On Sunday, the sit-com Modern Family won a well-deserved five Emmy awards, including one for best comedy series. I’m a fan of the show, but can’t help thinking that it is a double-edged sword. The show depicts three inter-connected families who reflect a rich, 21st century American reality: a gay couple with an adopted Asian-American [...]
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The President has shown a talent for slowly but surely moving public opinion in the right direction on crucial policy points, then inexplicably giving those points away to his political opponents for little or nothing in return. According to last month’s Gallup poll, for example, only 20% of Americans want Congress to reduce the deficit [...]
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As the deadline nears for national default if Congress does not raise the debt ceiling, the two parties appear deadlocked over ending tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans, which Republicans oppose, and deep cuts to Social Security and Medicare, which Democrats reject. In our current political environment, and with Tea Partiers and pending Republican primaries [...]
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Conservatives in Congress and their echo chamber have backed President Obama, and the American people, into a dangerous corner. Private sector job creation is desperately needed for our national recovery and to begin rebuilding the economic security of our people. Yet for a mix of political and ideological reasons, conservatives are blocking two of the [...]
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So I’m trying to convince my wife that we should raise chickens in our back yard—it’s a suburban Green Acres thing, you might not understand. She has been, shall we say, cool to the idea, despite my promises of fresh eggs, cute chicks, and benefits to the environment. Fortunately, I found and ordered online a [...]
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New job numbers released last Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics included some welcome news. The national unemployment rate dropped to a two-year low of 8.8% in March, with an increase of 216,000 non-farm payroll jobs. President Obama is rightly touting the numbers as a sign of further, albeit slow, improvement in the economy. [...]
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Over the last year, right-wing politicians introduced a slew of bills in Congress and multiple states that purported to address the problem of illegal immigration. The proposals ranged from replicating Arizona’s controversial SB 1070—which requires police to question people who “look” undocumented—to altering or reinterpreting the 14th Amendment to deny citizenship to the children of [...]
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This month, as protests swept the Middle East and toppled strongmen in Egypt and Tunisia, thousands of American adolescents rushed to see rising teen pop star Greyson Chance in concert. Trust me, there’s a connection. Greyson Chance’s career simply could not have happened until now, at least in the particular way that it has happened. [...]
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After two weeks behind the curve on the uprising in Egypt, the Obama administration seems to have found it’s voice, recognizing that our national interests and our national values point in the same direction—toward democracy, human rights, and the rule of law. There are reasons to worry about the kind of regime that will emerge [...]
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I received a notice from my employer earlier this month, announcing changes to our health care plan. Under the topic “Health Care Reform Mandates Changes,” the first four items read: o Pre-existing condition limitations are not imposed for children up to the age of 19. o Adult children can be covered as dependents of employees [...]
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