| Jun 18, 2012 | Peace / SecurityPrison owners Make a lot, By putting kids In jail for pot. America recently commemorated the 40th year of its “War on Drugs.” Celebrations were muted because of the war’s dismal failure. How many candles are appropriate for shooting yourself in the...
| Feb 20, 2012 | Rights / DemocracyIt’s all the rage in state legislatures and even in Congress. More than a dozen states are debating proposals to require jobless Americans who receive unemployment benefits to submit to mandatory drug testing. The argument for forcing the unemployed to relieve...
| Jan 23, 2012 | Food / FarmingFor a symbol of how America’s decade-long war is going in faraway Afghanistan, look at the beautiful fields of red poppies flowering so bountifully there. Unfortunately, that bounty symbolizes the failure of an ambitious Western initiative against Taliban...
| Nov 21, 2011 | Peace / SecurityGrim-faced military officers and ashen-faced politicians describe a horrific “war zone,” with “hundreds of people murdered” and “citizens under attack around the clock.” Some of the politicos say that the situation is so dire that...
| Oct 31, 2011 | Rights / DemocracyJails presentFor all to see,HumanInhumanity. The United States has more citizens behind bars, per capita, than any other nation. No, this quirk doesn’t reflect an especially felonious gene in our national DNA. Rather, it exposes embarrassing shortfalls in our...