Archive
Vegan Misgivings
Thanksgiving is upon us. I once loved this holiday above all others — but no more.
Border War Rumors
Grim-faced military officers and ashen-faced politicians describe a horrific “war zone,” with “hundreds of people murdered” and “citizens under attack around the clock.” Some of the politicos say that the situation is so dire that it “may require our military.”
Thanksgiving on Wall Street
Big Banks are Doing Just Fine, Thank You
When grouchy columnists write of the pernicious effects of banks on the economy, we’re generally not referring to your local county bank whose vice-president coaches your son’s Little League team. No, we mean the big guys whose vice-presidents commute to Wall Street from Greenwich, Connecticut and whose kids attend fancy boarding schools.
America’s Real Poverty Rate
The Census Bureau recently released a highly-anticipated report suggesting ways to improve the measurement of poverty in America. It found that adjusting for medical expenses, the value of benefits payments, regional differences in the cost of living, and other technical factors raised the poverty rate to 16 percent, up from the official count of 15.1 percent.
The Lineup: Week of Nov. 14-20, 2011
In this week’s OtherWords editorial package, Tom Israel provides a roundup of progressive electoral victories at the ballot box that could serve as a “signpost” for the 2012 elections. Get all this and more in your inbox by subscribing to our weekly newsletter. If you haven’t signed up yet, please do.
Lost Causes Can Win
It’s a David and Goliath struggle. The Occupiers’ tents are dwarfed by the skyscrapers of the financiers. The Masters of the Universe control huge political budgets — the Chamber of Commerce spent $276 million to give Republicans a majority in the House of Representatives after the 2010 elections — while Occupiers survive on donated pizzas.
Luck Matters
In their unbending opposition to raising a penny more in taxes from even the wealthiest Americans — even in the midst of a government debt crisis and shrinking public budgets — extremist politicians paint all rich people as self-made, entrepreneurial “job creators.” If we ask any more in taxes from such paragons of industry, they argue, we’ll not only crimp the economy, but perversely “punish success.”
Nuclear Turkeys
By the time you sit down for Thanksgiving dinner, the 12-member congressional supercommittee will have succeeded in meeting its November 23 deadline to approve a plan to shrink the budget deficit by at least $1.2 trillion over the next decade. Or it will have failed – and produced a turkey instead.
Buyer’s Remorse
Ohio voters elected tea-party-backed John Kasich as their Republican governor last year. One of his most prominent initiatives was legislation limiting public employees’ collective bargaining rights. Opponents collected 1.3 million signatures to subject his anti-bargaining bill to a referendum. On November 8th, Ohioans overwhelmingly voted to repeal Kasich’s bill, which they rejected by 61 percent to 39 percent.
