The year was 1993, and I was being besieged by experts. I never knew so many people knew so much until that year — when a raid on the Branch Davidian compound outside Waco went so seriously afoul that the standoff ended up a nightly fixation on CNN and the networks. …
DetailsIf self-interest alone were to guide one’s politics, I’d be writing my congressman to support the HAPPY Act. As would my seven cats, my three dogs, my three rabbits. Well, I’m not. And I’ve told the pets to put their quills in their ink wells, and slowly walk away. The…
DetailsAnd so we say farewell to the Decade of Levi Johnston, he who impregnated a vice presidential candidate’s teen daughter, paraded before the nation as a picture of family values, had his affections alienated, did an armpit- bearing fold-out photo session and appeared on enough talk shows to become a household face. That…
DetailsIt was March 20, 2003. After “shock and awe,” American forces had rolled tanks into Iraq. I drove by a church whose marquee read, “Pray for peace.” I shook my head. Maybe some worshippers inside wanted that. The rest didn’t mean it at all. They wanted to crush perceived enemies. Now it’s December 2009.…
DetailsThey’re getting it, but they still don’t get it. States are figuring out that it’s not good policy to put so much emphasis on a single standardized test. Not only does it result in miscarriages of assessment, even when students get more than one try. It also warps and crimps…
DetailsMake that $1 million a soldier, $1 million a Marine. Or, one sixth of an elementary school. Or one rural fire station. That’s what it will cost to deploy someone to combat in Afghanistan for a year. Time flies. According to White House estimates in the New York Times, three…
DetailsWhat American researchers were finding up in the Rockies over the summer put a new twist on “purple mountains’ majesty.” Try, pink, or tan, or just brown where it should have been white — white as snow. That’s what they were examining: snow with an ominous glaze of dust that had…
DetailsOver the river, through the woods, to my house they go. Sweet potatoes. Up the interstate, along the Front Range, marched up the sidewalk, ringing at the door bell. Sweet potatoes. The horror. This being our first Thanksgiving back in the brisk Mountain West, where the holiday actually nudges up to the bounds of Currier…
DetailsIf 5,000 Canadians froze to death trudging across the snow fields of northern Minnesota to find work, how would you respond? Would you say, (a) “They deserved it. They broke the law.” (b) “What a horror. Pass the french toast.” (c) “We need to build a wall.” That many people have died…
DetailsIt’s not “‘Jon and Kate Plus Eight Attorneys.” It’s not, “on ‘Oprah,’ Sarah Palin unveils her road map for world peace.” That an American probe just discovered water on the moon is not big news, judging by what one hears. Still, you’d think we’d be hearing a lot about it. I’m not talking about the fact…
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