Archive
Give the Post Office a Break
The Postal Service says it's going to stop delivering mail on Saturdays. This won't happen until August, but the overseers of our postal workers in Congress are already swooning. "Outrageous" is the cry rolling through the halls of the Capitol. Can't help it, responds...
A Triumph of Sewage and Stench
Just over a year ago, the Costa Concordia, a Carnival Cruise ocean liner, ran aground on an Italian reef. Thirty-two died. "We expect to fully recover from the ship incident," the subsequent Carnival annual report told shareholders. Earlier this month, Carnival...
We’re All Guinea Pigs
A few years ago, my world changed when I began dating a single dad whose youngest child was a toddler. Bonding with and loving his two kids has been the single most enriching and rewarding — and sometimes frustrating and exhausting — experience of my life. During the...
The Organized Sports Racket
While we sports fans regularly lionize the stars of pro baseball, football, basketball, etc., it's time to acknowledge that the team executives and owners are also great athletes of a different sort. They routinely make dazzling off-the-field moves. The Miami Herald...
What Post-Racial America?
Having an African-American president is convenient. It boosts U.S. credibility in the Global South and makes us look like we're making progress toward wiping out racism when we're not. But it will take more than President Barack Obama's tenure to vanquish American...
Declaring Victory in Afghanistan
Why Use a Bludgeon When a Calculator Will Do?
Sequestration is both ugly and hard to explain. As a budget wonk, I like to use this metaphor: It's as if the American people are being squeezed into the back of a dilapidated Chevy pickup. Careening down a dirt road, we're headed for a brick wall. Try as we might to...
This Week in OtherWords: February 20, 2013
This week in OtherWords, Donald Kaul puts the brutality of drone warfare into historical context, Jill Richardson explains why you should compost and replace your lawn, and Jim Hightower says that a $9 minimum wage would still be too low. Below you'll find links to...
These Laws Make Me Want to Gag
Do you have a right to know where that steak on your plate came from? Should it be legal to photograph chicken farms and dairy cows? Big Agriculture says you don't and it shouldn't. Armies of Big Ag lobbyists are pushing for new state-level laws across the country to...
Presidential Distortion
Here's a thought: Maybe, just maybe, Barack Obama isn't a socialist. I know, if you've tuned into even a little bit of right-wing talk radio, or watched some Fox News shows over the past four years, this might come as a surprise. Obama, in the imagination of so many...
