Times columnist and former farm boy, once wrote: "[T]he central problem with modern industrial agriculture... [is] not just that it produces unhealthy food, mishandles waste, and overuses antibiotics in ways that harm us all. More...
This Week in OtherWords: November 20, 2013
This week in OtherWords, Jill Richardson talks turkey, William A. Collins and I call for a new economy, and Marc Morial asks whether we're becoming a nation of bullies. Be sure to check our blog, especially on Tuesdays. That's when we run a bonus commentary by Jim...
A Typhoon Tax
Americans are generous by nature. About half of U.S. families contributed to earthquake relief in Haiti in 2010, and millions of us have already supported typhoon aid for the Philippines. But there’s a golden opportunity for our country to do much more. We can help...
The United States of Bullying
When 12-year-old Rebecca Sedwick jumped to her death from an abandoned concrete plant tower in early September after intense bullying by two other girls, it made headlines around the world. While some teen-on-teen bullying was once accepted as a rite of passage, we...
Save the Turkeys
It's odd that the most iconic feature of Thanksgiving — the turkey — is likely the most unnatural. It's got competition, of course, from the jellied cranberry sauce that retains the shape of its can and various food products sold in boxes marked "Just Add Water."...
‘Tis the Season to Celebrate Mammon
Here come Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, and Christmas. It's a month-long season of friends and family, spiritual reflection, and time to decompress from our usual helter-skelter lives, right? Good lord, shout the corporate bosses, are you nuts? Do you think America is some...
Upgrading Our Clunker Economy
Pondering America's economic system is a bit like going to the mechanic with your old heap and being told there's nothing more he can do. It's time for a new economy, but we're going to keep our clunker economy that persists only because so many bigwigs profit...