I have to finish this post quickly, before the world ends. At the very least, I have to wrap it up before 2013, when it will not only be irrelevant but even more embarrassing for the paranoid among us to read.

As you are no doubt aware, the blockbuster movie...

I've avoided commenting on the health care controversy too much because, first, it's a massively complex issue that would require several posts to do justice, and second, I have no desire to spend time purging my inbox of illiterate screeds that insist I'm a socialist under President Obama's evil spell.

I've spent some time in the corporate world, and as such, I despise phrases like "paradigm shift" or "new dynamic." Still, it's clear that something new is forming within the American psyche.

As result of the cataclysm we jokingly call our economy, Americans are moving less than they have...

One of the wonders of modern society is how even minor controversies can snowball into intense political and sociological debates where, apparently, the future of the country hangs in the balance. Really, even Halloween costumes are enough to create verbal fisticuffs.

That's why I'm not surprised that the 2010...

I admit that I'm a little late to the party, in that I just recently read Freakonomics, the bestseller from a few years ago. Like everyone else who read the book, I'm amazed at the bizarre factoids and surprising conclusions that it supplies. And it's also convinced me never to...

With all the fevered debate over health care, I'm surprised that few people have addressed the root cause of so much misery: the failure of our society to keep people from getting sick in the first place.

It's actually pretty simple to get people to adopt healthier habits. Well, actually,...

Now that the Beer Summit has resolved any lingering issues over the arrest of Henry Louis Gates, we can get back to our perfectly harmonious post-racial society.

I for one am relieved. Like most Latino males, I've had some uncomfortable interactions with cops (go ahead, ask your minority friends; most...

Some of my posts may have given the impression that I base everything upon logic, and disdain the supernatural or unexplainable. That's not true, of course, because I love a good ghost story.

I just don't love them as much as my mom does.

For proof, I refer to...

You will not catch me dissing Schoolhouse Rock.

Like all good Gen Xers, I grew up with the infectious tones of the Saturday morning series permeating my brain. Before I could stop it, Schoolhouse Rock told me how a bill becomes a law, informed me that zero...

We often measure a group's cultural power by that most base of indicators, the theoretical root of all evil itself: Money.

By that gauge, Hispanics lag far behind the majority culture. However, as befits the largest ethnic-minority group (and the fastest-growing demographic) in America, Latinos are a growing economic...

Among my numerous flaws is the fact that I'm not very charitable. Yes, I give money to worthy causes, but I'm stingy with my time. My wife does volunteer work, which is one of the eight thousand things that I admire about her. Still, I've rarely found the motivation to...

I've mentioned before that Hispanics are now the number-one ethnic minority in America. On a related note, I'm sure you've heard that salsa is more popular than ketchup (it's true, more or less).

But this numerical advantage in population hasn't amounted to much for Latinos, except...

I'm not in the habit of giving advice to the Republican Party, which is just as well, because they're not in the habit of accepting it. But in the spirit of bipartisanship, I offer the following: Drop the lame attacks on Sonia Sotomayor, because they're not going to work.

Just like President Obama, Dick Cheney, and many other Americans, I've been thinking a lot about torture lately. I've been thinking how bad it is... unless it's, like, you know, really needed and stuff... to stop bad people... right?

In any case, we've all heard the wobbly rationales justifying the...

I've been blogging for the Huffington Post for about a year now. My emphasis, of course, is on Latino culture and the issues that affect Hispanics. However, as I enter my second year of ranting, provoking, and prophesying, it's clear that I need to get one thing out of the...

In my last post, I wrote about how many conservatives used the H1N1 flu outbreak to launch xenophobic attacks on Hispanics. But if the right wing's reaction to the swine-flu outbreak was a depressing example of the disgust that many Americans hold for Latinos, what are we to make...

The swine-flu outbreak, at least the initial stage of it, appears to be subsiding. If it turns out that H1N1 is not the massive death-wave that right-wing extremists predicted, they will no doubt move on to another "end of America" crisis.

But I have to give credit to conservative commentators....

I have one simple question for all the white Americans out there: What is the significance of Cinco de Mayo? I mean, what historical event does this day commemorate besides the advent of the two-for-one margarita special?

I do not mean this to be bitchy or accusatory. I may be...

By now, you've no doubt heard about the killer flu that originated in Mexico. Dozens of people are dead in that country, and cases have sprung up in the United States. In all likelihood, this virus -- an offshoot of swine flu -- will run its course long before...

As I wrote in a recent post, I was just laid off from my job of six years. It's disgruntling to go from analyzing the plight of unemployed Latinos to becoming part of the story.

I'm not worried about the future or in dire financial straits, for which I'm grateful....