Archive
The Lessons of WikiLeaks
For the last few years, the war in Afghanistan seemed to be an afterthought in the U.S. media. That all changed in a hurry with the publication of tens of thousands of classified intelligence documents by the website WikiLeaks.
How the Estate Tax Benefits Small Businesses
Small business owners like me have for too long served as poster children for a misleading campaign led by the super wealthy to weaken or abolish the estate tax. I’m the proud owner of Maine’s Borealis Breads, and I want to make something crystal clear: The estate tax impacts neither me nor the vast majority of small business owners. In fact, I support a stronger estate tax.
Remembering George Steinbrenner
Do we really have to say nice things about George Steinbrenner just because he’s…you know…dead?
A Bitter Taste of Racial Discrimination
I don’t know how the corn is doing this year, but Washington is producing a bumper crop of irony for America’s black farmers.
There’s Still Big Money in War
Dwight Eisenhower got it straight all right, but he didn’t know the half of it. He prophetically warned us about the “Military-Industrial Complex,” though Blackwater and KBR hadn’t even been invented yet. You’ve heard of them–they’re the contractors who service our armies of occupation so that we don’t need to hire so many soldiers. Sort of mercenary supply companies. Naturally, they lobby for more conflicts.
Compassionate Conservatives
Dying Patients Deserve Better
Remember the hullabaloo over so-called “death panels,” last summer? Faced with screeching right-wing opportunists who tried to kill healthcare reform by accusing the Obama administration of being out to snuff out our grandparents, the folks responsible for writing the legislation excised a sensible provision that would have made it easier to stop wasting money on the exorbitant, painful, and often futile tests and procedures that tend to make the last months of Americans’ lives miserable.
The Lineup: Week of August 2-8, 2010
Here’s what you’ll find in the latest OtherWords editorial package, which features an op-ed and a cartoon on the WikiLeaks controversy. In his weekly column, Donald Kaul worries about what American politicians are doing to future generations. Get all this and more in your inbox by subscribing to our weekly newsletter. If you haven’t signed up yet, please do.
Evidence of a Failed Mission
WikiLeaks’ Afghan War Diary, a trove of 91,370 previously secret documents, is an important first history of the U.S. war in Afghanistan. Of course, mistakes will be found–but these are reports of military leaders to others in the military. This is where they tell the truth. It’s significant that the Obama administration has not tried to claim the reports are inaccurate. Instead, they’re claiming that disclosing the reports somehow endangers U.S. troops, while at the same time disparaging the documents as having no new information.
No Message on the Bottle
There’s plenty to look at on bottled water labels: claims of purity, images of mountain springs, and fine print on filtering processes. The problem is, amidst all the clutter, consumers can seldom find information to verify the marketing claims being made.
