Archive
Higher Education Takes the Low Road
College lifts us From the mob, But not all do A nifty job. Before World War II, college was mostly for the rich. Starting with the GI Bill, which gave thousands of WW II vets a shot at getting an advanced degree, education became a more common route for upward...
Tax Houdini
Squeezing More Profits from Crummy Tomatoes
"I'm 98 percent confident we can make a tomato that tastes substantially better," Professor Harry Klee recently exulted to The New York Times. Hmmm. Excuse me, professor, but "substantially better" than what? One of Momma Nature's own heirloom varieties perhaps? No,...
The Syrian Miracle
Considering the recent wave of poor relations between Moscow and Washington, the U.S.-Russian cooperation on Syria seems miraculous and is worthy of the support and encouragement of our people. The fact that both parties have strategic reasons to need a non-violent...
This Week in OtherWords: September 11, 2013
This week in OtherWords, Peter Certo likens the situation in Syria to a "landmine" and Jim Hightower celebrates a campaign that wants extreme weather events named after the politicians who refuse to recognize or do anything about man-made climate change. Do you want...
The Off-the-Cuff Breakthrough on Syria
John Kerry may have just accidentally earned himself a Nobel Peace Prize. In off-the-cuff remarks to reporters, the Secretary of State reiterated his support for a U.S. attack on Syria, saying Bashar al-Assad could only ward off a U.S. strike by turning over his...
A Trumped-Up War on Welfare
You're the top 1 percent. You pocket one out of every five dollars of the nation's income — more than double your slice of that pie in 1976. You want even more, but the masses are catching on. What do you do? You get your minions to attack the bottom 1 percent to...
The Russian-American Beat Must Go On
The Edward Snowden drama has skipped from Washington through Hawaii and Hong Kong and into Moscow. Now, the storyline is back to Washington. Thanks to Russia's decision to grant Snowden asylum for a year, Obama canceled a bilateral meeting with President Vladimir...
Confessions of a Repentant War of 1812 Reenactor
It began innocently enough. I volunteered on a museum's boat-building project — a replica of a longboat of the type used by Commodore Perry in the Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812. Before I knew what was happening, there I was in period military attire,...
The Legacy of 9/11
The 9/11 attacks comprise one of those events that you remember where you heard of it and how, like the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor was for old-timers and JFK's assassination was for middle-timers. I had recently retired (for the first time) and was sitting at an...
