Why Jews Are All In on the New Voting Rights Act
There is something quintessentially American and quintessentially Jewish about voting -- and fighting for the right to vote. After all, voting is an act of faith. It's a ritual, part of belonging to...
View ArticleGlobal Anti-Semitism and the Erosion of Shame
Some of my worst fears about a resurgence of anti-Semitism around the world seem to be coming true. I have been talking for some time about the unique dynamic of anti-Semitism as a phenomenon and the...
View ArticleForensic Scientists Support El Salvador's Steps to Investigate El Mozote...
Forensic experts from around the world met in El Salvador last week to support the state's first tentative steps toward investigating what is considered among the most heinous atrocities in Latin...
View ArticleDon't Give Up on Afghanistan Before Karzai's Next Pirouette
Americans are well on their way out of Afghanistan's war, and they have not needed the country's most famous illicit export to get them already to forget the point of U.S. involvement there. Troop...
View ArticleBeyond Beds and Meds: Accepting Nothing Less Than Transformational Change
One year ago, the unthinkable tragedy in Newtown inspired me to offer three steps to fix our mental health system as seen through the lens of my own family's struggle with serious mental illness. Since...
View ArticleGovernment Control of the Internet -- A View From Istanbul's Streets Echo...
Turkish Riot Police are using water cannon, tear gas and rubber (for the moment) bullets to quell the hundreds of demonstrators marching in Istanbul. "Rubber bullets makes it sound too restrained,"...
View ArticleWarning: Industry Spin May Be Hazardous to Your Health; Learn the Truth About...
It seems like every day the food movement is gaining more power in the fight for the consumers' right to know what is in our food. Two weeks ago 200 businesses and organizations sent a letter to...
View ArticleThe Good Jobs News on the Affordable Care Act
Leading Republicans, along with much of the media, went into a frenzy last week following the release of a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report on the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The report assessed...
View ArticleThe Postponement of Obama's Health Care Law Is Getting Old: Why Does the...
As a generally steady supporter of Barack Obama over the past five years I am continually reminded of why he was not my first choice during the primary phase of 2008. Back then, I described him as a...
View ArticleHoward's Daily: Feckless Democracy
For those who enjoy clinical dissection of America's democratic dysfunction, the sharp scalpel of Ruth Marcus at the Washington Post today lays out the putrid parts piece by piece. Basically, Congress...
View ArticleTraffickers Who Torture in Egypt and Sudan
Traffickers have kidnapped, tortured, and killed refugees, most from Eritrea, in eastern Sudan and Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, according to dozens of interviewees. Egypt and Sudan have failed to...
View ArticleHastings' Endangered Species Act "Reform" Is the Movie Groundhog Day All Over...
Rep. Doc Hastings recently released a report and a set of proposals that would effectively gut the Endangered Species Act (ESA), severely curtailing the act's ability to protect the nation's most...
View ArticleAttacks on Moral March Miss Their Mark
The recent criticisms leveled by newspaper columnist J. Peder Zane and others against Rev. William Barber II for using religious and moral language to inspire political change displayed a disregard for...
View ArticleHow to Save the Victims of the Student Loan Crisis
There is only one way out of the student loan crisis - civil disobedience on a massive scale. Two reforms could bring a fair settlement to banks and borrowers alike. However, while fair, these reforms...
View ArticleTrees Are Our Climate Saviors - So Stop Logging on Public Land
"Climate change is a fact," President Obama said in his State of the Union address on January 28, 2014, "and when our children's children look us in the eye and ask if we did all we could to leave them...
View ArticleReading the Data on Declining Abortion Rates
Recently released figures from the Guttmacher Institute show a drop from 1.2 million abortions in 2008 to 1.1 million in 2011, and that's something to cheer about. The question is, who's cheering, and...
View ArticleThe Truth About Slavery in Pennsylvania
History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce. -- Karl Marx In 1847, a historian for the Pennsylvania Abolition Society described Pennsylvania's Gradual Abolition Act as one "which raised...
View Article104 Members of Congress Say Give Diplomacy a Chance
Just days after senators trying to kill negotiations with Iran admitted defeat, a new letter from 104 members of the House of Representatives signals an upsurge of support for a diplomatic resolution...
View ArticleProgress, But Not Yet Perfection: A Californian's Perspective on the New Farm...
Much has already been said and written about last week's passage of the Agricultural Act of 2014, otherwise known as the Farm Bill. Observers have offered a mix of lamentation and celebration, with...
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Afghanistan Exit Strategy: How Bilateral Is the Security Agreement
For more than a year we have been negotiating the specifics of the U.S.-Afghanistan Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) with the Afghan government. The sticking points in the agreement are the U.S....
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