Welcome! This is an unapologetic, agenda-free zone. Just commentaries on current events that’ll move you to think, laugh, rage, and even cry.
Organizers hype the annual NCAA Division 1 Basketball Tournament as “March Madness.” They do so to exploit “the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat” inherent in low-seeded (a.k.a. Cinderella) teams upsetting top-seeded ones — often with buzzer-beating hail marys. Except that this year’s tournament hasn’t quite lived up to that hype. After all, the… Read more.
I commented yesterday that USA Hockey was facing unsustainable pressure to settle its 15-month pay dispute with the 23 players on the women’s national team. I cited growing solidarity in recent days with the players among female members of the US Senate and male players in every major professional sport. But the writing was on… Read more.
The US Women’s National Hockey Team and USA Hockey are locked in sensitive negotiations over pay and benefits, and the clock is ticking. … The women say they will sit out the tournament unless progress is made. The players say their case is about more than money. They want better job benefits for IIHF games… Read more.
Republicans have been exploiting their signature promise to repeal and replace Obamacare for seven years: It helped them win control of the House in 2010. It helped them win control of the House and Senate in 2014. It helped them win control of the House, Senate, and White House in 2016. From day one, some… Read more.
Egypt’s former dictator Hosni Mubarak has left the Cairo military hospital where he had been held in custody for much of the past six years, and returned to his home in the Cairo suburb of Heliopolis, his lawyer said. Mubarak, 88, was acquitted by Egypt’s highest appeals court on 2 March of conspiring to kill… Read more.
The attacker, [a Muslim who police once had on their radar], stabbed the unarmed officer before being shot dead. Forty other people were injured after a car struck pedestrians on nearby Westminster Bridge, before it crashed. … Speaking in Downing Street after chairing a meeting of the government’s Cobra emergencies committee, Prime Minister Theresa May… Read more.
Chuck Berry, who with his indelible guitar licks, brash self-confidence and memorable songs about cars, girls and wild dance parties did as much as anyone to define rock ‘n’ roll’s potential and attitude in its early years, died on Saturday. … While Elvis Presley was rock’s first pop star and teenage heartthrob, Mr. Berry was… Read more.
You might notice that this blog does not feature any revenue-generating ads. That’s because, when I launched it 12 years ago, I wanted to make plain my primary interest in contributing to informed public debate on an eclectic array of topics. This has distinguished it over the years from the blogs of far too many… Read more.
Repealing and replacing Obamacare was the signature promise of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. Therefore, you’d think the bill to implement it would augur well for the poor white folks who compose his base. Well, think again: In [Grant County, Nebraska], the President won over 93 percent of the vote in the last election. But Grant County… Read more.
And none of them even dream of becoming a millionaire. The film Slumdog Millionaire was all the rage in 2008. It garnered ten Oscar nominations and won eight, including for Best Picture and Directing (by Danny Boyle). But I took umbrage at its rank exploitation of those poor Indian kids – who actually live in… Read more.
