Dana Goldstein

I saw Bruno this weekend, and while I laughed uproariously, I have to agree with Double X’s Jessica Grose that the film was “deeply mean-spirited.” Indeed, I spent a considerable portion of the movie turned away from the screen with my face in my hands, so difficult was it to watch a series of hapless […]

— —Dana Goldstein

Among Jews, a subtext of many debates about Israeli/Palestinian politics is the question of who gets to define Jewishness. Is it believers and militarists who believe that “Greater Israel” really is land “promised” to the descendants of Abraham and Isaac? Or humanists who take pride in Jews’ diaspora history as “rootless cosmopolitans?” Who is more […]

As we get into the nitty-gritty of subsidies, health insurance exchanges, and Medicaid income caps, it’s helpful to remember that many health-care experts still support single-payer — a government-run health system. Some, like Our Bodies Ourselves executive director Judy Norsigian, are ignoring congressional politics to take a stance right now in favor of single-payer, while […]

Photo of Michael Jackson fan in L.A. by Flickr user lobraumeister. President Obama in Russia, speaking to ABC’s Jake Tapper: You know, this is part of American culture. Michael Jackson, like Elvis, like Sinatra, when somebody who’s captivated the imagination of the country for that long passes away, people pay attention and I assume at […]

Photo of Nancy Keenan at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Aug. 2008. By Dana Goldstein. As Congress marks up the House and Senate health reform proposals, reproductive rights organizations are lobbying in overdrive, responding to a spate of amendments that seek to prevent even private insurers from offering abortion services in the new health […]

As the House and Senate produce and mark-up various health reform plans, reproductive health care is emerging — surprise, surprise — as a political football. Both the House bill and the Senate HELP committee proposal mention “family planning,” but contrary to yesterday’s scare-mongering Washington Times op-ed by the Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins, “family planning,” […]

Photo of Arne Duncan courtesy the Department of Education. Last Thursday, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan brought the Obama administration’s carefully calibrated school reform message to the San Diego annual meeting of the nation’s largest teachers’ union, the National Education Association. As he has in a series of recent speeches, Duncan focused on how the […]

Photo via Flickr user Misternaxal. When it comes to Mark and Jenny Sanford the answer seems to be: not a whole lot. I agree with Josh Marshall, who wrote to the embattled South Carolina governor: “Just go be with her,” referring to Sanford’s Argentine lover. Yes! Though I hope that first, he repairs his relationship […]

Photo of women workers in Nepal by Libby Abbott, via Flickr. In the latest issue of Foreign Policy, Reihan Salam argues that the global financial crisis will lead to “the death of macho.” It’s a provocative essay, and well worth a read. And while I don’t want to diminish the world-historical importance of the shift […]