ehm1212

Paul Waldman on progressive antipathy to the health-care compromise: There is a classic economics experiment called the “ultimatum game”, which demonstrates how our decision-making process isn’t solely determined by rational calculations. In the experiment, one subject is usually given a small sum of money and told to divide it however he wants between himself and […]

Courtney Martin on the political milestones that shaped my generation’s experiments in living an ethical life: As this decade comes to an end, so do my 20s. For me and many of my generation, the past ten years have marked a series of experiments — sometimes misguided — in living ethically. The question was (and […]

Kay Steiger looks at the new rules on abortion services in Washington: On Thursday, President Barack Obama signed a bill that will allow the District of Columbia to once again use its own local tax dollars to pay for abortion services for low-income women. The 2010 omnibus appropriations bill lifted a restriction on the nation’s […]

Mark Schmitt on the constraints of the progressive infrastructure: What President Barack Obama needs to do is … No, let’s try this again. The problem with Barack Obama is … Stop! I can’t bear to read another column that starts like that, much less write one. As the administration’s first year in office comes to […]

Brentin Mock on environmental justice in Washington, D.C.: Jackie Ward of the Ward 8 Environmental Council in D.C. once did “something crazy” for the Anacostia neighborhood. With the help of colleagues, co-workers, and friends, Ward convinced the District of Columbia Public Schools to release the most troublesome 7- to 9-year-old students from Southeast D.C.’s poor, […]

Terence Samuel on the scandals, blunders, and miscalculations of 2009: The world at the start of 2010 looks a lot different than it did when it was on the verge of 2009. For one, we have avoided economic collapse. It’s also likely that in the new year, President Barack Obama will have delivered on his […]

Sasha Polakow-Suransky reviews Five to Rule Them All and No Enchanted Palace and argues that early conflicts over colonialism and genocide explain many of the United Nations’ modern-day failures: In April, as earnest diplomats puzzled over Polisario‘s latest moves in the Western Sahara and the most recent developments in Darfur, a visibly shaken news anchor […]

Gershom Gorenberg on Israeli Prime Minister Benajmin Netanyahu‘s commitment to the settlement enterprise: “No Entrance To Bibi’s Freeze Inspectors,” reads the long, professionally printed banner hanging at the eastern entrance to Ariel. Ariel has a reputation of being a relatively moderate settlement. Its residents are mostly secular suburbanites; its eternally re-elected mayor belongs to Prime […]

Rick Perlstein considers the works of Stanley Crouch and Lisa Jones: One summer over 15 years ago, three books crossed my horizon at exactly the same time. One was Greg Tate‘s Flyboy in the Buttermilk. The second was Stanley Crouch’s Notes of a Hanging Judge. The third was Lisa Jones’ Bulletproof Diva. Read simultaneously, they […]

Dalton Conley weighs in on the inequality debate: When I was growing up, my mother used to sing me the old adage, “Therich get richer and the poor get poorer,” before hastening to add, “Andit’s all Ronald Reagan‘s fault.” Because I had campaigned for JimmyCarter as a wide-eyed 11-year-old, this was one of the few […]