Regularly I drive past individuals praying out in front of Planned Parenthood. Supplication being a private thing, one can only imagine what appeals they direct skyward, out there in the cold and wind. I like to imagine that they are praying that all women, regardless of income, have access to safe…
DetailsWhat would you say if someone told you that your state’s emphasis on algebra was undermining math instruction? What would you say if that someone was a math instructor? What would you say if someone said algebra as emphasized — overemphasized — was undermining democracy? Well, I’m saying the latter. …
Details“Yeah, well I heard . . .” Four words just about sum up vast seas of political insight about matters that matter. “I heard about the schools handing out condoms.” “I heard about the Black Panthers intimidating voters.” “I heard that illegal immigrants can get Medicaid.” It hardly matters…
DetailsAs the deadline nears for coverage under the Affordable Care Act, two types of hardworking Americans should be furious. First: the working-poor millions who would be covered under expanded Medicaid if their state’s policy makers didn’t refuse it. Second: the millions who work second jobs mostly to pay for health coverage. That…
DetailsPrinciple. The NFL hinted it would move the Super Bowl, and Apple said it could find a new place for a planned plant if Arizona legitimized discrimination most foul, most un-American, against gays and lesbians. In a similarly principled stand, arms maker Magpul Industries has moved its plant to Wyoming. The principle…
DetailsI never thought I’d welcome black helicopters on the horizon. Black helicopters with jackbooted storm troopers in blue helmets, empowered to scan children’s tender corneas and report to the United Nations. Bring that on. That’s generally how discourse has devolved regarding the Common Core movement embraced by a host of states. Beating…
DetailsI’ve never been one to dwell on anniversaries. But what the heck. Last year's U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down the Defense of Marriage Act came in the sesquicentennial year of the Emancipation Proclamation. Lincoln wanted the latter a year earlier. He made a preliminary declaration in 1862. He said it…
DetailsWrong. Incorrect. Erroneous. Fallacious. Bogus. Choose your modifier for the headline-a-palooza the other day that alarmed (much of) a nation. Breathless were the reports: “Obamacare to cost 2.3 million jobs.” It took many variations, through the Wall Street Journal, through UPI, Politico, and of course the foamy tea partisans of Fox News. …
DetailsAt one time in my life I had no use for it. Hated it. I hated what snow did to the morning newspaper, how it crimped my driveway basketball dominance, how it curbed mobility in all forms except on skis. And now? Love it. Can’t get enough of it. Snow, snow, snow.…
DetailsThis just in: John McCain — too liberal for the Republican Party. Guilty as charged, and as pronounced last week by state committee members of the Arizona Republican Party. They voted to censure the state’s senior senator, and is anyone surprised? McCain’s crimes: insufficiently pure thought, and collaboration with the enemy. Firing squad to be…
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