Archive
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...
Danger Ahead: Our Disappearing Pensions
How's your 401(k) doing? Working Americans ask themselves this question — and angst about the answer — a great deal these days. And why not? For most Americans, retirement reality has turned chillingly stark: Either you have a robust set of investments in your 401(k)...
The USDA’s Reckless Plan
My friend Jim, a farmer, jokes about bringing a bowl of manure and a spoon to the farmers' markets where he sells his beef. "My beef has no manure in it, but you can add some," he'd like to tell his customers. I'm sure you'd pass on manure as a condiment. But unless...
Naming the Names behind Extreme Weather
Environmental groups tend to be a bit grim-faced. That's understandable since they're constantly confronting industrial uglies that range somewhere between awful and apocalyptic. So it's a treat when one of them turns impishly playful, as a group of climate change...
Haiti’s Hard Place
Americans are optimistic sorts. That makes it hard to fathom Haiti's grim circumstances, even though the country is just 700 miles from Miami. Business there is controlled by a handful of elite repressive families, the infrastructure doesn't support serious...
Weather Extremists
Idaho’s Reclusive Promised Land
I haven't heard such enthusiastic, downright raucous applause since Texas Gov. "Oops" Perry suggested in 2009 that his state just might withdraw from the union. Unfortunately for him, the applauders weren't Texans. They were the people of the other 49 states. This...
If Obama Hadn’t Drawn a Red Line, Would We Be Talking about Bombing Syria?
Can anyone say with a straight face that if President Barack Obama hadn't asserted one year ago that the use of poison gas would be a "red line" for military intervention, we would now be discussing a unilateral U.S. missile attack on Syria? They can dress this up as...
This Week in OtherWords: September 4, 2013
This week in OtherWords, Donald Kaul and Mitchell Zimmerman weigh in on the specter of U.S. military action against Syria and Sanho Tree unpacks the political ramifications of the Justice Department's new approach to states that legalize pot for recreational use. Do...
