The bluebirds of happiness are chirping away in our nation’s treetops these days, for America is now in the fifth year of economic recovery. Let’s all sing “Happy Days Are Here Again,” for stock prices are reaching record highs, corporate profits are soaring, and even the unemployment numbers are on the mend. But wait, what’s […]
Common Sense
Posted inOpinion
Corporatizing animals – from cuteness to cruelty
Both the old and new media agree on this: If you need a story that’s guaranteed to be wildly popular – go with animals. “Kute kittens,” for example, are surefire winners, as is the entire p-group: puppies, porpoises, penguins and polar bears. And don’t forget baby chicks, goats and other farm animals – they can […]
Posted inOpinion
The poor tortured tomatoes of agribusiness
Warning: Agribusiness is in the lab again, molesting the “molecular machineries” of Mother Nature’s tomatoes. Actually, it’s the already-machined, industrial tomato that lab techs are retinkering. It seems that big produce peddlers have discovered that their red, perfectly round, tomato-looking fruits are so flavorless as to constitute consumer fraud. Of course, tomato lovers have known […]
Posted inOpinion
Where Labor Day came from, and where it’s going
Webster’s dictionary tells us that Labor Day was “set aside for special recognition of working people.” That’s nice, but “set aside” by whom? It certainly wasn’t the Wall Street corporate and political powers that be. They nearly swallowed their cigars when the idea of honoring labor’s importance to America’s economy and social well-being was first […]
Posted inOpinion
Getting ahead on the backs of others
Having been raised in a small-business family and now running my own small outfit, I always find it heartwarming to see hardworking, enterprising folks get ahead. So I was really touched when I read that, even in these hard times, one extended family with three generations active in their enterprise is hanging in there and […]
Posted inOpinion
Militarizing America’s police forces
Attention citizens: I have received inside information revealing that global terrorists are targeting us again. Their target is not Washington, New York City or even Disneyland. Rather, it is: Concord. You know, in New Hampshire. The state capital. Even though only about 43,000 people live there, Concord apparently has some sort of secret significance that […]
Posted inOpinion
Corporate greed is making us sick
The failure of our corporate and political leaders to make sure every worker gets good health care is causing some unpleasant consequences – like widespread stomach flu. Ill workers often spread illness, because millions of employees who deal directly with the public are not covered by paid sick leave policies. So, when they come down […]
Posted inOpinion
Forget student loans – make higher ed free
Well, finally! Hard-right congressional leaders and the Obama White House have agreed that interest rates on student loans should not double to nearly 7 percent, as they let happen early in July. Instead, college students will be billed at a rate that will steadily rise higher than 8 percent. This is progress? Temporarily, yes, because […]
Posted inOpinion
The new border-industrial complex
“Good fences make good neighbors,” goes the old adage. But the neighborly adage definitely did not contemplate the 700-mile, 20-foot-high, drone-patrolled, electronically monitored fence of steel and razor wire that our government has erected across our nation’s border with Mexico, from the tip of Texas to California’s Pacific Coast. This thing is not a fence, […]
Posted inOpinion
Blessed are the rich
One thing I’ve come to value in the last couple of years is the altruism and keen economic insights of the fourth-richest man in America: Charles Koch. Even though Koch was raised rich and has now amassed a personal fortune of about $34 billion, he recently gave us a deeper sense of his true worth, […]
Posted inOpinion
The ‘helping hands’ helping themselves
The word “help” is so uplifting, conveying our best humanitarian values. How odd, then, to see it used in this New York Times headline: “Banks’ Lobbyists Help in Drafting Financial Bills.” I’ll bet they did! We all know how altruistic, beneficent and kindhearted Wall Street lobbyists are – when it comes to helping themselves, that […]
Posted inOpinion
The mean team piles on jobless Americans
“Come on, team, let’s get mean!” This is not the chant of rabid football fans, egging on their favorite team to crush the opponents. Rather, it’s the raucous war cry of far-out right-wing ideologues all across the country who’re pumping up Team GOP to pound the bejeezus out of America’s millions of unemployed workers. In […]
