Did it really take the American Medical Association to tell us this? The AMA has pronounced childhood obesity a disease — also, that boiling water scalds and wood splinters. On a “self-evident” scale of 10, this is an 11. Just as clear in the 21st century, and backed by statistics is the…
DetailsIt’s all in the eyes. Think back to the great teachers you had. What do you recall? Eyes that bathed a classroom in attentiveness, in wisdom, and when appropriate, in mirth. Now, think of a puppet. The first thing you notice is the not-human eyes. I hate to say this, with all the…
DetailsSarah Palin spun the applause meter at the 2008 Republican National Convention when she quoted Ronald Reagan: "You and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children, and our children's children, what it once was like in America when men were free." One wonders what the meter would have read if…
DetailsComprehensive immigration reform is a winner — comprehensive, path-to-citizenship reform. Drones-in-skies, three-layer walls, “no amnesty,” end-of-discussion reform is not a winner. We know this not just because poll after poll says it, as Politico reports. We can know this because Congressman Mike Coffman suddenly is talking about compassion. Coffman is a heretofore hard-right…
DetailsIt’s not often that one finds one’s self eulogized while still emitting a pulse. That’s what happened, though, the other day in an amazing compilation in The New York Times. The subject: death by self-infliction of the Republican Party. The amazing thing was that all of the eulogizing was being done by Republicans. Jeb…
DetailsWe can’t know exactly what happened when Trayvon Martin died. We do know, however, the answer to that infernal chicken-egg riddle the NRA uses to mesmerize policymakers. The answer: Guns kill people. Period. End of riddle. George Zimmerman says he wouldn’t have done anything differently. That depends. Let’s say that…
DetailsAs with a lot of people across the country, Wendy Davis is my new hero — she who for 11 hours stared down an armored column of oppression on the Texas Senate floor. I know Sen. Davis won’t be offended, however, to hear me say that she’s not my foremost pro-choice hero. That…
DetailsIt’s understandable that conservatives, from Chief Justice John Roberts to chief pundit George Will, today think of racism as a thing of the past — a “post-racial” society, this is. After all, Jim Crow molders in the grave — he of the dirty dungarees, the night rides, the venal proxies in elected…
Details“Billions and billions.” Where is Carl Sagan when we need him to provide the proper intonation? Billions — $200 billion — in fact, is what the Congressional Budget Office says would be shaved off the federal deficit in 10 years with passage of the immigration reform bill gaining steam in the Senate. Look 20…
DetailsAnd so it begins again, and on cue. Like an incendiary device on a timer, summer has turned patches of Rocky Mountain paradise into scenes of fiery hell. The people of Colorado are beginning to wonder if for the foreseeable future they are locked into four seasons: fall, winter, spring and wildfire.…
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