The Real Target of the Planned Parenthood Attacks

The Real Target of the Planned Parenthood Attacks

In the first two Republican presidential debates, the candidates slugged it out over who hated Planned Parenthood the most. Virtually every hopeful promised to defund the organization. Some of them, including Senator Ted Cruz, are vowing to force the issue — even if...
Taking it Lying Down vs. Plain Old Lying

Taking it Lying Down vs. Plain Old Lying

The Republicans have finally found someone to man up to Donald Trump, who’s threatening to turn their presidential primaries into a Saturday Night Live skit. She’s a woman. At the latest Republican debate, with a stage-full of candidates straining at the leash...
The GOP Agenda (Or Lack Thereof)

The GOP Agenda (Or Lack Thereof)

To hear Republican presidential candidates tell it, you’d think the most important issue facing the nation is Hillary Clinton’s old emails. Not climate change, not the growing gap between the filthy rich and the deserving poor, and not our crumbling roads, declining...
Barnyard Sex Education

Barnyard Sex Education

In 2009, an interim Texas school superintendent declared that sex-education classes were unnecessary in his rural district. Most of the area’s school kids live on farms, he explained, therefore: “They get a pretty good sex education from their...
Why I’m Singing the Inauguration Blues

Why I’m Singing the Inauguration Blues

President Barack Obama’s second inauguration definitely had its high points: his uncharacteristically liberal speech, weather that broke 30 degrees, and a tour-de-force from inaugural poet Richard Blanco. This was my first barely-up-close-and-not-so-personal...