Archive
New World Disorder
They were droning on about drones the other day in Washington. The Senate Intelligence (ha-ha) Committee was grilling CIA chief-designate John Brennan on the use of unmanned aircraft during his tenure as President Barack Obama's adviser on terrorism. Drones are being...
Segregation 2.0
Our political vocabulary is changing all the time. Words that loom large in one generation’s national public discourse can almost totally disappear in the next. Take the word “segregation.” A half-century ago, newspapers headlined “segregation” on almost a daily...
Lose Your Lawn
Have you taken your hounds fox hunting lately? You haven’t? Well, maybe you’ve gone to visit a friend’s estate in a horse and carriage? You haven’t done that either, have you? Most of the popular trends of 19th century British aristocracy are not the norm in 21st...
Putting Some Real Pop in Populism
"In the wealthiest nation on Earth," President Barack Obama declared in his State of the Union speech, "no one who works full-time should have to live in poverty." Right! Not only does his call to raise America's minimum wage put some real pop in populism, but it...
Downwardly Mobile Nation
Work my butt off Plain to see, Bootstraps are No help to me. Bridgeport — Connecticut's largest city — is also my affluent state's capital of poverty. Even though it's part of the nation's richest region, the rapidly rising number of children living in poverty in...
Minimum Wage, Maximum Drama
This Week in OtherWords: February 13, 2013
This week in OtherWords, John Cavanagh explains why President Obama's State of the Union address falls short, Ben Freeman says that scaling back the Pentagon's budget isn't just for progressives any more, and Donald Kaul skewers the latest Republican antics. Please be...
Enough is Enough
I've had enough. Enough of rape being subject to terms like "legitimate." Enough of hearing that my peers just "raped" their final exams. Enough of being labeled too-politically-correct when I challenge the oversimplification and distortion of a word that is a dark...
No Laughing Matter
Sarah Silverman is a great comedian — she makes many of us laugh, myself included. I admire her, not only because we need more mirth in the world, but because she's an activist. Remember her "Great Schlep" ad in 2008 in which she urged Jewish grandkids "to schlep over...
No Game-Changer
In his State of the Union address, President Barack Obama deftly nudged the national debate further away from the dominant austerity framework that brought us the misguided budget deal on New Year's Day. He also brought much-needed attention to the critical jobs...
