Archive
Elections You Can’t Count On
You may believe that on Election Day all of officialdom momentarily unites in urging us to vote. Leaders–rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, business and labor–want us to do our patriotic duty, preferably for their side.
There Goes the Neighborhood
Justice for a 9-Year-Old Girl’s Killers in the Courts and in Print
A chilling trial is underway in Tucson for the murder of 9-year-old Brisenia Flores and her father. According to eyewitness testimony from her mother (the attackers thought she was dead) Brisenia pleaded with anti-immigration vigilantes, who had invaded her own home, not to shoot her—shortly before they murdered her anyway.
Renovating The New York Times Op-Ed Section
The New York Times recently named Trish Hall its next op-ed editor. She’s going to call the shots regarding who gets a guest spot in the nation’s premiere opinion pages, which typically feature brilliantly written, sharply argued, and perfectly edited commentaries on sometimes dry yet always inarguably important topics.
The Lineup: Week of January 31-February 6, 2011
In this week’s OtherWords editorial package, Jim Hightower highlights a mountaintop removal mining breakthrough and Donald Kaul reviews GOP proposals for slashing federal spending. Get all this and more in your inbox by subscribing to our weekly newsletter. If you haven’t signed up yet, please do.
What if Jared Loughner Were a Muslim Arab Immigrant?
The repercussions of the attempted assassination in Tucson of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, in which six people were murdered and 13 wounded, continue to resonate. The discussion–and discussions about the discussion–continues. Meanwhile, we’re failing to have a meaningful debate about how we can achieve real changes that would make a repeat of this tragedy impossible.
End the Factory Farm Nightmare
Of course you want your meat to be cheap, but the costs of producing so-called cheap meat come at a hidden price you might not want to pay. Corporate giant Smithfield Foods and other major producers use what is known as confinement or factory farming–keeping billions of animals in cramped cages and pens where they are susceptible to stress and disease.
Ripping off Newspaper Websites Shortchanges Democracy
There’s a feast raging on the Internet. Websites and bloggers are helping themselves to huge servings of whatever newspapers offer online.
All Women Deserve a Sporting Chance
Next year will mark the 40th anniversary of Title IX, the law prohibiting discrimination in educational programs receiving federal tax dollars, including sports.
Roadmap to Disaster
The Republicans told us what they wanted to do in their “Pledge to America” last year: cut government, slash taxes, and shrink the national debt. But they didn’t tell us how they were going to do it. Now they have.
