It’s not the dollar-driven cottage industry that denying evidence about global warming has become, but stay tuned. With budget savings in view, the full-court press is on in state legislatures to deny that smaller class sizes help students do better. Tight state budgets are forcing the “science,” the rationalizing of larger…
DetailsThe e-mail seemed frantic, even for these people. “Assassin is liberal.” So pronounced Bear Witness, a group that calls itself a proud member of the Tea Party Network, in an e-mail to the press. It pointed out that an ex-classmate said the man with the gun in Tucson was left-leaning. And, look:…
DetailsThe scandal shook a state to its boots — payoffs, lies, conspiracy, all involving people who, said one observer, “convinced themselves the rules didn’t apply to them.” Ah, but the scoundrels got caught. That would teach a football program to test the NCAA. That black mark on human history was…
DetailsMy dog Lucy is frantic for light beams. Shadows, too. In the morning, she patrols the sunlight-splayed kitchen, watching for reflections from a wrist watch, or from a juice glass exiting the cupboard. She will skid across the tiles in pursuit when the refrigerator door handle flings a reflection across the floor. It used to…
DetailsTime Magazine’s nod to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is one of the most deliciously odd “Person of the Year” choices in its history. Not because Zuckerberg isn’t consequential. As one whose network links 550 million people, he is consequential beyond imagining. What’s so odd about the choice is that he seems like a…
DetailsIf this doesn’t toast your heart’s cockles: The congressman said we couldn’t afford to extend unemployment benefits through what in economic terms is one of America’s harshest winters. At the same time we could afford, he said, to extend tax breaks worth billions of dollars to America’s wealthiest. For them, “harsh winter” means…
DetailsThe red kettle beckons outside the store, and a sad tension grips me. Sad, because it used to be that whatever spare change rattled in my pocket would go into that kettle, drawing a cheery thanks and a smile. And who couldn’t stand some of that action? I forgo it, however. That’s…
DetailsI was told once that I strikingly resembled a Walrus. Not the marine mammal. Not the leader of the Beatles. I was, said an acquaintance, the spitting image of pro golfer Craig Stadler — known in his sport as the Walrus. I blinked and protested. Stadler is squat and chubby. Except for…
DetailsThe first Thanksgiving celebrated survival and agrarian guile. With the help of charitable natives, the pale-skinned aliens were able to exhale and rejoice, having made a life on and with foreign soil. So it is with my family this past year. We did much the same, survival-wise on alien land, even…
DetailsMy waning sense of incredulousness was gnawing on a TV commercial for a brand of artificial hip — you don’t just get those off the rack, so “ask your doctor” — when the news guy came on and told us about Black Friday. The story: Many will shop. All…
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