BY FROMA HARROP This has been a month of forward leaps in the campaign for gay-marriage – or so it is said. The Iowa Supreme Court struck down a ban on same-sex marriage, providing a toehold in the heartland. And the Vermont Legislature legalized gay marriage, marking the first time that elected lawmakers, rather than […]

BY JIM HIGHTOWER I’ve always wondered: What was the guy who invented bagpipes really trying to make? Well, at least that wheezing, whining invention turned out to be merely irritating, not actually dangerous. Leave it to the Dr. Strangelovian schemers at the Pentagon, however, to come up with an invention that is both irritating and […]

BY SUSAN ESTRICH “I can’t say that I know her,” the forewoman of Phil Spector’s jury told the press after it was over, referring to Spector’s victim, Lana Clarkson. Both Clarkson and Spector were on trial for the second time, after the first jury to consider murder charges against the music producer deadlocked 10-2 in […]

BY FROMA HARROP One day last week, the Dow Jones Industrial Average shot up 246 points. On CNBC, Jim Cramer punched the Sousa March button. NPR’s “Marketplace” boomed, “We’re in the Money.” Yeah! Happy days are here again. Right? And just when the Prozac started to kick in. Or perhaps wrong. Look at the bigger […]

BY SUSAN ESTRICH I was in elementary school in Swampscott, MA, when I learned that the Jews had killed Christ. Or so we were told, right around this time of year. Most of the kids in the class just nodded when they heard. It seems they already knew. I was shocked. I went home to […]