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"I hope they lose every dollar they have. If our core PBR drinker knew what they were drinking is owned by guys like these, it'...
Get the full story >>Inside Blago's mind — hypothetically
There's some sentiment out there, even among some of my friends in the media, that it looked like former Gov. Rod Blagojevich held up OK...
Get the full story >>She's just not that into to you. Really.
An Australian demographer has found a malady that makes some middle-aged men think they are more attractive to women than they actually are.
Get the full story >>Elections via the Madigan Way
It's time to revive the idea of a constitutional amendment that will defang House Speaker Michael (The Real Governor) Madigan and his...
Get the full story >>A Tim Pawlenty plan for recovery
How did you enjoy your economic recovery last summer? Well, that's what President Barack Obama said we were having. He wrongly thought the...
Get the full story >>10 years later: A costly tax cut for rich
Today is the 10th anniversary of the Bush tax cuts passed in 2001. In observance of this day, we should raise taxes on millionaires and...
Get the full story >>America's salutary debt-ceiling scare
WASHINGTON — As the sun rises in the east, the debt ceiling will be raised. Getting there, however, will be harrowing. Which is a good...
Get the full story >>What the indicted John Edwards has already lost
Hard cases make bad law, an old legal saying goes. So, I suppose, do sad cases. The sad case of John Edwards could lead to sadder law.
Get the full story >>Gambling myths
Illinois is on the verge of a major gambling expansion, and citizens are being pelted with competing claims. The advocates envision a gusher...
Get the full story >>Men behaving badly
Rep. Anthony Weiner of New York is a very busy man. He sits on several important committees. He's newly married to a high-powered wife. He's...
Get the full story >>A Libya war fit for a king
Remember back in your high school civics class when you were taught about the constitutional division of authority in matters of war? When...
Get the full story >>Citizen Cain: He's able but unelectable
To all of those readers who say I should give my attention to the rising presidential campaign of Republican Herman Cain, I am happy to...
Get the full story >>Weeding out some of the GOP hopefuls
It's too soon to engage in the media fetish of covering the 2012 Republican presidential campaign, but it's never too early to tell the...
Get the full story >>Busting water myths by the gallons
NEW YORK — In a slender essay titled "Here Is New York," E.B. White wrote about the implausibility of the great city, mentioning among...
Get the full story >>The truth about fake military 'heroes'
Rick Duncan was a captain in the U.S. Marine Corps in Iraq. Wounded in battle, he received a Purple Heart and a Silver Star. Then he came...
Get the full story >>Why is the president belittling Israel?
WASHINGTON — Every Arab-Israeli negotiation contains a fundamental asymmetry: Israel gives up land, which is tangible; the Arabs...
Get the full story >>Fast brain versus uh, uh, uh
Apparently, a lot of people consider President Barack Obama to be bumblingly inarticulate. "The guy can't talk his way out of a paper bag!"...
Get the full story >>Run, Paul Ryan, please run
Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels' announcement that he can't play in the presidential primaries because his wife and daughters say he's not...
Get the full story >>Gay marriage gains, but fight isn't over
America now has a gay-rights majority. Gallup reports that for the first time ever, most people — 53 percent — favor...
Get the full story >>Free advice on life
It's as if they are joined at the hip — diplomas and advice. Good advice, bad advice, stupid advice, guest-speaker advice, mom-and-dad...
Get the full story >>Apocalypse, oops: Again
Harold Camping, the religious broadcaster who said Judgment Day would come last weekend, now says he doesn't want to talk about that...
Get the full story >>Judicial filibusters: Partisanship run amok
If anyone needs proof of how destructively polarized national politics has become, one need only consider last week's vote in the Senate on...
Get the full story >>Obama adopts the Bush Doctrine
WASHINGTON — Herewith President Barack Obama's May 19 Middle East speech, annotated:
Get the full story >>What price America's principles?
"I would find myself trussed up and left for hours in ropes, my biceps bound tightly with several loops to cut off my circulation and the...
Get the full story >>Make college worth the cost
It's hard to say which is more remarkable about Kayla Heard, that she is graduating from Washington State University at age 16 or that she...
Get the full story >>A tangled mess
I have a world-class collection of electronic chargers. I don't want a world-class collection of electronic chargers, but I have to maintain...
Get the full story >>Who is a saint?
A year ago, a friend of mine, Janine Denomme, died of cancer. We were members of the St. Gertrude Roman Catholic parish in Edgewater. We...
Get the full story >>Moralizing against McDonald's
Now that Osama bin Laden is dead, we can turn our attention to another remorseless enemy who for years has sown death and destruction...
Get the full story >>Running mates
I mean this in the nicest way: When John first ran for Congress, I did not know what I was getting into. And that was probably a good thing.
Get the full story >>Can this party get its groove on?
Donald Trump departed from the 2012 presidential race, which he never actually entered, in typical Trump style, supremely confident that...
Get the full story >>The Chicago Way got kicked to the curb
Mayor Rahm Emanuel's recipe for "change" is so unlike The Chicago Way it's hard for this native to believe in it as much as I would like to....
Get the full story >>Where do we sign up for that extra cash?
Dear Gov. Quinn and Illinois legislators,
Get the full story >>Demagoguery 101: The Obama touch
"I'm going to do my part to lead a constructive and civil debate on these issues."
Get the full story >>The budget debate we all deserve
Despite Washington coming to grips with the fact that the debt threat is real, policymakers still are not having the debate Americans...
Get the full story >>10 things you might not know about elephants
The popularity of the movie "Water for Elephants" provides an excuse for this parade of powerful pachyderm facts:
Get the full story >>An un-Common culture war
How delighted the Chicago-based rapper Common must be to find that someone still views him as controversial.
Get the full story >>Gingrich could pull an 'Obama'
Newt Gingrich deserves the candidacy he launched in a tweet Wednesday.
Get the full story >>An ode to fuddy-duddies
For all the foreboding of the conservative blogosphere, the Republic still stands in the wake of rapper Common's gig at a White House salute...
Get the full story >>A strike against economic sanity
In 1977, Boeing was the target of a strike by the International Association of Machinists, which represents its workers in Puget Sound,...
Get the full story >>Does Citizen Daley deserve a security detail?
Mayor Richard Daley's request for a security detail after he leaves office creates a golden opportunity for Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel to...
Get the full story >>Clearing the air: When opposites actually agree
Environmental advocacy organizations and major electric utilities don't always see eye to eye on government standards. But the Environmental...
Get the full story >>Unfounded fears
Gas is going for $4 a gallon, gold is riding a boom, and the Federal Reserve is seemingly complacent about these developments. Among critics...
Get the full story >>NATO, Russia coming to an agreement on missile defense
When I took office in 2009, many were surprised that I devoted my first keynote speech to Russia. And some may be surprised again that...
Get the full story >>A plea for better junk on television
Fifty years ago this week, then-Federal Communications Commission Chairman Newton N. Minow famously skewered the nation's daily television...
Get the full story >>Overdue reform: Signs of the times
It's taken more than five years, but Illinois is now poised to outlaw the brazen use of state property for self-promotion that came to...
Get the full story >>The rules are for Father Pfleger too
You'd think that they weren't on the same side.
Get the full story >>Evil does not go away for good
Two months and a day before 9/11, terrorism expert Larry C. Johnson published "The declining terrorist threat," a New York Times op-ed...
Get the full story >>Pakistan must be held accountable
The killing of Osama bin Laden by American special forces debunks the most profane myth in the war inaugurated by al-Qaida's attacks on 9/...
Get the full story >>Lessons for al-Qaida — and us
Here's what the world learned in the decade between the 9/11 attacks and the killing of their mastermind: Americans are good at war and...
Get the full story >>Welcome to Paybackistan
It was a bit startling to watch crowds of mostly college-age youths raucously celebrating in front of the White House after President Barack...
Get the full story >>Obama birther issue: Remember when we were reasonably sane?
NEW YORK — If you really, really dislike Barack Obama, his long-form birth certificate, finally proffered in exasperation, is quite...
Get the full story >>Taking the public for a ride
It's often been said of Barack Obama that his policies are "data driven" — meaning that whatever his ideological inclinations, he pays...
Get the full story >>Racing form for 2012
WASHINGTON — Unified Field Theory of 2012, Axiom One: The more the Republicans can make the 2012 election like 2010, the better...
Get the full story >>Unwelcome surprises
Is it too early to declare our intervention in Libya a failure?
Get the full story >>Love of Medicare chills tea party fever
Surprise, surprise! Faced with the prospect of Medicare cuts, even tea party folks find griping about "big government" to be a lot more...
Get the full story >>Posturing against pornography
We all know that pornography is offensive and destructive, so we can guess that wherever X-rated fare gains popularity, social decay will...
Get the full story >>How we still fight the Civil War
Fort Sumter surrendered to the rebels again last week with what one observer called "measured enthusiasm," compared to the Civil War...
Get the full story >>Duck, it's The Donald running for president!
At this point, there's at least one thing you can't blame Donald Trump for: being Donald Trump.
Get the full story >>Bad government deals all around
When President Barack Obama was in Chicago last week, he candidly told campaign contributors he had challenged Republicans to repeal...
Get the full story >>Scaling back the federal government
The most serious charge against House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan's budget is not the risible claim, made most prominently by...
Get the full story >>A conservative defense of Obamacare
Opponents of President Barack Obama's health care program lost the legislative battle, but they have high hopes of stopping it yet. That...
Get the full story >>Obama's re-election budget
After hearing President Barack Obama's robust response to their budget-cutting proposals, Republican leaders seemed shocked to hear that the...
Get the full story >>10 things you might not know about royal weddings
Time to buy your souvenir refrigerator magnets and toilet seats — Britain is having a royal wedding. Prince William marries Kate...
Get the full story >>Photos of stuff keep memories alive (and storage areas clear)
I took a picture of the kids' lunch boxes last week. I've been packing and helping to pack them, washing them out every so often and...
Get the full story >>Campaign of misinformation
In the ongoing rancor surrounding federal funding of Planned Parenthood, misinformation has a starring role. There have been, of course,...
Get the full story >>The farmer on the dole
If you don't mind sweat, dirt or the smell of manure, this is a great time to be a farmer. Incomes are up, land values are high and global...
Get the full story >>Demonizing the GOP, losing the budget war
So why do Republicans hate art, the elderly and children?
Get the full story >>NAACP, right-wing foes get friendly
Can prominent right wingers like Newt Gingrich and Grover Norquist get along with the very liberal NAACP? Yes, they can, at least on the...
Get the full story >>Free speech vs. Qurans
"Since American liberals don't have the guts to say it, allow me: The Rev. Terry Jones hasn't done anything wrong. Nothing."
Get the full story >>Paul Ryan's great leap of courage
WASHINGTON — In 1983, the British Labor Party under the hard-left Michael Foot issued a 700-page manifesto so radical that one...
Get the full story >>Reaganomics? Meet 'Ryan-omics'
What would America look like if the tea party movement ran it? You can get a good glimpse in Republican Rep. Paul Ryan's budget-balancing...
Get the full story >>Imperial leader at war
After the 2008 election, Barack Obama was pondering the growth of presidential power. So, ABC News reported, he met with former...
Get the full story >>Reforming Medicare for the real world
After House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., unveiled a plan to overhaul Medicare, Democrats announced that despite its minor...
Get the full story >>The freedom to snoop
Conservatives express shock and horror over political correctness, which they roughly define as the Orwellian suppression of any frank...
Get the full story >>The problem with income taxes is us
What better time to take a shot at Big Business for "paying no taxes" than when we're struggling to complete our own income tax returns?
Get the full story >>A 'reverse beauty pageant' for tyrants
"What if they gave a war and nobody came?" So goes a bumper sticker from the Vietnam War era. I've got an update in mind: What if they...
Get the full story >>Did Obama avert a bloodbath in Libya?
Remember when a crusading president, acting on dubious intelligence, insufficient information and exaggerated fears, took the nation into...
Get the full story >>10 things you might not know about the unhinged
As actor Charlie Sheen brings his "Violent Torpedo of Truth" show to Chicago on Sunday, we won't perform any diagnosis but simply state that...
Get the full story >>False fears about concealed guns
"Experience is a dear teacher," said Benjamin Franklin, "but fools will learn at no other." Give some credit to fools: At least they...
Get the full story >>Why liberals are lovin' the birthers
Donald Trump has joined the "birthers," the odd movement that questions President Barack Obama's Hawaii birth certificate. That's a good way...
Get the full story >>Obama's budget mess and coming out on the side of bureaucrats
And now, a few sympathetic words for government bureaucrats.
Get the full story >>Figuring out professor Obama's war
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is proud of how he put together the Libyan operation. A model of international cooperation. All...
Get the full story >>New benchmarks of social change
So you think we Americans know ourselves? New census numbers reveal that a lot of our 20th century racial and ethnic assumptions are overdue...
Get the full story >>Obama, Libya and the ghosts of '68
In 2008, Democratic voters had their pick of many candidates for president — from Hillary Clinton to John Edwards to Joe Biden. Why...
Get the full story >>Survey says …
One year after the health insurance overhaul bill became law, you'd think public opinion would be easy to read.
Get the full story >>Obama's missed opportunity with Gadhafi, Libya
As someone who supported a Libyan no-fly zone from the earliest days of what once seemed like a revolution but now looks like a civil war, I...
Get the full story >>War: Obama's fatal attraction
It's a good thing we didn't elect John McCain in 2008. A McCain victory would have meant an escalation in Afghanistan, a third war in the...
Get the full story >>Goldilocks doctrine: The right course?
Americans can always be counted upon to do the right thing, Winston Churchill is said to have declared, after exhausting all of the...
Get the full story >>Getting rid of spent nuclear power fuel
So, what are we supposed to do with spent nuclear power fuel? Rocket it into outer space?
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