12 Articles

Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Bill Ayers and the Talk Media Circus
The Obama-Ayers "issue" is just more spritzer water in the face of serious politics. It's more evidence of the media circus show U.S. politics has become. But why talk about unaffordable health care or spreading home foreclosures or a war with no end in sight? If you're one of the "great Americans" of the airwaves and you have no real solution to anything, why indeed?

Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Where are the Candidates Who Embrace These Six Words?
The recent best-seller, "Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure," is an inspired compilation of six-word life stories. It makes you wonder. Where are the candidates who embrace these six words? "Bring All The Troops Home Now!"

Sunday, February 24, 2008
What Makes Someone a Campus Murderer?
(5 comments) Murderers are made, not born. Yet as a society we seem remarkably uninterested in addressing the root causes of crime. Reflections on the NIU killings by a former NIU student.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Juno and the Right to Abortion
(1 comments) The film Juno is not meant to be a social sermon. It's not even meant to be a serious drama. But any popular American film that explores the abortion issue, even comically, seems in this day and age destined to controversy. We can thank decades of hostile Christian Right hysteria over women's reproductive rights for that. But what should pro-choice viewers make of Juno?

Thursday, December 27, 2007
Broken Health System Demands More Than Conservative Apologetics
The issue of affordable health care is acquiring an urgency missing from past elections. But that's not to say that the leading candidates are showing much inclination to embrace the only solution that really makes sense-non-profit single payer health care. Ironically, that hasn't stopped the right-wing junk media from accusing Clinton, Edwards, and Obama of being supporters of "socialized medicine."

Sunday, November 18, 2007
The Story of Parvin: Reflections on Hope in an Age of War and Intervention
(3 comments) In a world weary with cynicism and global conflict, an Iranian feminist remembers a moment from the early days of Iran's Islamic Republic when one man's belief in Islam saved her life. The story of Parvin Najafi recalls the early fervor of the Iranian revolution, before the ayatollahs consolidated their power, and a history of U.S. involvement in Iran the mainstream media would prefer to ignore.

Saturday, October 6, 2007
What Does It Mean to 'Support The Troops?'
(11 comments) The "welcome home parade" for the 33rd National Guard Battalion from Bloomington-Normal, Illinois, was ostensibly "non-political." But this was true only if you happen to believe the U.S. occupation of Iraq is just a larger version of a Peace Corps service project. Relief at the return of loved ones is one thing; pretending that their mission in Iraq was somehow right and noble is another.

Sunday, July 29, 2007
Bush Makes Clear Why a Health Care Revolt is Needed
(2 comments) President Bush made clear which side of health care progress he's on when he recently stated his intention to veto a Senate bill to increase funds for the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). So why do we put up with a leader whose SiCKO ideology blinds him even to the most basic needs of children?

Friday, July 13, 2007
SiCKO and the Health Insurance Rip-Off
(2 comments) With SiCKO, Michael Moore has overnight taken the proposal for single-payer, government sponsored national health care from the fringes of national political debate to center stage. But it will take more than a movie to get the insurance companies out of the health care business. Now it's time for the movement-building.

Saturday, March 17, 2007
The Devolving World of the Right-Wing Media
Safely ensconced in their studios and offices, America's regiment of pro-war pundits barely pause to ponder the human sorrow of the war as they play their rhetorical games of one-upmanship with the hated liberals.

Tuesday, December 5, 2006
None Dare Call It Reason
(4 comments) At a time when an old-line right-winger like William F. Buckley bluntly admits the U.S. mission in Iraq has failed, when even professional reprobate Henry Kissinger says a military victory is impossible, talk radio stars like Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Laura Ingraham, and other media warriors remain intrepid defenders of the heroic rightness of the President's war. What's wrong with them?

Monday, May 15, 2006
Border Guards Are Not the Answer Because Immigrants Are Not the Enemy
(2 comments) President Bush has apparently been advised that leadership on the immigration issue means being pro-active, which is another way of saying send in the troops. The White House Deciderator's latest stab at deciding something involves plans now to significantly increase the presence of National Guard troops along the southwestern border. It's another clueless move by the White House.