Archive
New START’s Nuclear Compromise
Despite New START’s substantive merits and overwhelming bipartisan support, the eight-month-long campaign to win the U.S. Senate’s approval was a knock-down-drag-out fight, the successful outcome of which was in doubt until the very end.
Tap Water’s Budget Bottleneck
Somehow, with all the recent rancor over spending cuts, pundits and politicians have largely overlooked one of our most essential public services–supplying the public with clean tap water.
Climate Science can Weather a Winter Storm
Chicago was to be Ground Zero for the end of the world. Twenty inches of snow, 35-50-mile-per-hour winds, 30-foot waves coming off Lake Michigan onto Lake Shore Drive. A wind-chill of Don’t Ask.
The Big Score in this Year’s Super Bowl
For me, the most significant statistic coming out of this year’s Super Bowl was not the 31-25 score in the Green Bay Packers’ hard-fought victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers. Nor was it the $1.3 billion cost of the new, monstrously huge football palace built by the Dallas Cowboys, where the game was played. Rather, the number that impresses me is 111,968.
The Media Flunks WikiLeaks 101
Maybe we were fortunate that the U.S. press chose to print any WikiLeaks disclosures at all. Given the media’s generally supportive stance of unilateral American foreign policy, it could have simply said, “We’re not interested.” Luckily it did better than that, but not much. The media reported articles of minor diplomatic embarrassment with glee, but let matters revealing serious U.S. government perfidy or brutality slide.
House Un-Christian Activities Committee
The Lineup: Week of February 14-20, 2011
Sarah Anderson reflects on her great-grandfather’s experience as a Civil War veteran and Donald Kaul remembers why he liked Ike.
Civil War and the Safety Net
My great-grandfather Albert Cordner was a private in the Union Army. In a pocket-size diary, he recorded battlefield experiences that were the stuff of movies.
Al-Jazeera English: TV You Can’t Watch on TV
All of this gets to the heart of one big problem with cable television–something that’s rarely talked about. In most areas of the country you can’t watch Al-Jazeera English. But you do get Fox News Channel. And if you’re like most people, you don’t watch it–and don’t plan on starting anytime soon. It’s a good bet that the actual viewing audience for Fox News is smaller than the number of folks who are disgusted by Fox’s far-right bloviating and fear-mongering.
Dairy Farmers vs. Commodities Traders
Despite treating her cows humanely, strictly adhering to milk production regulations, and carefully stewarding her land, a Pennsylvania dairy farmer I know is $70,000 in debt. She has no idea how she’ll repay her creditors or how much longer they will allow her to buy feed and other supplies before demanding payment. Without a fair price for her milk, she can’t accrue enough funds to pay off her debt. Most likely, she will have to sell her dairy cows and the family farm–the home and livelihood for her, her husband, and their children.
