Just a good newspaper story.

A good blog post that dispels yet another mythical health care debating point. Can we please just insure everyone, please? Give everyone access to decent health care that they can afford? That's it, I think.

The story of torture is not going away. Now there is video. Will we ever see it? Do we want to?

Mountaintop Mining is one of the truly bizarre practices that go on in this country. There is a chance that the Obama Administration and the Democratically controlled Congress can actually do something about it. This article is a good primer on what that is.

Amen to Dr. Weil.

I'm amazed that the best critique of the right-wing noise machine--and the mass media's reaction to it--comes from...David Brooks??

This is good, practical advice. I found myself a little stunned that such an article needs to be written; everything in it seems like common-sense to me. But apparently not.

This whole thing is fruit of the poisoned tree. The intentions here, whether illegal or only unethical, are disgusting because all parties were trying to cover up their disreputable personal behavior. I don't really care if Sen. Ensign has an affair, but his hypocrisy is galling. And I don't really see the comparison with President Clinton who was accused of a one-time sexual act. Sen. Ensign's affair and the subsequent shenanigans with his former staffer went on for years. ... More »

I love Bill McKibbon. I love his passion and devotedness to cause, but this piece is really a plea for involvement in his 350.org cause (which everyone should join), and not a very good discussion of either Obama's UN speech, or real climate change legislation in the U.S.

This article highlights the difficulties the U.S. faces in working with Pakistan (and Afghanistan) to fight the Taliban and other extreme (terrorist) groups. More broadly, it shows the distrust of the Muslim world for the U.S., much of it fueled by bias and ignorance, as shown in this quote form a Pakinstani man: "We are a Muslim country, and the non-Muslim world, the Americans and the Jews and the Indians, are all threatened by our civilization."

Though this opinion is persuasive, there's little discussion of what would happen if we did pull out of Afghanistan, especially what it would mean for the Taliban and their grasp for power in Afghanistan and Pakistan. And what it would mean for our relationships with those 2 countries. We're pouring a lot of money into training their military--would that continue if we withdrew troops? If it's a quagmire now, what can we expect if leave? Better or worse?

This is a perfect example of the difference between politics and reality. I have no doubt that the administration would have taken just as much criticism if they hadn't set a deadline. The truth is Wars and prisoners of war can't be settled with a campaign phrase. It's complicated, and the Bush Administration made everything more complicated with its lies and charades.

So hard to separate the corruption from the public interest. Health Care legislation is like compost--the end result can be a rich product that can help life grow, but it's made up of garbage and worms!

This is potentially very exciting news. AIDS vaccines have failed overwhelmingly. This study could open the door to better success.

This is potentially very cool.