It's easy to read J. M. Barrie's children's story, Peter Pan, and miss the point that it's a tale about more than a man-child's carefree life among pirates and mermaids. The original stage play was titled, The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow up. Investigative reporter Adam Ciralsky wrote an expose' about...

"Providence" is a term we overuse to explain those times when everything works out in spite of impossible odds. But more often than not, Providence is mistaken for undeserved "dumb luck." When Obama gave his Afghanistan war escalation speech last week, it appeared that he was on his way toward...

Stanford University produced a study that showed that voters are repulsed by politicians who don't deliver what they promised. According to Stanford, "flip flop," mealy-mouthed candidates always lose their voter base. David Axelrod should force Obama to read that report, titled "Candidate Inconsistency and Voter Choice." Voters dislike inconsistency. They...

Dynamic equilibrium was one of those concepts most of us learned to reduce to a formula in chemistry class. The proof formula was far too complicated to explain the simple idea that there is a state of balance somewhere between equal opposing forces. I learned enough about the concept to...

The next time you see a picture of a tea party protest, look closely and try to identify anyone in that crowd under the age of 30. If you identify as many as five "ralliers" in that age group, you should keep that picture because it will be a collector's...

The anti-death penalty movement is resurrecting the worn out talking point that executing people who murder innocent men, women, and children is too expensive. They say new studies show that government is raising taxes in order to kill the people who murder America's children, wives, and fathers. We get it....

I checked to make sure that the 30 Republican Senators who voted against Jamie Leigh Jones' anti-rape bill two weeks ago had wives and daughters. Most of them did. But their love for defense contractor PAC money is obviously greater than their love even for their own daughters. The Senate...

It brought tears to my eyes when I heard the bitter story about how Obama wants to slash the bonuses of the CEOs running TARP-funded companies. That Grey Poupon crowd has hired lobbyists to rally Americans around the idea that an evil socialist president is limiting their right to live...

The slogan "Buy American" makes good sense during a time when America is digging its way out of a recession that took 8 years to create. But the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has lost sight of who they used to represent, so they are spending millions to make sure that...

A Republican friend of mine emailed me a film clip that showed a room full of very old white guys celebrating the fact that America had lost its chance to host the 2016 Olympics. The note attached to the email was: "Is this what we have become?" I told him...

In the 1980's, Bayer Corporation produced a medicine that was supposed to improve the lives of hemophiliacs. Bayer didn't tell those hemophiliacs that their product was infected with HIV. Entire families of hemophiliacs died with AIDS as the virus spread within households. When Bayer was ordered to stop selling their...

For several years, I've received e-mails urging me not to sit in as a lonely progressive voice on the Fox News network. My usual response is that Roger Ailes, the brains behind Fox, doesn't care whether I show up or not. My empty chair would not change a single element...

Civil War historians have a difficult time explaining how America's Southern aristocracy convinced poor sharecroppers to fight a war on their behalf. The majority of Confederate soldiers who charged the cannonballs and bullets of the Union Army were rarely the monied aristocrats who started that war. They weren't the ones...

There is a term that sociologists developed to describe an incredibly ugly quality of human nature. The term they use is "victim blame." Here's how it works: Americans are fearful people. That's why drug companies are able to sell more pharmaceuticals per capita in America than any other place in...

In the past week, the cable talk lunatics have turned their attention to the swine flu conspiracy. Their newest storyline is that Obama is going to use the flu season threat to authorize a forceful entry into people's homes to administer vaccines. As you might imagine, all those delusional "We...

The executives at ABC are on a mission to suck the last workable brain cells out of their viewing audience. I have a hunch that those executives dream of a day when every American develops a lizard brain view of the world that is as shallow as that of the...

Years ago, Hollywood Squares was a T.V. program that could be characterized as an elephant dying ground for washed up actors, singers, and T.V. personalities. By the time fading celebrities like Charo, Joan Rivers, and Roddy McDowell were making regular appearances in the Squares lineup, it was clear that their...

More than 70 percent of the American public agrees that a public option for health care is a good idea. That fact is terrifying to insurance companies that have hustled billions of dollars out of a dysfunctional health care system for decades. The insurance industry is so worried that they...

In recent weeks, Democrats have made progress with their leadership management skills. Here is what they have figured out: When your opposition is burning down, don't get involved. Sit back and allow it to happen. For example, when the GOP floats the story that Obama is building concentration camps...

Since 1935, an organization calling itself "The Family" has been able to operate unnoticed in the Washington Beltway. The organization got its start when a group of inheritance babies organized to attack Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal. Since its beginning, one goal of the organization has been to remain invisible. But...