OPINION

02/12/2010

Norman Ornstein: Actually, it's quite a productive Congress
There seems to be little to endear citizens to their Congress or to the president trying to influence it. Too bad, because even with the wrench thrown in Massachusetts, this Democratic Congress is on a path to become one of the most productive in decades.

Jacob Weisberg: Blame public, not politicians, for this crisis
Many factors could explain why our political paralysis seems to have gotten so much worse, but that list neglects what may be the biggest culprit in our current predicament: the childishness, ignorance and growing incoherence of the public at large.

Point Person: Our Q&A with David C. Wiley
David C. Wiley, a Texas State University professor of health education and chairman of the Texas Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, says federally funded, abstinence-only programs share part of the blame when kids don’t get the right message.

Jackie Calmes: No matter how you cut it, deficit is a survivor
There is no easy way to put a big dent in next year's projected deficit of $1.267 trillion, short of a dramatic rise in economic growth that would send new tax dollars cascading into the treasury.

Ruth Marcus: So is it don't ask, don't judge?
Does it matter if the judge hearing the lawsuit challenging California's ban on same-sex marriage is gay? Would this interfere with his ability to render an impartial judgment in the case, or the public's confidence that he could decide the case fairly?

Marcus Winters: How to get states to improve school testing
What percentage of Texas' fourth-graders are good readers? The state will tell you that 83 percent met or exceeded its proficiency benchmark. Yet only 30 percent are considered proficient on the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

Talking Points
Some of the week's most interesting comments, from a gubernatorial candidate's 9/11 "truther" views to another's view of Mexicans to a former governor's hand-written hand-prompter.

02/05/2010

Drake Bennett: A freelance work force
The Government Accountability Office estimates that so-called contingent workers – from temps to day laborers to the self-employed to independent contractors – make up nearly a third of the workforce. And forecasters believe that proportion will rise.

Clayton McCleskey: Reach out to Ukraine before Russia does
As Ukrainians go to the polls today to elect a new president, the Obama administration is showing signs it is waking up to the importance of Central and Eastern Europe. It's about time.

Point Person: Our Q&A with Kevin Moriarty
Today’s education debate revolves almost solely around testing, benchmarks and foreign competition. With the focus on results, is there still time in the school day for the arts? Kevin Moriarty of the Dallas Theater Center says there must be.

Louis Uchitelle: Uncle Sam wants you ... to have a job
President Barack Obama has a jobs problem. Fifteen million Americans want work. Few companies want to hire. The burden shifts to the government. What can it do?

Meghan Daum: Medicine, hope and managing death
My mother received excellent care. I'd be the last one to advise someone with even a sliver of a chance of surviving a fatal illness to do anything but pursue the best possible treatment available. That said, my mother didn't have a sliver of a chance.

David Lodge: Salinger, the pre-postmodernist
The life of J.D. Salinger was one of the strangest and saddest stories in recent literary history. Nevertheless, it would be a mistake to let the disappointment of the second half of his career overshadow the achievements of the first half.

Jennifer Finney Boylan: Yearning for a world without readers
As a teacher of writing, I frequently hear young authors echo J.D. Salinger's words, that they're writing primarily to satisfy themselves. But to write without any thought of a reader seems creepy to me, the ultimate exercise in self-indulgence.

Talking Points
Some of the week's most interesting comments, from a Texas state senator to a four-star general to a U.S. senator from Alabama.

01/29/2010

Stephen Asma: Environmentalism as a substitute for religion
Many people who feel passionate about saving the planet justify their intense feelings by pointing to the seriousness and the high stakes involved. No doubt they are right about the seriousness, but there is another way to understand the unique passion.

Point Person: Our Q&A with David Walker
The deficit and debt are rising as political issues. But what are we supposed to do about them? Points turned to David Walker, author of Comeback America and former U.S. comptroller general now heads the Peter G. Peterson Foundation.

David D. Kirkpatrick: Does corporate cash mean corruption?
Legal scholars and social scientists say the evidence is meager, at best, that the post-Watergate campaign finance system has accomplished the broad goals its supporters asserted.

Bolger and Newhouse: How Republicans can win the midterms
After stinging defeats in the 2006 midterms and the 2008 presidential election, we Republicans were supposedly condemned to a lengthy penance in the political wilderness, searching for our souls and groping for big ideas to rival the new Democratic juggernaut.

Constantino Diaz-Duran: Who chooses who gets sterilized?
Tessa Savicki is being portrayed as a "welfare queen" for the new decade, the public face of that alleged army of women who mooch off the state and pop out babies with impunity - nine, in her case. But should she have had her tubes tied, against her will?

Talking Points
Some of the week's most interesting comments, from a convicted murderer to a forgetful TV host to a state politican better forgotten.

01/22/2010

Jorge Castañeda: Adios, Monroe Doctrine
The U.S. is no longer willing, or perhaps even able, to select who governs anywhere else in its hemisphere. This is remarkable – and certainly transformative. For the first time in centuries, the U.S. doesn't seem to care much what happens in Latin America.

Mark Davis: How did NBC fumble its late-night lineup?
If Conan O'Brien's Tonight Show and Jay Leno's prime-time experiment had routinely pulled these recent high numbers, this entire awkward drama might not have unfolded. But the fact is that neither of them did.

Point Person: Our Q&A with David Boren
So what should Barack Obama do now? After losing Ted Kennedy's Senate seat, Democrats head into the president's second year with a question mark, so we asked former Sen. David Boren about the status of his party and bipartisanship today.

Darshak Sanghavi: Why insurance mandates won’t help
The federal bills could lead to fewer uninsured citizens in the short term — but very little of the benefit will come from the employer and individual mandates to buy insurance. That part is a brilliant red herring to appeal to moderates and conservatives.

Emily Anthes: Do vitamins really do any good?
Just pop a multivitamin and let your body soak in those extra nutrients? These days, study after study has raised doubts about what, if any, good vitamins actually do a body. They could even pose some real medical risks.

Joel Kotkin: Don't give up on the U.S.
If the U.S. were a stock, it would be trading at historic lows. The budget deficit is out of control, the economy is anemic, and the political system is controlled by academic ideologues and Chicago hacks. And I'd still place my long-term bets on the U.S.

Talking Points
Some of the week's most interesting comments, from a joking senator-elect, to a commentator who didn't find it amusing to a talk-show host still trying to be funny.

01/15/2010

David Carr: Why Twitter will endure
You may be drowning in a sea of information, but sometimes the answer is more information.

Brad Stone: Is pace of technological change causing mini generation gaps?
Researchers theorize that the ever-accelerating pace of technological change may be minting a series of mini generation gaps, with each group of children uniquely influenced by the tech tools available in their formative stages of development.

Clayton McCleskey: An education system more American than America's
Sweden's approach to education encourages competition and empowers individuals to take responsibility for their own education. In Dallas, our approach leaves students with less choice and opportunity. That needs to change.

Point Person: Our Q&A with Jennifer Smith of FocusDriven
Jennifer Smith of Grapevine has two bumper stickers on her car. One bluntly states, "A driver on a cellphone killed my Mom." The other says: "Hang up. Just drive." Smith, 35, discusses her national campaign, FocusDriven, to raise awareness about the dangers of distracted driving. Her goal, she says, is to get all 50 states to ban cellphone use while driving.

William Saletan: Stop crying 'terrorism' every time we're attacked
The bombing of the CIA base, like the November massacre at Fort Hood, was an act of war. It was also espionage. But it wasn't terrorism. Terrorism targets civilians. The CIA officers killed at the Afghan base, like the soldiers shot down at Fort Hood, were not civilians. They were running a war.

Lauren Sandler: How the economy derailed the Decade of the Single Woman
The 2000s took us from concerns about our dating life to concerns about our survival. Today, single women are suffering greater economic peril than married ones, and over the last year, the number of unemployed, unmarried women rose 3.6 percent, while married women saw only a 1.7 percent increase.

Reihan Salam: The 2000s - best decade ever
Yes, there was war, terror and economic misery. But it was also an era that sprouted peace and prosperity that will be with us for years to come.

Talking Points
Some of the week's most interesting comments, from a steroid-using baseballer to a panstless subway rider.

08/20/2009

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