Peace and Security
This Week in OtherWords: January 9, 2013
This week in OtherWords, Sam Pizzigati explains how the recent budget deal will benefit the richest Americans, Jill Richardson calls on President Obama to take decisive action on climate change during his second term in office, and Donald Kaul follows up on his Dec....
Plotting an Uncivil War
At this point, it's far from certain whether the massacre of 20 Connecticut first-graders and six educators by a madman armed with an assault rifle in December will lead to meaningful gun control. But a month after the Dec. 14 bloodbath, the American far right is...
On to the Next Cliff
The now infamous "fiscal cliff" Congress averted just hours before the New Year's deadline left most Americans with more questions than answers. Though the deal covers some of the most contentious tax issues, it leaves open the possibility that automatic spending cuts...
This Weekend in OtherWords: Donald Kaul Responds
As OtherWords readers know, Donald Kaul's first column in five months ran on Dec. 19. It was on gun control in the wake of the Newtown shootings and he wrote it in his usual satirical style. It's hard to pull off any kind of humor when it comes to the very un-funny...
Deploying Satire at My Own Risk
I think I hit a nerve. A couple of weeks ago I wrote a thoughtful, well-reasoned column suggesting ways to cut down on gun violence in our ever more violent society. It proposed, among other things: Repealing the Second Amendment and with it the right to buy assault...
Sabotaging the Conversation about Guns
Does NRA stand for “No Rational Argument”? In response to the tragic shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School, the gun group's CEO called for an armed cop in every school and a national database to track the mentally ill. Wayne LaPierre's widely broadcast proposal...
Argo and the Roots of U.S.-Iran Tensions
The box-office hit Argo brings back long-faded memories of the Iran hostage crisis for many Americans. News in November 1979 that U.S. diplomats had been taken hostage in Tehran shocked the United States. Students stormed the U.S. embassy, blindfolding 52 Americans...
Mass-Murder Nation
We're all still mourning with the families and loved ones of those so frightfully killed in Newtown, Connecticut. But as grief is joined by reflection on how this could happen — again — I believe we do a disservice those close to the victims as well as ourselves...
Of Cowardice and Connecticut
Tough laws stall To no avail, Risky guns Are still for sale. After the biggest massacre at an elementary school since 1927, President Barack Obama at first assured those of us in Connecticut that America needed to reconsider its gun laws. It was just that now isn't...
Turning our Tears into Action
A movie theater in Aurora, Colorado. A Sikh Temple in Wisconsin. A shopping mall in Oregon. A political event outside a supermarket in Tucson, Arizona. The streets of big cities like Chicago. And now an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut. When will the madness...
