Features

Forget a tax cut, other than an immediate one-year stimulus that puts money into the hands of people earning less than $50,000 a year. Forget paying down the debt. Use the federal surplus for universal health insurance. Working families won’t get much out of any tax cut, and debt elimination is foolish. But working families […]

Last month’s inaugural protesters, said by my sources to outnumbercelebrants, were mostly ignored by the mainstream press. The WeeklyStandard, however, did find time to make fun of them, noting that at one event–a teach-in on police brutality–the deceased victims of police were “represented in unflattering prom pictures.” You can imagine the outrage that editors at […]

When I was in law school in the early 1970s and professors were struggling with the honorific “Ms.,” one of my male classmates used to chide me and several other women for “distracting” him with our presence. We were irritated, not flattered, by his flirtations–intent on being taken seriously as lawyers or, at least, as […]

See “Darth Rumsfeld“ When Gerald Ford fired James Schlesinger from the Pentagon in 1975 and replaced him with Donald Rumsfeld, Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater — a fan of Schlesinger’s owing to the latter’s advocacy of massive defense expenditure — angrily asked Ford what qualified Rumsfeld to run the Department of Defense. As The New Republic‘s […]

This summer’s melting of the nine-foot-deep ice cap at the North Pole into a mile-wide lake shocked the public out of its long-standing denial about the reality of global warming. According to new findings released in September by researchers at the National Climatic Data Center, the pace of climate change is accelerating. The world can […]

ACROSS: 1 AR(M)RESTS (ref. radio code for letter M); 5 WOR + K (row rev.); 8 U-BOAT (anag.); 9 CH(APT)ER; 11 ERITR + EA ([w]riter anag.); 12 ROMAN (2 defs.); 13 S(A)TRAP; 15 E(VOL)VE; 18 TWAIN (anag.); 19 MEDIA + T.E.; 21 RE + SERVE (verse anag.); 22 RITES (writes hom.); 23 TO ME; 24 […]

ACROSS: 1 B + ARBIT(U)RATE; 8 NEEDLES(s); 9 TH(ER)E; 10 STY(L)E; 11 FIR(EAR)M; 12 HOARSE (horse hom.); 14 S + PILLS; 17 RE(GUL)AR (lug rev.); 19 NEARS (anag.); 22 INSET (anag.); 23 DECLARE (anag.); 24 AMP + HET + AMIN + E DOWN: 1 B-ONE + S; 2 (g)REEDY; 3 I + L.L. + NESS; […]

ACROSS: 1 BONN + IEST (site anag.); 5 S + CAN; 9 NI(NE)S; 10 A…T + TRACT; 11 TAHI(T)I (Haiti anag.); 12 PAT + I + O; 14 CATCHMENT AREA (anag.); 17 EARTH (h shifted in heart); 19 ERNES + T; 22 CHIC + A + GO; 23 (d)INNER; 24 YARD (2 defs.); 25 STAR […]

ACROSS Swing voters really struggled (6) Lucille returned to vote (6) Lover confused by Associated Press coverage (7) Like a kitschy party whip heading west to Kentucky (5) Lost a seat, perhaps (2,3) Republican tenants save quote (7) Nominee certainly may, and did, put away the dishes? (9) Excited Gore fan, almost completely exhausted (3,4) […]