Archive
A More Down-to-Earth CEO Pay Plan
When do societies start taking a new idea seriously? Easy. New ideas gain traction when starkly different sorts of people champion them. This process is beginning to unfold with the notion of a "maximum wage," the idea that we should limit the income of our society's...
Another Side of the Immigration Debate
Until a few years ago, Rosa Acosta had never even seen a flush toilet. She raised her 12 children in a tiny adobe home in rural Jalisco, Mexico. Several of her kids left it to work in the United States. One son, who left at age 12 to earn money as a farmworker in...
Retail Injustice
The Powers That Be say the bulk of America's middle-class manufacturing jobs are gone and aren't coming back. High-tech jobs are being outsourced, as is an increasing share of the work historically handled by our accountants, lawyers, and some other professionals....
Betting on Gambling
Tainted money For your state, When legislators Take the bait. The gambling industry's under-the-radar political heft got a shot of overdue publicity when Sheldon Adelson, its biggest mogul, tried to use casino profits to buy the U.S. presidency last year. Fortunately,...
Federal Budget Buster’s Last Stand
The Interior Secretary’s Gilded Throne
Does the name Dirk Kempthorne mean anything to you? He was a little-known Idaho politico before becoming George W. Bush's industry-coddling secretary of the interior in 2006. While Dirk was not big on protecting our nation's public lands and natural resources from...
This Week in OtherWords: February 6, 2013
This week in OtherWords, Jill Richardson explains what's wrong with most of the roses that populate our Valentine's Day bouquets, Don Kraus proposes a great Valentine for women everywhere, and Donald Kaul sizes up the latest inaction on gun control. This is Kaul's...
The. Very. Best. Valentine. Ever.
This year I came up with the best Valentine's Day gift ever for my wife and daughter. It's inexpensive and, unlike a bouquet of flowers, should last beyond their lifetimes. They'll love it! I can't think of a better way to express how much I love them. Rather than...
Zero Dark Thirty’s Losing Premise
Zero Dark Thirty is a movie the CIA wants you to see. It tells a tale of the search for Osama bin Laden wherein the key lead comes from a man softened up by waterboarding, sleep deprivation, confinement in a coffin-like box and other forms of pain and humiliation. It...
Stronger At Home, More Respected Abroad
Americans agree it's time to strengthen our nation at home and abroad — but how can we make it happen? We can start by making wise choices in the federal budget and with our efforts to cope with our nation's debt ceiling problem. We can make smart military strategies,...
