For a (bleep)ing Communist, You Sure Know Your Baseball: Conversations with Lester Rodney
One of the more remarkable aspects of the 2007 HBO documentary on the Brooklyn Dodgers was the inclusion of Lester Rodney as a commentator. Up until his death ...
Health Care Rationing or Just Common Sense?
The media continues to produce bombastic reports regarding health care reform full of scare tactics from both sides. One of the buzz words used to scare people is the word ...
Prisoner of the State, and Why It’s Relevant Today
I hate to follow up my last article about the twentieth anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre with yet another Tiananmen Square-related article. I realize that there is more to ...
Health Care Reform: A Lesson From the Big 3
US health care reform is the biggest domestic issue facing America today, and action is needed to fix it. But as I was reading about Chrysler’s bankruptcy the other day, ...
Copernicus and the Search for God
I started my search with hope, but in the end there was nothing, but that's OK. My search spanned many years, many books, and many miles traveled. It is a ...
No Paradise: Rajapaksa’s Post-War Sri Lanka
Since the announcement last Tuesday that Sri Lankan President Mahindra Rajapaksa had defeated former army chief General Sarath Fonseka in the country’s first national election since the defeat of the separatist LTTE (Liberation... [Read]
Oh, Massachusetts!
There’s sure been enough harsh talk around the health care bills coming out of the House and Senate – and I mean from people who support universal health insurance – forget the Tea Baggers and the Rush Limbaugh audience... [Read]
Future of Afghanistan Complicated by Election...
The Afghan presidential elections have ended. And I’m sure I’m not the only one to who finds the outcome thoroughly unsatisfying. After vehemently denying that his campaign had engaged in massive voting fraud, President... [Read]
Prospects for Change in Burma: Too Many Wild ...
From the US, Burma (more recently known as Myanmar) has appeared for the past two decades to be a global pariah, ruled by an isolated, paranoid, and power-hungry military notorious for its suppression of human rights, government... [Read]
Why Another Karzai Government May be Bad for ...
If you read the news (in the US anyway) it is common knowledge that what is most important in the current Afghan elections is not necessarily who wins, but that the elections be seen as legitimate and transparent by the Afghan... [Read]
History Matters: Understanding Current Irania...
In light of the recent unrest in Iran and heightened tensions between the United States and Iran, it is important to understand the historical path that has led us to this point. In this light, I recently had the honor of... [Read]
Lost in Translation: Electronic Records and H...
A typical day at work will invariably find me hunched over a piece of paper, staring at a jumble of illegible loops and lines, trying to figure out what on earth five loops and a squiggle is supposed to convey to the reader. No,... [Read]
Expected to Fail: Making the Familiar Strange...
The achievement gap between White and Minority students – as demonstrated through achievement tests, years of schooling, high school graduation and, more generally, outcomes – is formidable and shocking.The NAEP (National... [Read]
Gallup, Abortion, and Shades of Gray
With the economy, health care reform, environmental regulation, and other important issues being widely discussed in policy circles, it would be easy for one to forget about wedge issues, such as abortion. However, with the... [Read]
What’s at Stake in Cairo: A Conversation wi...
On June 4, a very popular President Obama will deliver a much-anticipated speech to the Arab world in one of Islam’s most culturally and historically rich epicenters — Cairo — a location that is at the same... [Read]
I Changed My Mind on Employee Free Choice
Berkeley is filled with bumper-stickered cars. One of a Berkeleyite’s favorite hobbies is telling everyone what his socio-political opinions are by declaring them on the bumper of his car. That car is most likely either... [Read]
Same-Sex Marriage: Obama’s Lincoln Moment
On Wednesday night, Governor John Baldacci of Maine signed legislation that he struggled to support. While governors are often pressed by their legislatures and constituents to support laws that they do not necessarily agree... [Read]
Crisis and Command: A History of Executive Power from George Washington to George W. Bush is remarkable only for... [More] It is a peculiarity of history that, in the United States, corporations are considered “persons” to... [More] The entire world was brought to its knees in horror earlier this week as Jeff Zucker, I mean the tiny island country... [More] A quick recap. In May 2008, the California Supreme Court ruled that the California Constitution requires that same-sex... [More]
