| Jun 26, 2013 | Rights / DemocracyThe racial picture in America has improved remarkably in my lifetime, so much so that a black man has been elected and re-elected President of the United States — an unthinkable development just a few years ago. But paradoxically, Barack Obama’s victory in 2008...
| Jun 19, 2013 | Rights / DemocracyIn 1929, Secretary of State Henry Stimson dismantled the department charged with breaking codes and learning other nations’ secrets. Asked why, he said: “Gentlemen don’t read other gentlemen’s mail.” Some sources quote him less elegantly...
| | Rights / DemocracyIt’s good to know that our friendly, über-secret National Security Agency is out there every day, protecting our freedom. By violating it. A whistleblower has blown the lid off the NSA’s super-snoop program of rummaging electronically through about a...
| May 22, 2013 | Rights / DemocracyBy the end of June, the Supreme Court will decide two related cases involving the right of gay couples to get married. We don’t know what the decisions will be, although it seems likely that gay-rights activists will have something to celebrate that day, even if it’s...
| | Food / FarmingWhenever one of our cities gets a star turn as host of some super-sparkly event, such as a national political gathering or the Super Bowl, its first move is to tidy up — by having the police sweep homeless people into jail, out of town, or under some rug. But...
