Feast With Your Family This Thanksgiving; Then Fast With Us Next Week -- for...
The debate about immigration reform has been very productive in America over these past several years. And that debate has been won -- by those who favor a common sense agenda for reform. Two out of...
View ArticleRise Africa! We Have No Time to Lose
Today the first generation since the first incident of HIV occurred is joining the human family. We have come a long way from a time of desperation, when we were sure this epidemic would destroy our...
View ArticlePolarization: Worse Than You Think
Recent polls made it clear that Americans are fed up with acrimony and gridlock in Washington. Voters may blame Republicans more than Democrats but they're not happy with either Party. Some political...
View ArticleThe Role of Ranked Choice Voting in 2013
This post was written with my colleague Drew Spencer. If you followed the local elections and the special elections that took place in 2013, you probably heard some stories about ranked choice voting...
View ArticleLooking Overseas Gives Us Reasons to Be Thankful for Obamacare
This Thanksgiving, a lot of Americans will be giving thanks for Obamacare. By the end of this month, the federal government's website will be able to handle 800,000 users per day, enough to enroll...
View ArticleSunlight Jr. and the Daily Dramas of the Working Poor
I love movies, but they're usually about people I have nothing in common with. The new film Sunlight Jr. starring Naomi Watts and Matt Dillon so accurately portrays the difficult yet mundane lives of a...
View ArticleGeorge Will: Washington's Most Intellectually Dishonest "Intellectual"
George Will proved once again in a recent column that he is perhaps the most intellectually dishonest "intellectual" in a city awash with intellectual dishonesty. Not content to make obvious arguments...
View ArticleThe Hunger Games at Walmart
It's becoming a holiday tradition of our hyper-consumerist culture. I refer, of course, to the annual Tsk-Tsking over the plebeian hordes who storm the gates of Black Friday -- and now Blacker...
View ArticleBashir's Missed Opportunity
Much as been made, and rightfully so, about the deplorable comments by MSNBC host Martin Bashir about Sarah Palin. Bashir recently criticized Palin for her remarks comparing U.S. indebtedness to China...
View ArticleSunday Roundup
This week, the time devoted to giving thanks for all that we have became a little shorter, and the time devoted to accumulating more stuff grew longer, with the shopping orgy known as Black Friday (a...
View ArticleShould Only Seniors Be Allowed to Drive on the Highways?
Dear America: I hate to say "I told you so." But I told you so. I said, waaaaaaay back in 2010, that anyone who wants Medicare coverage should be able to buy it. I was right. And I'm still right. If...
View ArticleAre Working Amerians Serfs or Citizens?
In recent weeks there have been two high profile examples of the plight of American workers. The first is the food drives at at least one WalMart store aimed at ensuring that employees had enough to...
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Progress in Communities: EPA's Enduring Commitment
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency owes its existence to people like you. More than four decades ago, the pollution concerns of individuals grew out of local communities and into a nationwide...
View ArticleStuff Your Stockings and Help Save Our Democracy
Since opening my first scoop shop in Burlington with Jerry, I've given the gift of ice cream to friends and family each Christmas. Cherry Garcia for Jerry. Wavy Gravy for, of course, Wavy. And new...
View ArticleThe Minimum Wage, Unpaid Internships and the American Dream
There has been a fair amount of recent news coverage about people working in retail and fast food who need food stamps and charity to survive. The pressure on corporations to provide ever higher...
View ArticleChoosing Compassion
On the morning of Dec. 14, 2012 inside the walls of Sandy Hook Elementary, our school endured a tragedy beyond comprehension. 26 lives were taken far too soon, senselessly and brutally. In the midst of...
View ArticleMy Unusual Solution to Our Trillion Dollar Student Debt Problem
Click here to watch the TEDTalk that inspired this post. Back in 2008, one of the big shots at Discovery asked me if I would care to attend a three-day conference in Monterey, Calif. called the...
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Seagulls, Thanksgiving and the U.S. Minimum Wage
Photo by Lyndon Johnson. Maybe it's because I was born in Minnesota, but the fact is I've always loved to be on the water. When I first bought my old, slow sailboat in Marina del Rey, I was out on the...
View ArticleLife, Liberty and the Pursuit of Partisanship?
With all the controversy over the Affordable Care Act and government shutdowns, is it any wonder we have become, for lack of a better term, distracted? Priorities have shifted to things like the...
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