Dana Goldstein

YOU CAN’T IGNORE CONDOMS IF YOU WANT TO FIGHT AIDS. Here at TAPPED we never pass up an opportunity to debate circumcision, and especially its utility as an HIV-prevention measure. Today the Washington Post reports that members of the Luos tribe in Kenya are embracing the practice, convinced that their decimation from AIDS relative to […]

INEVITABLY NOT ENOUGH. I’ll leave it to my fellow TAPers to do the deep analysis of the pre-buzz on Gen. Petraeus‘ report, but the Washington Post is reporting some limited support for the draw-down of one brigade this winter, or no more than 4,500 troops: “Petraeus’s recommendations could fall on the conservative side of preferences […]

WHITE WASHED. That’s one way to describe college newsrooms, and most of the professional newsrooms I’ve worked in as well. Over at CampusProgress.org, Justin Elliott, who last year completed a term as executive editor of the excellent Brown Daily Herald, delves into the vicious cycle that contributes to homogeneity in journalism: Low-income and immigrant students […]

RICH PEOPLE’S MONEY. One of my first assignments as an intern at BusinessWeek in 2005 was to write a capsule profile of Eli Broad, the real estate magnate who has, in retirement, become one of the country’s foremost philanthropists in the arts and education. His project at the time was the flash-in-the-pan reality television show […]

THOMPSON’S STARTER WIFE. The L.A. Times interrupts chatter about the supposedly outsized influence of Fred Thompson‘s current wife, Jeri, to reveal how his first marriage at age 17, to the daughter of one of Lawrenceburg, Tenn.’s leading Republican families, shaped his career. Sarah Lindsey was pregnant when the couple married and Thompson moved into her […]

A MEXICO CITY WORK AROUND? You may remember that barring foreign health clinics from receiving U.S. aid if they provide contraceptives or abortion services was one of Bush‘s very first actions upon taking office in 2001. Now Senate Democrats are trying to poke a few holes in the so-called “Mexico City Policy.” The bill, which […]

THE CANARD OF “SCHOOL CHOICE.” A new report from the Heritage Foundation finds that 37 percent of Congressional representatives and 45 percent of Senators send their children to private school, about four times the rate of the general population. Republican and Democratic lawmakers appear to choose private school for their children at almost exactly the […]

TAXI DRIVERS STRIKING IN NEW YORK TODAY. Many of the 13,000 New York City cabbies are striking today over the city’s proposal to place Passenger Information Monitors (PIMs) in all taxis. The screens would provide digital maps for passengers and allow them to pay with credit cards, which I must admit, sounds pretty attractive. But […]

THE MAN CAN ACT. Just look at Fred Thompson woo the camera in this video spot teasing tomorrow’s official announcement. Thompson appears to be channeling a stay-the-course mentality: “We can’t allow oursleves to become a weaker, less propserous, and more divided nation. Today, as before, the fate of millions around the world depends upon the […]

WE LOVE THEIR YOUTHFUL FOLLIES. The New York Times continues its exploration of the candidates’ formative years with another look at the evolution of Hillary Rodham‘s activism while a Wellesley College undergraduate. As she abandoned the College Republicans — which she had served as chapter president — and turned against the Vietnam War, Hillary wrote […]