Actor Missi Pyle and her Smith & Pyle band mate, Shawnee Smith, along with actor/comedian Hal Sparks put a comedic spin on the serious topic of marriage equality (or, more precisely, the lack thereof for gays and lesbians). In a faux marriage ceremony presided over by faux preacher Hal Sparks,...

Actor Missi Pyle and her Smith & Pyle band mate, Shawnee Smith, along with actor/comedian Hal Sparks put a comedic spin on the serious topic of marriage equality (or, more precisely, the lack thereof for gays and lesbians). In a faux marriage ceremony presided over by faux preacher Hal Sparks,...

Early Sunday morning a man who lives two blocks from me died after he called the police, threatened to kill his girlfriend and himself, and the police shot him after he brandished a gun toward them. His girlfriend, fortunately not harmed, told the police that her boyfriend was distraught because...

While we Americans are rightfully angry with our banks for taking us down the subprime road to unemployment, foreclosure, devastated retirement savings and all of the other trappings of recession, the Swiss must be furious with UBS for the havoc it has wrecked on the famous Swiss banking industry which...

Since President Obama has called for health care reform in this coming year and has selected Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius as Secretary of the Health and Human Services Department, the perennial debate about universal health care will soon be roaring fast and furious. What the opponents of universal health care...

A 60 Minutes episode that aired several months ago focused on the Commodities Futures Modernization Act of 2000 (the "Act") and the substantial role it played in our current economic crisis. The Act allowed financial institutions to engage in high-risk derivative transactions and credit default swaps without any regulatory oversight...

The New York Times today reports that the IRS is debating how to deal with blatant tax evaders. It reports that, through the help of UBS, a number of US taxpayers hid an approximate $20 billion of profits in secret offshore accounts which enable them to evade $300...

Until oil prices dramatically dropped in recent months, there was a lot of talk in Washington about once again imposing a windfall profits tax on oil companies similar to the windfall profits tax that was imposed in 1980. President Carter had then lobbied for the tax on the grounds...

As the administration and Congress evaluate the best way to save the economy, let's hope they find new respect for regulatory oversight. For years, conservative politicians and business executive blamed the burden of over-regulation for stifling business expansion and profitability. Unfortunately, Washington listened and repealed many laws and regulations that...