This is a call to arms. Our president has asked our help. And we should give it, not for him, but for our fellow Americans.

This is something we CAN do. We can help each other and set the country on a brighter path. It would take work, and money, and mobilization.… Read full post »

Obama is going to give his jobs policy speech in two days and it already feels like an Alice in Wonderland experience.

The Democrats generally tend to give their base a 'Jam Tomorrow, Jam Yesterday, Never Jam today' kind of kick in the pants. But Obama has managed to morph… Read full post »

I've been thinking over the past few days that the manufactured debt ceiling crisis reveals a deep leadership failure in both parties, since the rank in file of both don't feel they can trust their leadership. I have a mental image of Boehner and Obama as shephards dickering over a sale,… Read full post »

The United States faces several historic crises: costly wars, an ongoing deficit, and political deadlock over the issue of tax increases. Why is it nobody ever sees the obvious solutions? We invade all the wrong places and go looking for money from near-indigent seniors.

I can solve them all. Just… Read full post »

Picture this: Eric Cantor storming out of budget talks, sweeping petulantly away in velvet ballgown, like Scarlet O'Hara. Not hard, is it?  His soft southern accent and drama queen tendencies really do tend to cement the impression of a manipulative, self-important anachronism. Though I think he… Read full post »

Apparently it was throttled by the audacity of choke.

(My answer to the question of Paul Krugman's cat, Doris in his latest column.) Read full post »

I watched Lady Gaga's Alejandro video and it kind of blew my mind. The iconography in the video seemed to point out the latent homoeroticism in fascist propaganda - particularly that of Nazi Germany, with the hint that rather than being in contrast to the pre-war cabaret culture,… Read full post »

One of my coworkers is a small, slender East German, a musician, who used to have a shock of bristly brown hair - except that he recently shaved it all off. He's in his twenties and he was definitely not balding and it is, even charitably, NOT a good look for… Read full post »

Why this is a really bad idea.

1) The exchange won't work because it will still allow the insurance companies to effectively retain their stranglehold on the market. They will still cooperate to fix prices. Hell, it's still legal for them to do so. They won't even be competing nationally. So… Read full post »

Gaming That Could Literally Kick Ass

I wish Joslin Diabetes Center physiologists would team up with Microsoft’s Project Natal engineers to create a gaming system for kids where all of the deliberately addictive elements of games like World of Warcraft could be used to addict kids to exercise. M… Read full post »

I am not a violent person. Really. But I'm just itching for some single mother with a kid dying of leukemia and no health insurance to bitch-slap one of those town hell lunatics. And if a National Guard vet who was denied his benefits decided to wing Max Baucus - well ...I wouldn't vot… Read full post »

All y’all who went out and bought yourself super-sized, platinum-plated balls to swing behind your four-wheel drive – I am here to tell you, when it comes to advertising your machismo in the automotive arena – you are rank amateurs. 

I was sitting in traffic the other day, behi… Read full post »

A good friend of mine is a gun enthusiast. I say 'enthusiast' because she really enthuses about them. She's a good shot and finds target shooting relaxing. She recently took me along as she went to buy her first concealed-carry gun -  a baby glock, as it turned out. I was very… Read full post »

Listening to economists lately, it seems like they're talking about the tip of the iceberg and ignoring the submerged dangers ahead.

You Can't Supply-Side Your Way Out of a Demand-Side Problem

Some economists think that the demand-side problems of the Great Depression won't manifest, since the averag… Read full post »

A Singleton’s Guide to Knowing If A Friendship is Dead

If you’re reading this, you’re probably worried about a friendship. Friendship has to be two-sided, and this is provided to help you figure out when it isn’t. What you choose to do about it is up to you - you may… Read full post »

The reason that the US has historically been seen as valuable in assisting the peace process is not for our ability to get the Palestinians to the peace table. It's our ability to get the Israelis there. Neither the Europeans nor the UN are seen as fair brokers and simply don't… Read full post »

Most of us in corporate life, when faced with upper management, can identify VP of Marketing before they're ever introduced. Because the VP of Marketing is usually the one guy or gal who doesn't look like the face on the dollar bill.

You're never going to be CEO if you're the VP… Read full post »

Obama is on the brink of making a terrible mistake in choosing Lawrence Summers, once president of Harvard, as Treasury Secretary. This would be a potentially disastrous choice.

Obama needs a Treasury Secretary with the native intelligence to synthesize data quickly as the financial crisis evolves. H… Read full post »

Most people have heard Sarah Palin's comments on being a 'real American" and the echos in republican rhetoric about who is pro-America and... who isn't. 

Most media coverage treats this as an aberration, sometimes a shocking one, but not one that has long and deep roots in the Republican party,… Read full post »

Obama said a while ago he wouldn't throw the first punch, but he would throw the last. Damn, he wasn't kidding.

He had McCain psyched out before he could even throw down. He locked down the republican hot button issues with a Clintonian triangulation grip - charter schools, offshore drilling… Read full post »

In the past few weeks I have been jarred by the frequent portrayals of Obama as 'other'. All the rumors of him being born outside the continental US, inculcated in a foreign madrassa, as fundamentally unAmerican.

As a native New Englander I bump into history a little more often than you… Read full post »

If you watched the first presidential debate you may be under the impression, as I am, that McCain isn't running for president - he's auditioning for a new reality show called "Lifestyles of the Exotic and Despotic".

I certainly wouldn't think that his stumbling ramble of a travelogue would ind… Read full post »