After Michael Jackson died, all the usual suspects came out of the woodwork to inflame, speculate, accuse, defend, and memorialize. Media vultures like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and Gloria Allred took their well-worn places, along with ex-attorneys, autopsy specialists, and professional pundits. Hundreds of thousands of Jackson's fans filled the...

I was a 16 year-old wanna-be love child in a lace shirt, faded jeans, and moccasin boots. Bill was a real 30-something hippie, who had camped out at Woodstock and demonstrated at Berkeley. He drove an old Volkswagon Bug the color of chewed-up Wrigley's gum, and was fond of quoting...

A seven year-old boy throws a temper tantrum in his second grade classroom, stomping on a teacher's foot, battering a school administrator, and tearing the room apart. The class had to be evacuated by school officials to ensure the safety of the other children, and police and the boy's mother...

In the last couple of days, I've read more negative rants about Facebook's 25 Random Things About Me meme than I've read actual lists of 25 things. Writers from the New York Times and Time Magazine jumped on the anti-list bandwagon, as did writers like Tod Goldberg,...

When George W. Bush was campaigning for President, I thought there was no better man he could have in his corner than Rush Limbaugh. After all, who could understand the political aspirations of a privileged, party-going, service-avoiding, C-average candidate better than a privileged, two-and-a-half semester college flunk-out, with a penchant...

Forgive me for getting a little Rahm Emanuel here, but Sunday's lead story on The Huffington Post is worthy of a middle finger salute and some righteous indignation.

"McCain Slams Stimulus -- Joins GOP Leaders to Attack Stimulus Package". Well, okay. I'm all for healthy debate, even if...

Like many others, I have followed the story of two year old Caylee Anthony, who was reported missing last July. I have read the various twists and turns of this case, and felt the same frustration, sorrow, and anger that others have no doubt felt.

Certainly, in the case...

For several years, I've been a fairly invisible member of the one-paycheck-away-from-disaster class. As a writer with a down and dirty day job, I've lived dangerously, with no health insurance, no benefits, and precarious hours. I've gone without many American trappings, like protein, root canals, and Netflix. I've flipped my...

John Lennon struck a chord when he sang, "you may say I'm a dreamer, well, I'm not the only one". And he was right. To be human is to dream -- and to want to bring our dreams to life. Dreamers, though, have gotten a bad rap. Our antagonists would...

The adage "life isn't fair" applies to many social inequities, but few are as glaringly apparent -- and totally preventable -- as celebrity.

According to Forbes magazine, Paris Hilton made over $15M dollars from 2003-2006. The nearly talent-free Tila Nguyen earned a reported $125,000 per episode for her MTV show,...

When Ronald Reagan began courting the religious right in his bid to win the Presidency, I doubt he knew he was spelling death to the lean tenets of Goldwater conservatism. Yet soon afterward, under the thumb of right-wing religion, the Republican party became a bloated fool, stuffed with...

When God told Michele Bachmann to run for office so that she could play a part in saving traditional marriage and defeating radical Islam, she and her husband fasted and prayed for three days to make sure that was indeed His will. Appearing at Pastor Mac Hammond's Living Word Christian...

Every election season and, in fact, every turning tide of social belief and philosophy, brings us face-to-face with those whose views differ from our own. Sometimes the arguments we have are so simplistic that they shouldn't even be had -- at least not in a nation that has progressed beyond...

In a stunning report released by the United States Government Accountability Office in July 2008, Americans learned that many corporations, including those with assets over $250M, reported no tax liabilities. In fact, from 1998-2005, 72% of foreign-controlled domestic corporations (FCDC's), and 55% of US-controlled corporations (USCC's), reported zero tax...

Jewish history is rife with name changes. Outside of the ancient Judaic superstition of "change your name, change your luck," we've renamed ourselves in order to avoid being captured or killed, discriminated against, or set apart. Many of our grandparents, arriving here after the terrors of the Holocaust, anglicized...

Eileen F. had an idyllic middle-class upbringing. Reared by two loving parents, both professionals in their fields, she attended Ivy League schools and went on to become a teacher. Now 58 years old and partially disabled, Eileen struggles to pay the $700 rent on her small cabin in upstate New...

While many are decrying McCain's failure to mention the middle class in his debates, other classes have received far less mention this election season. Outside of derogatory references to Joe Six Pack, and the need for health insurance, the poor and working classes of America seem to have been largely...

Since the election season began, I have found myself biting my tongue against denigrating phrases like "the bubba factor" to describe the working class. I have sat on my hands to prevent myself from writing diatribes against poisonous Republicans, and often-elitist liberals. After a lackluster VP debate, I will be...