Year: 2013

Republicans and Democrats are still name-calling in their arguments over the government shutdown, out-of-control federal spending and the implementation of Obamacare. Yet if both sides would agree to just follow the earlier advice of President Obama, tempers might cool and a deal could still be reached. And had President Obama himself just listened to earlier […]

What do you call waiting for the end of a partial government shutdown while waiting to see if Congress raises the debt limit while waiting to see if Bay Area Rapid Transit workers strike and Alameda-Contra Costa Transit workers join them? Waiting for the apocalypses? Or: Bargaining bad. In Washington, a rump group of Republicans […]

Guy walks into a restaurant. Says to the waitress, “I’d like some scrambled eggs and some kind words.” She brings the eggs. The guy smiles, “Now how about the kind words?” Waitress whispers, “Don’t eat the eggs.” This brings us to the fact that urban public school teachers are about two times more likely than […]

Can something as tragic and immoral as slavery become, if not less tragic, then noble, even righteous, in the telling? It can and it does in the capable hands of Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., whose brilliant and compelling new six-part series for PBS called “The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross” premieres Oct. […]

In 2009, Somali pirates hijacked the Maersk Alabama, a cargo ship flying the American flag and took the ship’s captain, Richard Phillips, for ransom. The United States Navy dispatched three warships, two helicopters, a surveillance drone, and parachuted in the famous Navy SEAL team 6 to rescue Phillips in a six-day feat portrayed in the […]

Evangelical Christians are hard workers, according to a press release of the Evangelical Alliance. 37 per cent of them work more than 40 hours per week — rising to over 50 per cent among men; and seven per cent work more than 60 hours.35 per cent regularly bring work home with them, and only 59 […]

No major legislation has ever been passed like Obamacare — and I’m using the word “passed” pretty loosely. It became law without both houses ever voting on the same bill. (Say, is the Constitution considered “settled law”?) Not one Republican voted for it — and a lot of Democrats immediately wished they hadn’t. Historically, big […]