As a practical matter Obamacare is the sort of hodgepodge that no one in their right mind would put into place if they were designing a health care system from scratch. Certainly a universal Medicare system, similar to the one in Canada, would be far more fair and efficient. Since this was not a plausible political reach in 2010, many progressives hoped that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) would at least include the public option that President Obama had touted during his campaign. Whether or not a public option was an obtainable goal, Obama was not prepared to spend the political capital to try to get it included. This left us with a law that leaves us far short of universal coverage and requires people to get private insurance or pay a fine. That's not a pretty sight, but we shouldn't let this prevent us from recognizing the extent to which the ACA still presents an enormous step forward.
It wasn't until Harvard Business School professor Leslie Perlow approached us with an interesting proposal eight years ago that we really grasped what was driving top talent away -- and began a radical experiment to improve our work-life balance.
What will the future be like? As depicted in today's popular movies and books, the future is either one of bright promise or it's a dystopian world where today's problems have only gotten worse. It's my job to think about what the world will look like in a few years, and how our actions today will impact that future.
Robert Kennedy shook hands with busboy Juan Romero in the hotel's pantry and then we walked directly into gunfire. He knew I was hit first because he asked "Is everybody OK? Is Paul all right?" as he lay fatally wounded -- always more concerned about others than himself.
The White House's decision to suspend enforcement of Obamacare's health insurance standards because of the website debacle was politically wise. But the main lesson we should draw from this incident is not that government can quickly change course in the face of failure.
One of the things that surprises me time and time again is how we think our brains work and how they actually work. For example, I always found it understandable that we can multitask, but according to the research, it's impossible for our brains to handle two tasks at the same time.
It is virtually impossible to see the devastation after Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines or last weekend's tornadoes in the Midwest and not feel a tug on your heartstrings. But charity scam artists use that near-universal empathy to steal from survivors of these terrible events the help that they need.
We made Years of Lightning, Day of Drums so the world might see and remember what we knew in those days. And now the larger reward is that the film survives so this and future generations may hear the soaring voice and view the vibrant likeness of the man who offered such singular inspiration half a century ago.
Because get this, kids -- how a man proposes isn't what makes him romantic. It's how a man purposes to lay down his life that makes him romantic.
These are the words I wish I'd read before jumping headlong into the mommyhood with my books and my charts and my ideals and my high horses. They're flawed, and they aren't all pretty, but they're hard-won and honest and as true as I can get 'em.
If you want a real deal on Black Friday, stay away from the mall. Black Friday and Cyber Monday are all part of Cyber Week, the one time of year, where you're guaranteed to find hotel deals all across the travel industry.
Access to reproductive health care should never depend on your zip code -- and from statehouses to courthouses to the ballot box, we are going to continue the fight to make sure it doesn't.
That's our entire economic system: buy things. Everybody buy. It doesn't matter what you buy. Just buy. How appropriate, then, that a holiday created by our ancestors as an occasion to give thanks for what they had, now morphs into a frenzied consumerist ritual where we descend upon shopping malls to accumulate more things we don't need.
Let's pray for taxation. Without it we would have no way to protect the most vulnerable among us, to assist the most needy, and, most important of all, to enshrine in law the principle of responsibility for others.
Bad people are more likely to opt into bad situations. When they band together, all too often, evil is the result.
In late November, Comet ISON moves its fastest as it flies from Virgo, through Libra and Scorpius, and then heads north into Ophiuchus.
For those of us who come out of the ranks of middle class or poor, and whose families and friends still live there, Social Security is a life or death issue. Every dollar matters to them.
Everything is broken. My favorite plate, my favorite pair of heels, my favorite suede boots, my favorite holiday.
Lee Harvey Oswald buys his rifle through the NRA's American Rifleman magazine. Fifty years later, the magazine marks the anniversary by offering a "Historic NRA Exclusive Offer" hawking silver JFK half dollars issued after his assassination.
California precipitation has, on average, been declining, from an average of around 23 inches per year to around 21 inches per year -- a nearly 10 percent decline in the past 117 years.
At a time when institutions of business and government continue to fail society, two of our leading academic institutions missed the opportunity to provide essential moral leadership on the most pressing challenge ever faced in the history of human civilization.
Apparently, having a black, Kenyan-born Communist who is both Muslim and a radical Christian in the Oval Office changes the rules of judicial appointments. That is the only conclusion we can reach for key Republican senators have reversed their opinions 180 degrees from what they've stated in the past.
Every day we are bombarded with movies and television shows in which white families are plugged as the "default" experience... and no one would say that these films are about race. What USAToday's tweet reveals is that white audiences are unable to see black people as beings separate from their blackness.
Films are getting more violent -- more than twice as violent as they were in 1950. That's perhaps no surprise. But new evidence has revealed that the most violent films are actually the ones aimed right at kids.
As much as mobile devices can keep families connected, there is one place where they can disconnect families permanently. And that's on the road.
His is the classic example of the adage that if you've got a reputation for being an early riser, you can sleep til noon. What are his accomplishments?
While his accomplishments as the 42nd President of the United States were extraordinary, the work he's done since then as a private citizen has had as profound an impact on millions more around the world.
Our families are where we first learn how to say "No" in a safe, supportive environment. If we don't learn to do so there, we won't learn to do so anywhere. If our children can't say "No" to us, they won't say it to anyone.
Seeing as I have some practical experience here, I'd like to clear up a few things for those (presumably) non-c*cksucking straight men and anyone else who might be confused by these terms and/or when they can and should be used.
If there's nothing I can say to convince you to tip well, then at least do me this one favor: Don't go out to eat after church, don't pray before your meal, and don't sign your receipt with the word "pastor." In short, don't let people know you're a Christian.