Rights and Democracy
Unfit to Print
What's the hottest trend among men who have it all? Buying islands and Picassos is out. Buying newspapers is in. We're not talking about subscriptions here. All self-respecting billionaires should own at least one newspaper, preferably a big one. Within a single week,...
The Bully Party
If our government were a card game, the American people would surely have realized by now that they're playing with a marked deck. The Republicans are cheating. In the 2012 elections, Democratic candidates for House seats collectively won about five percent more votes...
Actually, It Is About You
Unless you're a politician or a star athlete, the news of the day is rarely about your life. But sometimes, the media is buzzing quite specifically about you. Are you part of that conversation? Nope. That kind of treatment is reserved for people who lack political...
Building an Underclass of Workers
You've probably heard that America has millions of undocumented immigrants. Maybe one of them lives next door to you. Or there's one lurking on your roof. Or another lying nearby on the beach. My kids go to school with undocumented immigrants. They play on the same...
Swerving to the Right
The Supreme Court rulings that made marriage equality a reality for many same-sex couples and struck down an Arizona law that made it harder to register to vote were important civil rights victories. But, they obscure our highest court's rightward shift. Consider...
When Personalized Becomes Predatory
What do you think of when you hear the words “internet surveillance”? If you’ve been following the news, you might be thinking about the National Security Agency’s PRISM spying program. Or maybe you’re recalling debates about the age-old battle between security and...
Merger Equality at the Supreme Court
Scrap the PATRIOT Act
It's back. The PATRIOT Act — a grotesque, ever-mutating, hydra-headed monstrosity from the Bush-Cheney Little Shop of Horrors — has risen again. This time, it's got an added twist of Orwellian intrusiveness from the Obamacans. Since 2006, Team Bush, and now Team...
A Verdict that Condemns the State of Civil Rights in America
The not-guilty verdict a jury of six women reached in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin was outrageous. Although I'd been following this case since February 26, 2012 — the day George Zimmerman, a Sanford, Florida, neighborhood watch captain, gunned down the unarmed...
One Step at a Time
"Be prepared" is the motto of the Boy Scouts of America. Surely its national leaders remembered those words as they prepped for backlash from a recent decision to admit openly gay Scouts while maintaining a ban on gay adults. As a result of the policy change, some...
