Feb 6 2014 - 1:53pm
Updated 10 weeks ago
This month, millions of Americans will take time out of their schedules to watch the greatest athletes in the world compete in one of history’s best events — the Olympics.
The Olympics are a time when the impressiveness of our nation is on display for the entire world to see. Athletes who compete have spent their lives preparing for this moment, as have their families and friends who support them through good times and bad.
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Apr 23 2014 - 3:43pm
Saturday April 26 is Confederate Memorial Day in Georgia and other states. Some states also observe this Southern holiday of remembrance in May and June.
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Apr 22 2014 - 11:14pm
When Jonathan Schell, the most cogent moral philosopher of the nuclear age, died of cancer last month, it left a rift in the moral fabric of our small planet, a hole similar in size to those left by the three Alberts—Camus, Einstein and Bigelow. Never heard of Bert Bigelow? He was the Harvard grad who in 1958 twice tried to sail his ketch, the
Golden Rule, into the waters of the South Pacific where nuclear weapons were being tested—and found time as well to be beaten up by racist thugs alongside Congressman John Lewis while protesting for civil rights.
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Apr 20 2014 - 11:15am
I don't really believe in miracles or anything else that could be described as supernatural. Virtually every scientific investigation of such phenomena has found explanations in the real world for what many people would like to believe is other worldly. In fact, for several years one such investigating organization has offered a $1 million prize to anyone who could clearly demonstrate any sort of supernatural power. So far, no one has claimed the money.
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Apr 18 2014 - 1:57pm
By David Swanson
Ian Morris has stuck his dog's ear in his mouth, snapped a selfie, and proclaimed "Man Bites Dog." His new book War: What Is It Good For? Conflict and Progress of Civilization from Primates to Robots is intended to prove that war is good for children and other living things. It actually proves that defenders of war are growing desperate for arguments.
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Apr 17 2014 - 2:55pm
In what has to rate as one of the most insensitive and outrageous demands on a Caribbean country, US government representatives have told the Bahamas government that it must drop “all duties” on US products entering the country as a condition of being admitted to membership of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
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Apr 17 2014 - 11:19am
In early April 2014, the U.S. Navy unveiled its Mach 7 Magnetic Mangler, “a railgun straight out of Star Trek that can take out targets at 100 miles with a projectile flying at nearly 7,000 feet per second.”
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Apr 14 2014 - 10:27am
Your doctors are worried about your health: in fact, about your very survival.
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Apr 13 2014 - 3:42pm
SEATTLE, Wash., April 13 – The television series “Mad Men” has started airing its seventh and final season (Sunday, April 13, 10 p.m. Eastern on AMC). I will miss watching this program since I’ve been a devoted follower from day one. The creator of the show, Matthew Weiner, has done an extraordinary job telling the story of the way Madison Avenue was in the 1950s and 1960s. And he wasn’t even born until 1965 and grew up in Los Angeles.
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Apr 13 2014 - 1:43pm
The word “jobs” is rife among the political lingo one might think candidates at all levels, including Romney and Obama, have magic formulae just waiting until the morning after election. Along with this are the screams from the Teabaggers, Limbaugh, Beck et al about illegal workers snagging jobs from Americans.
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Apr 10 2014 - 3:45pm
April 15th, Tax Day, our nation funds our national budget. On this day we fund the nation’s business and provide a proclamation to the world of the U.S. priorities for the next year. Ultimately, because they reveal our choices, budgets are moral documents and are supposed to represent the people’s priorities.
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Apr 10 2014 - 6:55am
The Commonwealth of 53 nations is facing yet another ordeal because of the government of Sri Lanka. This time the Sri Lankan government is refusing to co-operate with a UN-mandated investigation.
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Apr 10 2014 - 12:03am
Updated 2 weeks ago
Is there an emotional connection between the oceans and the pursuit of peace? For whatever reason, peace ships have been increasing in number over the past century.
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Apr 7 2014 - 10:18am
By Arthur Solomon
The United States has many things going for it:
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Apr 4 2014 - 2:02pm
April 20th is Easter and the world remembers Jesus Christ our Savior, and….
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Apr 4 2014 - 10:13am
By Jack Payden-Travers
Yesterday, I got my taxes off to the IRS and felt like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders. You know the feeling, don’t you? Another year and somehow we managed to survive. Other than the car and the house which both belong to the bank for the next few years, the bills have been paid. Well not all the bills. Actually there is one left. It’s the $10.40 cents which I refused to pay of the “Taxes Owed” to the IRS.
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Apr 3 2014 - 6:12pm
Any courtroom in China or Iran could have been the scene: An 84-year-old Catholic nun in prison garb, chained hand-and-foot and surrounded by heavy Marshals, is shuffled jangling into court. Her attorney asks if she might be allowed one free hand in order to take notes. The nun has been convicted of high crimes trumped up after her bold political protest embarrassed the state. A high-ranking judge lectures her about law and order and then imposes a three-year prison term.
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Apr 3 2014 - 10:14am
It’s not often that, apart from funerals, grown men are seen to shed tears openly, and certainly not tough men who have fought hard political campaigns in the relentless battleground of the United States and served on the staff of John Kerry, now US Secretary of State.
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Apr 1 2014 - 2:42am
Updated 3 weeks ago
BY TRACY RENEE LEE
When my daughter was a toddler, my husband served in the US Navy, and we lived in a very large coastal California city. One day my husband and I decided, for entertainment, we would like to go to a large swap meet. We loaded up our toddler, invited my mother and away we went. It was a wonderful activity, filled with exciting things to see and purchase. The prices were low and the local delicacies abundant. We were having a fabulous time. Read more
Mar 30 2014 - 11:37pm
Updated 3 weeks ago
There is a battle going on in our nation right now over the future of energy, and West Virginia is at the center of this debate. We are the nation’s third largest energy producer and second largest producer of coal. Yet, there is an effort by some to not only limit how we use and burn coal for energy, but also how we extract it.
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Mar 30 2014 - 12:51pm
I like to engage with pretty much anyone I meet wherever I am or wherever I go. It may be in a foreign country such as on my recent trip to Africa or simply sitting next to someone on a chair lift when skiing. If the person is young, I’m especially interested in the choices they will be making and I often ask personal questions about whether they are in a relationship or not. If I sense they are open to these questions, I will probe further.
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Mar 29 2014 - 11:01am
For over a decade, the indigenous Himba Peoples from Namibia have objected to the construction of the Baynes Hydro Power Plant in Orokawe, Namibia. Read more
Mar 28 2014 - 4:02pm
Urge the ending of war these days and you'll very quickly hear two words: "Hitler" and "Rwanda." While World War II killed some 70 million people, it's the killing of some 6 to 10 million (depending on who's included) that carries the name Holocaust.
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Mar 27 2014 - 4:35pm
So the United States wants to buy hemp from the Ukraine. I suppose we should be happy. Anytime the U.S. government gives a country money that is not earmarked for weapons, we probably shouldn't too closely examine the unelected neo-liberals and neo-Nazis handling the cash. Nobody pays attention to the Saudi government or the oil, wars, and terrorism it provides in exchange for U.S. largesse.
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Mar 27 2014 - 12:16pm
Most of the Caribbean tourism groups have claimed the recent change in the Air Passenger Duty (APD) as ‘a complete victory’ for the Caribbean. The ‘victory’ is hardly ‘complete’, if it is a ‘victory’ at all.
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Mar 25 2014 - 11:58am
One of my favorite mantras is that the job of being a parent is being our kids
best parent rather than their
best friend. As strongly as I believe in that, I also believe we can be cool to our kids by doing things that support being their best parent. This may seems at odds, but truly it’s not.
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Mar 21 2014 - 11:58am
War activists, like peace activists, push for an agenda. We don't think of them as activists because they rotate in and out of government positions, receive huge amounts of funding, have access to big media, and get meetings with top officials just by asking -- without having to generate a protest first.
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Mar 21 2014 - 10:22am
Like just about everybody in the known universe, I'm gobbling up as many March Madness basketball games as I can. That Arizona State v Texas matchup at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee on Thursday was a stunner, wasn't it? With a last second basket saving the bacon for the 'Horns. Of course, as a Texan for almost six years now, the Longhorns were my team.
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Mar 20 2014 - 12:37pm
If you’ve been following my columns over the years, you’ve followed my parental journey as my boys got older, as I got older, as I re-married, and as I’m doing more and more in new and old media. It’s been quite a trip and now I’m going to take another fork in the road.
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Mar 20 2014 - 10:13am
There is much euphoria in the tourism establishment over the Air Passenger Duty (APD) that on 19 March 2014 the British government announced would be reduced on flights to and from the Caribbean from April of next year.
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Mar 19 2014 - 2:36pm
Maybe I’m wrong, but was it not just a few weeks ago when we were threatening something called “consequences” because Syria had allegedly killed off another 1,425 people with chemical weapons…and we were upset about Iran and its nuclear operations?
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Mar 15 2014 - 2:16pm
Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus, who lived from October 27, 1466, to July 12, 1536, faced censorship in his day, and has never been as popular among the rich and powerful as has his contemporary Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli. But at a distance of half a millennium, we ought to be able to judge work on its merit -- and we ought to have regular celebrations of Erasmus around the world. Some of his ideas are catching on. His name is familiar in Europe as that of the EU's student exchange program, named in his honor. We ought perhaps to wonder what oddball ideas these days might catch on in the 2500s -- if humanity is around then.
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Mar 13 2014 - 6:10pm
In a rare show of unity, the governing and opposition parties in the Guyana legislature have demonstrated an outstanding and continuing commitment to the 15-nation Caribbean Community (CARICOM). Despite their differences over domestic matters, the parties in the legislature unanimously agreed an amendment to the Caribbean Community Free Entry of Skilled Nationals Act to allow for the spouse of a skilled national to work.
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Mar 11 2014 - 11:10pm
Not being mush of a masochist, I don't usually read emails from the Democratic Whip in Congress, but I opened one Tuesday night and was mildly excited to read that the U.S. House of Representatives would spend Wednesday debating the "ENFORCE the Law Act of 2014." Wow, I thought, which law will they pick? Read more
Mar 11 2014 - 9:34am
One of my favorite sayings about being a parent is that you must be your kid’s best parent, not their best friend. Far too many parents are concerned about being their kid’s buddy, being liked by their kids, and by their friends. Sure, it’s cool to be in the good graces of our children, but that is NOT our job. Our job is to educate, raise, and equip our children to live good and productive lives. Our job is not to be their entertainment director and master of good times.
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