To Comfort The Afflicted
And Afflict The Comfortable
‘America’s Best Idea’ Meets One Of Its Worst
BY FROMA HARROP The Ken Burns series The National Parks: America’s Best Idea got me thinking about one of America’s worst ideas, the war on drugs. Particularly ill-conceived is the crusade against marijuana. That bad idea is now threatening the good idea, as Mexican drug cartels – hampered by a tighter border – swarm over […]
A Corporate Monster vs. The Vermonster
BY JIM HIGHTOWER Where are those lawsuit abuse groups when you really need them? Chance are that you’ve seen ads, letters-to-the-editor, op-ed pieces and other materials put out by outfits with such civic-sounding names on Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse. By whatever name, the message is always the same, usually delivered in a sort of urgent, […]
Parents Gone Wild
BY SUSAN ESTRICH As it turns out, it was no secret that Richard and Mayumi Heene were very bad parents. Their associates knew it. Television producers witnessed it. Their willingness to put their children in danger to get attention was nothing new. They chased storms with their children. They used them to become “stars” of […]
Social Security: Every Politician’s Toy
BY FROMA HARROP Social Security is a glossy piece of paper on which nearly every politician wants to finger-paint an agenda. But Social Security has no need of ornament. It is a very grown-up program. Put some other toy into the political playpen. Come January, for the first time since 1975, Social Security payments will […]
A Nobel For Defeating Cheneyism
BY JOE CONASON Outraged babble and sanctimonious tut-tutting over President Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize will pour forth until the very evening he accepts the prize in Oslo, and then for years afterward. His critics are infuriated, they say, because he didn’t earn the prestigious award, or because he didn’t refuse it – or just because […]
