BY SUSAN ESTRICH It has a way of sneaking up on me, like the unhappy anniversary it is. Who knew? The first March 7 was a Monday. I was a law student, and my father died in a hospital bed where he had been hovering between life and death for 10 terrible days. Terrible for […]

BY JIM HIGHTOWER David Brooks was upset. You can tell when this conservative and rather-professorial columnist for The New York Times gets upset, because his words almost sag with disappointment – you can practically hear the tsk-tsks and the heavy sighs in each paragraph. When most commentators on the right see things that offend them, […]

BY FROMA HARROP Do recessions make people sicker? Some studies say yes, some say no. The better question might be, “How is this recession affecting health?” Not in a good way, comes the answer. This recession – depression? – seems different. This recession is messing with our heads. When the economic arrows first turned downward, […]

BY SUSAN ESTRICH In an ideal world, gay marriage would be won at the ballot box. Voters would recognize that they have absolutely nothing to lose by allowing their fellow citizens the same rights to marry that heterosexual men and women now enjoy. Even many prominent conservatives [say, Sarah Palin] have come to recognize that […]

BY FROMA HARROP Amid pleas to spare the rich, the right is accusing the Obama Administration of waging vile class warfare. They envision wooden carts carrying the wealthiest 2% to the guillotine. Are the critics right? Only in the tumbrels of their mind. What the administration proposes is more like charging for cocktails in the […]