Archive
How to Help Syria Now
The appalling civil war in Syria is well into its third year. With upwards of 70,000 dead, countless numbers maimed and injured, and millions of refugees, there are recurrent calls for the United States to "do something" to end the mayhem. That "something" is usually...
Oklahoma’s Biblical Irony
There's an almost biblical irony to Oklahoma's latest tornado disaster. Not a funny irony, but the grim, tragic kind so common to acts of God. Four months before this twister, five of Oklahoma's seven members of Congress — including both of its senators — all...
These Hedges Need Trimming
They're hunkering down at SAC Capital, the hedge fund empire of billionaire Steven A. Cohen. Federal prosecutors have been picking off SAC's second bananas one by one, plea bargaining for information that brings them ever closer to Cohen. SAC coughed up $616 million...
How I Fell for Farmers’ Markets
I'll never forget the first time I went to a farmers' market. I hated it. Like many who buy food only from the grocery store, I didn't realize that local farmers can't produce every food all year round. I didn't expect pineapples or anything, but the extremely limited...
The New Face of Poverty in America
Fifty years after poverty in America briefly became a front-burner issue on our nation's political agenda, it's time to move it off the back burner again. Even as those at the top of our society have grown fabulously richer, those in the economic middle have seen...
Neglecting Mother Nature
Wealth and power Bring this curse, Air and water Ever worse. Whether a country's capitalist or communist, a dictatorship or a democracy, it makes no difference to Mother Nature. Regardless of the dominant economic philosophy or form of government, the environment is...
Oklahoma’s Silly Goose
Walmart Sinks to a New Low
In the 14th century, the renowned Italian poet Dante detailed a horrendous descent through nine layers of eternal damnation that he had charted, with the bottom floor reserved for the most wretched of sinners. In recognition of today's realities, Satan has added a new...
This Week in OtherWords: May 22, 2013
This week in OtherWords, Martha Burk weighs in on the military's lackluster efforts to stop sexual assaults within the ranks and Donald Kaul reviews the Obama administration's outbreak of scandals. Here's a clickable summary of all our latest commentaries and a link...
Our Women in Uniform Deserve Better
Americans have honored our soldiers and those killed in U.S. wars in late May for nearly 150 years. Memorial Day, which became an official holiday in 1868, was originally called Decoration Day and got started when civilian women decided to decorate military graves...
