Archive
Scrap the PATRIOT Act
It's back. The PATRIOT Act — a grotesque, ever-mutating, hydra-headed monstrosity from the Bush-Cheney Little Shop of Horrors — has risen again. This time, it's got an added twist of Orwellian intrusiveness from the Obamacans. Since 2006, Team Bush, and now Team...
This Week in OtherWords: July 17, 2013
This week in OtherWords, Marc Morial, Donald Kaul, and Terrance Heath weigh in on the acquittal of George Zimmerman — the man who killed Trayvon Martin — while Sam Pizzigati and Jill Richardson discuss why Americans live shorter lives than people in other rich...
Black Man 101
Are you familiar with "Black Man 101"? Black men never get to graduate from this constantly changing and mandatory course in survival and behavior modification. With the acquittal of Trayvon Martin's killer, the Black Man 101 curriculum has been revised again. The...
A Verdict that Condemns the State of Civil Rights in America
The not-guilty verdict a jury of six women reached in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin was outrageous. Although I'd been following this case since February 26, 2012 — the day George Zimmerman, a Sanford, Florida, neighborhood watch captain, gunned down the unarmed...
Rays of Hope in Egypt
Three days before the coup that removed Mohamed Morsi from the presidency, I marched with tens of thousands of Egyptians to the presidential palace. A sea of protesters had filled Cairo's streets, waving flags and chanting for the downfall of the regime. As we passed...
Putting Government Waste on Auto-Pilot
Remember when the House rejected a trillion-dollar version of the Farm Bill nearly a month ago? I predicted the subsidy apologists would be back. Unfortunately, I was right. They struck with a stealth attack at about 8 p.m. one week after July Fourth. House Republican...
There Ought to Be a Better Law
I wasn't too surprised when do-it-yourself vigilante George Zimmerman was found not guilty of murdering Trayvon Martin. The trial took place in Florida, after all. You have to be pretty stupid or reckless or both to be found guilty of murder in Florida. If you want to...
What’s Driving America’s Flagging Vital Signs?
Let's talk life expectancy. The stats first. They tell a shocking story: Americans now live shorter lives than men and women in most of the rest of the developed world. And that gap is growing. Back in 1990, shouts a new study just published in the Journal of the...
Eat Well, Walk More, Live Longer
We just got some bad news. Or maybe it's some good news. A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that Americans don't live as long as citizens of most other rich countries. How is that good news? Because many of our top risk factors...
Exceptionally Mediocre on a Global Scale
America the Beautiful! America the Greatest! We're No. 1, right? Absolutely, naturally, and indisputably. At least that's the theocratic pronouncement of far-right-wing nativists who preach the dogma of American "exceptionalism." They use the concept as a...
