In our capitalist world, success in business is measured almost solely by financial profit. Companies that make some of the most dangerous and unhealthy products, like weapons and cigarettes, are exceedingly profitable and thus "successful," even though their products diminish our quality of life.
"I’ve known rivers," wrote the great African-American poet Langston Hughes, "ancient, dusky rivers." He "heard the singing of the Mississippi" and watched "its muddy bosom turn all golden in the sunset." Jerry Russell Illustration Today, the Mississippi is the most polluted river in the U.S., and its song is a cry for help. The river’s […]
A local anti-fur rally I participated in years ago was attended by about 100 animal activists and a clique of 10 or so fur supporters, recruited by the fur show we were picketing. The local paper, which carried ads for all the local furriers, juxtaposed news photos of the two groups, giving the impression they were of equal size—and making sure to focus on the most unkempt individuals in the anti-fur crowd.
WIC, A Federal Food Program, Gets Supplemental Common Sense.
In a recent issue of Car and Driver, columnist Patrick Bedard opined that population growth had ceased to be an issue in the U.S. because we’d achieved a replacement-level fertility rate. So the U.S. population has stopped increasing, right? Wrong! Bedard’s column is proof that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. If fertility rates […]
In 1995, 18 million American children under 10 lived in areas of ozone “non-attainment,” meaning the air they breathed didn’t meet minimal federal standards. That number is higher today. What’s a parent to do? The Natural Resources Defense Council has some ideas, which include limiting your children’s outdoor exercise and participation in school sports on […]
You don’t have to be liberal to believe in birth control. U.S. Senators Olympia Snowe, a Maine Republican, and Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, recently joined forces to introduce a bill that would require insurance companies that cover prescription drugs to also cover prescription contraceptives. In the House, a similar bill was introduced by the […]
The U.S. has long been the world leader in supplying financial assistance to fledgling birth control programs in the Third World. Until recently, that policy had broad bipartisan support in Congress. But now a small ideological alliance, led by Republican Congressmen Christopher Smith and Henry Hyde, has introduced a powerful divisive force: abortion.
I was in shock (but not awe) watching President Bush announce on TV, during the first wave of large peace demonstrations, that we were going to war in Iraq despite all the oppositionbut that the protests in the streets demonstrated the kind of "freedom" that America stands for. It appears to be lost on Mr. […]
Like four of his five brothers, my grandfather was a family dentist, and in his semi-retired years he practiced out of his home in New Bedford, Massachusetts. As a child, his office fascinated me, with its old-fashioned porcelain dental chair that weighed a ton, and the vintage wooden instrument cabinets that were fitted with little […]
