A tomato tale that's hard to stomach

September 2013

“I’m 98 percent confident we can make a tomato that tastes substantially better,” Professor Harry Klee recently exulted to the...

Steve King's perverse twist on agribusiness cruelty

September 2013

Baby chicks, goats and other farm animals can be awfully cute and cuddly! Today’s industrial agribusiness operations, however, see these...

Finding the money to fund higher education for all

September 2013

Question: Is making higher education available to every American more important to our national interest than letting Wall Street profiteers...

Wackos intend to cage themselves in Idaho

September 2013

I haven’t heard such enthusiastic, downright raucous applause since Texas Gov. “Oops” Perry suggested in 2009 that his state just...

The "Climate Name Change" campaign

September 2013

Environmental groups tend to be a bit grim-faced, since they’re constantly confronting industrial uglies that range somewhere between awful and...

The poor tortured tomatoes of agribusiness

September 2013

Warning: Agribusiness is in the lab again, molesting the “molecular machineries” of Mother Nature’s tomatoes. Actually, it’s the already-machined, industrial...

Wall Street magicians make reform disappear

September 2013

What amazing alchemist Wall Street bankers are! They can turn failure into gold and reform into business as usual. These...

The real poop on the GOP's silly "Poopgate"

September 2013

With deep regret, I bring you yet another tale of official nincompoopery from inside the Texas legislature. My regret is...

What's in your closet, Warren?

September 2013

Are you one of those people who simply has too much stuff? You know who you are, so don’t try...

USA: low wage nation or good jobs nation

September 2013

How’s this for irony? Ronald Reagan – who is worshipped as the supreme deity by small-government, anti-spending zealots – not...

A corporate bank tries to be my friend

September 2013

Big banks have never been very popular, but their recent greed, frauds, and demand for taxpayer bailouts have made them...

A food fight arises out of America’s new “jobette” economy

September 2013

Establishment economists are asking: Why are so many people so glum? The Great Recession ended in 2009, they note, and...

Where Labor Day came from, and where it’s going

September 2013

Webster’s dictionary says that Labor Day was “set aside for special recognition of working people.” How nice. But “set aside”...

Death of the lush, green lawn

August 2013

My father was an early member of a group now known disparagingly as “ultra-lawn people.” “High,” as everyone called him,...

Let's check the socks market

August 2013

America’s economic recovery can be measured not only in the performance of stocks – but also of socks. Most economists,...

Getting ahead on the backs of others

August 2013

Having been raised in a small-business family and now running my own small business, I always find it heartwarming to...

Time to ground airline gouging

August 2013

With its merger taking off, American Airline’s swashbuckling PR slogan proclaimed: “Two great airlines, one great future.” That wasn’t about...

Police destroy "The Garden of Eden"

August 2013

The Bible tells us that the Garden of Eden was heaven on Earth – until Adam ate that apple. Then...

Militarizing America's police forces

August 2013

Attention citizens: I have received inside information revealing that global terrorists are targeting us again. Their target is not Washington,...

To understand the news, connect the headlines!

August 2013

Headlines for economic news stories tend to conflict and confuse. So let’s play [game show theme]: “Connect-The-Headlines!” We’ll try to...

Making billions by making up the rules

August 2013

The rich, as F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote: “are different from you and me.” But had F. Scott known Michael Dell,...

What a corporate coup could portend for you

August 2013

Suppose we were about to vote in an election that could drastically change American government from a democratic republic to...

Corporate powers steamroll Florida voters

August 2013

“The voters, damn them, have got to be subverted.” You won’t find that autocratic principle taught in any civics class,...

Ken-The-Sex-Cop for Governor

August 2013

As they say, politics makes strange bedfellows. Take Anthony Weiner. Please! But the twisted tweeter of New York City politics...

Monsanto's Wizard-Of-Oz website

August 2013

Excellent news, consumers: Biotech giants that’ve been secretly inserting genetically engineered organisms into thousands of food products you buy, have...