Plastic shopping bags being banned

First introduced in U.S. grocery stores in 1977, over 380 billion plastic shopping bags are used in the U.S. annually, according to the EPA. By 1996 four out of five grocery bags were plastic. Only a fraction of the plastic bags are recycled (0.6 percent), but about 100...

The Danger of a U.S. Attack on Iran…And the Need to Resist

There is a growing danger of a U.S. war on Iran. This is true in spite of, and in many ways because of, the quagmire in Iraq, the growing strength of the Taliban in Afghanistan, and a whole range of destabilizing outbreaks in the region, including the routing of Fatah troops...

Why (really) is our planet warming?

Warning:The article that follows cuts across conventional wisdom. The reader is entreated to leave his/her prejudices at the door and to approach this Global Warming boat-rocking article with an open mind. There is too much downside risk to not rocking this particular...

Within the Architecture of Denial and Duplicity: The Democratic Party and the...

Why did the Democratic Congress betray the voting public? Betrayal is often a consequence of wishful thinking. It's the world's way of delivering the life lesson that it's time to shed the vanity of one's innocence and grow-the-hell-up. Apropos, here's lesson number one for...

The secret government of Dick Cheney: US vice president claims to be outside ...

The office of Vice President Dick Cheney has refused to comply with an executive order issued by President George Bush four years ago, requiring all executive branch offices to cooperate in regular reviews of their security procedures for handling documents. After the...

Death in Los Angeles hospital exposes social crisis in US

Edith Isabel Rodriguez died on May 9th while two people called the emergency services phone number, 911, frantically trying to get her medical help. She died just outside the emergency room in Los Angeles’ King-Harbor hospital after spending hours seeking treatment for a...

Are Americans Unready to Boil?

The frog-in-boiling water model helps us understand political upheavals: how citizens wake up early enough (or too late) to respond to social and economic oppression. Sometimes the greed and arrogance of Ruling Classes makes them careless and social waters heat too quickly....

NYC Public Schools and the Criminalization of the Students: What Kind of Syst...

They’re treating us like criminals, like we’re animals.” -- Student at Curtis High School, Staten Island, New York City “Sometimes the classroom feels like a jail cell.” -- Jane Min, Flushing High School, Queens, New York City Imagine if schools were places...