Archive
Icarus Inc.
Rotten Egg Farming
The vast Iowa egg recall is terrifying. So far, half a billion eggs are involved. Who knows how many we have already eaten? Our health authorities say about 1,300 Americans have gotten salmonella from them so far.
The Lineup: Week of August 23-29, 2010
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Fatherless Children
You know things aren’t going well when your life story turns into romantic comedies. I guess it beats tragedies, but still…
Rebranding the Iraq War
The war in Iraq is over. Or so the government and most media outlets will claim on September 1, by which time thousands of U.S. troops will have departed the land of two rivers for other assignments. With this phase of the drawdown, says President Barack Obama, “America’s combat mission will end.” The Pentagon is marking the occasion by changing the name of the Iraq deployment from Operation Iraqi Freedom to Operation New Dawn.
Five Years after Katrina
Five years after the devastation of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and the botched recovery effort that followed, Congress has yet to ensure that survivors of future disasters on the Gulf Coast or elsewhere won’t face the nightmare that still prevents tens of thousands of former residents from returning to the Gulf states. The BP oil disaster is further compounding the consequences of that inept response.
Mosque of Liberty
We would do well to remember why America as a nation exists at all: The early colonists from Europe fled the tyranny of monarchs who could tell them whom, how, whether, when, and where they could worship.
The Case for Killing Bush’s Tax Cuts for the Rich
Things in Washington these days are beginning to look a lot like Dickens’ A Christmas Carol: Two ghosts from Republican administrations past have risen from political Palookaville to rattle their chains and issue dire warnings to their former colleagues.
Shut Up and Eat Your Sugar
One, America has a rather huge child obesity problem. Two, major food corporations constantly pitch ads to children for such stuff as sugar-saturated breakfast cereals and fat-laden “Happy Meals.” So, how does fact No. 2 relate to fact No. 1? Yes, No. 2 is a cause of No. 1. It’s really not that hard to grasp, is it?
Another Curse for Afghanistan
As if war, tyranny, drugs, corruption, disease and misogyny weren’t misfortune enough for Afghanistan, now the Pentagon reports that it also suffers that worst affliction of all–mineral resources.
