Archive
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...
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...
