Editor’s Note

“It’s dangerous,” Voltaire warned, “to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong.” Dean Baquet and Jeffrey Johnson could tell you all about that. Until recently, Baquet was the editor and Johnson the publisher of the Los Angeles Times, America’s fourth-largest newspaper. In a rare and gutsy move in today’s world of […]

Thanksgiving Day is here — a day to gather with our families, rejoice in the bounty of God’s green earth, and sit down for a generous serving of home-cooked, old-fashioned, mouthwatering . . . nanoparticles? Yes, welcome to the Brave New Thanksgiving. The white-smocked corporate food engineers are at it again, messing with Momma Nature. […]

Untitled Document Krispy Kreme’s plump, sugar-sweet doughnuts were hotter than frying oil just a few years ago. Celebrities lined up to invest in franchises, and the media gushed that these sweet-treat purveyors were foodie angels. Ah, but that was then, and this is now — and Krispy Kreme’s little dough blobs have suddenly turned satanically […]

Good grief. Just when you think that America’s health-care policies can’t get any more ridiculous, corporate profiteers unveil a cockamamie scheme to globalize our health care! Already x-rays and medical tests are being offshored to India, but this scheme goes further, taking a flying leap into the surreal. Instead of sending your tests to India, […]

The modest working-class persona is passé. Wal-Mart is on the way up! Deciding to market to a more affluent clientele, the retailing behemoth is working up a new fancier look for its workers. Instead of the somewhat dowdy blue vests with “How May I Help You?” emblazoned on the back, the new dress code features […]

In repressive regimes, it’s common for the authorities to run closed governments — and it’s also common for them to crack down hard on people who dare to try shining a little light on the government’s actions. Take China. On May 28, it was reported that authorities there were prosecuting a newspaper researcher for revealing […]

Is the rancid stench of Washington political corruption a lot more malodorous than usual? You might remember, a decade ago, when Newt Gingrich put forth his “Contract with America,” pledging that if Republicans took power they’d tidy up the place and turn it into an ethical nunnery. Well, since then the GOP has taken total […]

It’s 2006, George, not 1706 Here’s today’s phrase: habeas corpus. This phrase embodies the democratic principle — enshrined in our Constitution — that government officials cannot arbitrarily arrest you, lock you up, and throw away the key. Habeas corpus, which literally means “produce the body,” is an essential safeguard against a police state, for it […]

When George W. Bush talks publicly about his war in Iraq, he always points to his multinational partners, dubbing them the “coalition of the willing” — or COW. But who are these partners, and how willing are they, really? Actually, of 192 nations in the world, only 48 — including such mighty military machines as […]