Authoritarianism seems to be popular these days, or at least among those twenty-something percent of Americans who think the President is a swell guy. Recently, I had the good fortune to experience a bit of trickle down Deciderism at work right here in my own neighborhood. And then I got to see it smacked down […]

Sometimes, in our collective efforts to expose all that is wrong with the world, our country, and our government in particular, we lose sight of all that is right. This past weekend, I was reminded in many subtle and some not so subtle ways that despite the problems facing us globally, beyond the morass of […]

At one of my favorite websites, Bring It On, I have recently been privileged to have heard the thoughts and experiences of some wonderful women on the topic of abortion. Pia, Miz Bohemia, and Shayna have all written brilliant and touching essays on the subject. I thank them for their candor and bravery in sharing […]

Please Pass The Bread & Water When I was a young kid growing up in a single parent household, I would often have to ask before I randomly grabbed a snack from the kitchen cupboard. Mom was on a really tight budget in those days, and the weekly allotment of food had to last until […]

60 Minutes, the popular CBS news magazine show, recently did a story on the issue of frozen embryos, stem cell research, and the seeming discrepancy between President Bush’s ‘pro-life’ policy which prohibits federal dollars for embryonic stem cell research because it causes the destruction of the embryo and the fact that thousands of embryos are […]

Some readers may remember this essay from it’s original posting on February 17, 2005. I apologize for the repeat, but this topic is one that doesn’t seem to go away and needs to be addressed with some regularity. The plight of homosexuals in this and other countries is one of the last great battles for […]

The first time my dad died I was only two or three years old. In fact, he died several times that day. My father has the misfortune of being born with a congenital heart defect. The aortic valve that he was born with couldn’t quite do the job it was meant to, so at the […]

Waging War on Americans According to the FBI’s latest annual uniform crime report, the Bush Administration is doing a spectacular job in combating what is surely this nation’s number one problem- marijuana users. In fact, more people were arrested for marijuana offenses last year than at any time in this country’s history. Over 770,000 people […]

One of the basic tenets of American society is the right to privacy. Or at least, it used to be. With advances in technology though, it seems as if privacy is a passé idea in an information age where every transaction is digitally stored, every report is saved in bits and bytes, every communication traceable. […]

By the end of the 19th century, business interests had grown so powerful in our society that their stranglehold on individual prosperity created an inequity between the common citizens and the wealthy, industrial class. Tired of working harder and getting less than those who owned the businesses they helped succeed, and angered by conditions that […]