On weed: Dazed and confused no more

Candidates running for president can easily wreck their campaigns with one serious misstep. Back in 1976, one Democrat said he favored...

Only in Chicago

Remember Cubs Care Park? It was the beautiful baseball stadium — a miniature replica of Wrigley Field — built for kids. It was...

An encounter with the occupiers

I had a direct encounter with the Occupy Wall Street protesters as I was on my way home the other night. My office is a block north of their...

Obama allies: Don't play the race card

— The call by some members of the black media for African-Americans to support President Barack Obama in racial solidarity is a...

Thinking the thinkable

A couple of days ago, I sat down and planned my funeral service.

What was I thinking?

Quentin Tarantino wants to have dinner. OK, we can facilitate that. ... A week later, we're hanging out in a restaurant in San Francisco,...

Quotable

(Long pause.) "Nothing."

Can the postal service be saved?

The U.S. Postal Service has finally reached its breaking point. In less than one month the USPS could incur a $9 billion loss, reach its $15...

When chaos can be a plus for Occupiers

After spending an afternoon with Occupy DC, the District of Columbia's branch of the Occupy Wall Street movement, I now understand why...

Excluding Poland from visa waivers painful

There are some things in life I just don't get.

Should pensions be a top priority?

Illinois' biggest problem is the state budget; the budget's biggest problem is the plush pensions for public employees; lavish pensions...

On race and Herman Cain: A darker shade of wail

This is for those who keep asking what I think of Herman Cain. In particular, it's for those who want to know what the tea party's embrace...

Revisionist theory

This month marks the 80th anniversary of Al Capone's conviction on five counts of federal tax evasion and his sentence to 11 years in...

Cain's racial offense

Tea partiers are delighted that their support for Herman Cain proves they don't hate black people. Unfortunately, judging by some of his...

Putting up the screen

Someone had put her in the hallway, on a cart next to the "med" room. Nurses flitted in and out of there, getting antibiotics, pain meds, IV...

Curtailing our OPEC dependence

From its beginnings, the Industrial Revolution was built on a foundation of cheap energy: First water, then coal, then oil.

Snatching the 'hope' mantle from Obama

Liberal fervor, which took a hit when it became apparent that Barack Obama the president was not going to live up to the promise of...

Tweetable

"How does (Mitt) Romney know anything about China? He's only been there once, and that was for the Olympics. Panda Express doesn't count."

Emanuel on Occupy: Listen to the anguish

In a session Wednesday with the Chicago Tribune editorial board, Mayor Rahm Emanuel was asked for his thoughts on the Occupy Together...

When fighting cancer is folly

Whenever I have a medical appointment, my wife inquires, "What did the doctor say?" I always give the same answer: "She said I'm going to...

Morality, not theology

Robert Jeffress introduced Texas Gov. Rick Perry at the Values Voter Summit on Friday. He started a great big hullabaloo by asking, "Do we...

MOB RULE?

"Disgusting!"

Barack Obama's lonely presidency

News media depict presidencies as long-running soap operas. The story doesn't end, but it goes through changes.

Call it what it is: Hate speech

Is hate speech really going to be given a serious place in American politics? Apparently so, given the lack of outrage shown by the...

There's an app for that power

Gov. Pat Quinn's veto of the electricity smart-grid legislation rings like an echo from my time at the Illinois Commerce Commission years...

Should we be angry at the rich?

The context for Occupy Wall Street and proposals to tax the rich — "rich" being constantly redefined — is the broader issue of...

Blame it on the oligarchy, stupid!

Herman Cain just doesn't get it.

The tease says not

— Undoubtedly many Americans, not least among them television producers, are disappointed by Sarah Palin's decision not to run for...

Gone in 60 nanoseconds

"We don't allow faster-than-light neutrinos in here," says the bartender.

Leaders lost, lessons gained

What makes a great leader? While President Barack Obama and his Republican challengers grapple mightily with that question, the deaths of...

Does Christie have 2020 visions?

"Now is not my time," said New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie last week when closing the door on a presidential bid in 2012.

Obama's burden

Candidates for president generally blare recorded rock or country hits before their campaign rallies. At President Barack Obama's...

Wall Street marches on Main Street

What if Wall Street organized a million man march on Main Street to ask for forgiveness — for destruction of 401(k)s, inadequate...

Dropouts

Oct. 5

Quotable: Herman Cain

"Don't blame Wall Street, don't blame the big banks, if you don't have a job and you're not rich, blame yourself. It is not someone's...

The bitter pill about education

So now we know the bad news: Our schools simply don't prepare students for success. A new report by the University of Chicago Consortium...

Education reform and the hard-left heartthrob

Chile's youthful revolutionary leader is rattling a nation — and a continent — as she champions education reform.

Europe's scapegoating of Amanda Knox

Amanda Knox is nothing if not a good story. The pretty young American who headed to Italy for her junior year abroad, fell for an Italian...

Economic inequality: The real cause of the urban school problem

America's urban public schools are in trouble: Student test scores are low and dropout rates are high. Recent remedies proposed include...

Broadcast doctors

"I'm not a doctor but I play one on TV."

Welcome to flash-mob politics

They're mad — Mad as hell! — and they're taking their anger to the streets.

U.S. businesses should push for reform in Russia

With the NBA lockout continuing indefinitely, at least Chicago Bulls'...

Quotable: Chris Christie

"I have a commitment to New Jersey that I will not abandon."

Steve Daley in his own words

Steve Daley, who died Sunday at 62, wrote his last regular column for the Tribune in 1995. For those readers who...

Disappearance of the frontier itch

In 1893, historian Frederick Jackson Turner argued that the American frontier had closed, raising an important question: Absent the...

Can the left get its own 'tea party'?

Why hasn't there been a tea party on the left? And can President Barack Obama and the American left develop a functional relationship?

Vote for Cain? He may be the GOP's best bet

I have decided to endorse Herman Cain to be the Republican Party's candidate for president. No, I am not crazy.

Land without peace: Why Abbas went to the U.N.

WASHINGTON — While diplomatically inconvenient for the Western powers, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' attempt to get...

A critical mess …. uh en masse

A homegrown organization of radicals took to the streets of Chicago en masse on Friday, affecting the end-of-the-week, end-of-the-month...

Deadlocked

Obama the Warrior is emerging from the thick fogs surrounding Obama the Hopeful Conciliator and, of course, the big question is: "Will...

Breaking faith with jobless Americans over an applause line

Ever since he took office, President Barack Obama has repeatedly attacked corporate jets as a symbol of all that is wrong with American...

You didn't really think she'd been KO'd?

The newly re-energized House minority leader could prove crucial to President Barack Obama in 2012.

Saving the world one finger at a time

— Unless you are a National Public Radio loyalist, you may have missed a political drama unfolding far beneath the radar of human...

Could liberals love Chris Christie?

I have a theory about Chris Christie that will soon be tested. I think he has meant it all those times when he said he wasn't ready to run...

Ordering death in Georgia

I can't always remember their names, but in my nightmares I can see their faces. As the commissioner of the Georgia Department of...

A bear of a problem for Obama

"You woke the bears! Why did you do that?"

When big problems require big government

It's an article of faith for free-market conservatives: Keep the government out of business and business will reward the government with a...

Quotable

"You've got to think about the costs of the alternatives."

A GOP circular firing squad

Suddenly Campaign 2012 is looking like deja vu all over again. Remember how President Barack Obama's fast rise to the White House was...

Don't be afraid of a dip in the water

Imagine if the headline after former Mayor Richard M. Daley announced plans to add more bike lanes and bike racks had been: "Truck and bus...

Not good for the Palestinians, not good for the world

As a rookie assistant state's attorney in Cook County, I learned the expression that a lawyer representing himself has a fool as a client. I...

Getting rich off carps

Word of Illinois' campaign to create a public taste for sauteed fillets and fried fish cakes made from bighead Asian carp has reached...

Return of the real, soak-the-rich, class warrior Obama

In a 2008 debate, former ABC News broadcaster Charlie Gibson asked Barack Obama about his support for raising capital gains taxes, given the...

Bachmann's silence is golden

Steven Miles and Arthur Caplan are my new heroes. They should be yours too — if you hold the radical opinion that facts matter.

10 things you might not know about epidemics

Fear of epidemics is spreading from movie theater to movie theater, with "Contagion" all over the screen. But real-life epidemics have...

The Davis cases: Georgia's execution echoes earlier Illinois case

The controversial execution of Troy Davis, 42, last week in Georgia put me in mind of the last and only truly controversial execution in...

Governor: Sign the gambling bill, create jobs

For months, Gov. Pat Quinn has been casting about for reasons to justify a veto of legislation that expands gaming in Illinois — the...

Retro TV revisits birth of 'culture war'

Do "Mad Men," "Pan Am," "The Playboy Club" and BBC America's "The Hour" exploit society's barely suppressed appetite for a more sexist,...

Bed, breakfast and beyond the pale

In less time than it takes you to read this paragraph, you can find on the Internet a variety of pages that cite scriptural authority to...

Level playing field for American business

President Barack Obama has made his recommendations for reducing the federal deficit. The main points call for raising taxes on the...

Cartoon caption contest winner

WINNER:

Don't blame men for TV time travel, like new shows Playboy Club and Pan Am

Perhaps it's been brought to your attention that this is a big week for retrograde representations of women on television. Monday marked the...

Pat Robertson is dead wrong

A person with Alzheimer's is not "kind of" dead. Not by a long shot. And televangelist Pat Robertson should know better than to speak...

Palestinian debate should have been settled 64 years ago

If this week's showdown at the United Nations plays out according to the script, it won't be the first time an attempt to get a...

Sometimes fate serves up a plum of a neighbor

According to my downstairs neighbor, my husband and I are clowns (as in oafs). And we're inconsiderate too.

The wrong help for the unemployed

In his dogged quest to boost employment, President Barack Obama has searched far and wide for new solutions. One provision in his American...

'Class warfare' by any other name ...

Class warfare seems to be popping up everywhere these days. It must be campaign season.

County won't pay for baseless deportations

Rigo Padilla is an honor student at the University of Illinois at Chicago who was placed in deportation while in Cook County Jail after a...

Will Postal Service default on American dream?

The U.S. Postal Service is broke; it has announced that it would have to cut more services, more facilities and more jobs. None of this is...

Why we raised an alarm on apple juice

Apparently we touched a nerve. Some conversations are difficult to have, especially when they challenge conventional thinking. Last week I...

TV returns to the tales of the weird old days

Living through the 1960s was weird enough for a lifetime, now television gives us a chance to relive it.

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In the 45-second Facebook game promoting the new movie "I Don't Know How She Does It," a cartoon woman stands with her arms outstretched...

Needed: A panic vaccine

Cancer treatment has made great progress in recent decades, but the tragedy is that so much of our effort to combat this scourge is just...

Debate jars Perry out of sweet spot

Mitt Romney and Rick Perry are exactly where they want to be.

The big sleep, Texas-style

Quite a few people were shocked to hear the audience members at Rick Perry's first Republican presidential debate burst into applause...

How to save a sinking business

This open letter is based on an interview I conducted with a contractor who's desperately trying to keep his head above water. He isn't...

How much has Obama learned on the job?

WASHINGTON — Our political system is not accustomed to the kind of battle that is going on now. President Barack Obama has been slow...

'Moderate' Muslims? They are right here

If there are "moderate" Muslims, I still hear critics ask, why don't they condemn Islamic terrorism? In fact, most Muslims do condemn such...

Sept. 11 and the impulse to pay tribute

Not that you needed reminding, but Sunday is the 10th anniversary of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Around the world, memorials will be...

Who kept us safe after 9/11?

If there was any certainty in the weeks and months after the 9/11 attacks, it was that these were just the first in a campaign of terror...

Obama abroad is definitely adrift

Since President Barack Obama has been having a rough time lately, let me belatedly congratulate him on his apparently successful policy of...

Under the mattress: Start with $1 trillion

Washington, abetted by President Barack Obama's scheduled lecture to Congress on Thursday, is abuzz with schemes for government to light a...

Question time for the Republicans

WASHINGTON — Wednesday's Republican "debate" in California will not resemble the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates, in which one...

Rick Perry grabs a 'third rail'

I sometimes wonder whether politicians actually write the books they release. In the case of Texas Gov. Rick Perry's book, I sometimes...

Wired for overregulation

Outside the Washington headquarters of the Federal Trade Commission is a sculpture of a powerfully built, shirtless man forcibly restraining...

New words to live by

Every year around this time, the Concise Oxford English Dictionary releases a list of words that will be added to its next edition. It's...

Conservatives flee from science

The 1980s and 1990s were prime time for environmental scares, many of which proved bogus. On one side were liberals, greens and professional...

News flash: Congresswoman has a spine

I am pleased to report the sighting of an artifact so rarely seen among Democrats that it has become the stuff of legend and conjecture,...