During the 2012 presidential campaign in the U.S., it was easy to hyper-focus on our own election issues and to ignore elections in the
Category: International
There used to be great southern Democrats; not so with southern Republicans
Remember the great Democratic southern politicians like Senator Sam Ervin of North Carolina and Senator William Fulbright of Arkansas? If you are a progressive
The quinoa [“keen’-wah”] quandary
Is a good thing to eat a bad thing to buy? That’s essentially the quinoa quandary that foodies, advocates of healthier eating, and social
Put away the flags, by Howard Zinn
Every July 4th, I think about Howard Zinn’s insightful essay on nationalism and its overused, over-hyped symbols. Like most everything written by Zinn, it’s
Biodegradable clothing and landfill overload
I buy too much clothing. Too many tops, too many pants, too many pairs of shoes. I don’t wear them all, and when I
How not to upgrade a public bus system: Bogotá, Colombia
Bogotá, Colombia, has been celebrated and emulated worldwide these past 10 years for its innovative Transmilenio system of articulated buses. Reports regularly appear in
Benghazi: Political cartoonists have their say
Benghazi isn’t a scandal. It’s what the character named Detective Bobby Simone, of TV’s Law & Order, would have called “a situation.” [Simone once
How liberals and conservatives deal differently with new information
The differences in the mental gymnastics that go on inside the minds of liberals and conservatives when they are presented with new information can
Garbage Patch nation: UN declares plastic trash to be a “country”
Plastic trash takes up so much territory in Earth’s oceans that is has been designated a “country” by the United Nations. The new “country”
Fukushima’s radioactive waste water: The sins of the fathers?
I just read with horror about the radioactive waste water leaking from the damaged nuclear facility in Japan. The hurricane and tsunami that hit