Negro League Strat-O-Fantastic

Robert David Jaffee, 12.28.2009

Author, journalist, mental-health activist

Baseball fans everywhere can now rejoice. There is a new Negro League version of Strat-O-Matic, a board game that preceded all of the rotisserie leagues that have proliferated in recent years.

Human Rights Day--Here at Home

Maria Foscarinis, 12.28.2009

Founder and executive director of the National Law Center on Homelessness

Human Rights Day--Here at Home Maria Foscarinis National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty December 10 was Human Rights Day, a worldwide commemor...

Could a Hillary Clinton Avatar Save Congo?

Georgianne Nienaber, 12.28.2009

Investigative journalist, searcher, and author

The world will never dispatch a savior to Congo who, like the paraplegic Marine Jake in the James Cameron epic Avatar, will damn self-serving interests and decide to protect a unique world and complicated society.

When Intolerance Kills Christmas II: Why Should Gay U.S. Soldiers Still Fear Saluting Barack Obama?

Steve Clemons, 12.26.2009

Publisher of "The Washington Note"

Accepting people for who they are seems to me to be what Christmas ought to be about. As a nation, we still aren't doing that with gay men and women in the military services.

Remembering August

Vanessa Carmichael, 12.28.2009

A writer who resides in Los Angeles

It would be great if senators listened to all the polls the left likes to cite when defending the public option. I suppose polls are hard to pay attention to when August is still vivid in your mind.

Guinea: UN Verifies Atrocities -- Murder, Rape, Torture (update)

Evelyn Leopold, 12.23.2009

Veteran reporter at the United Nations

A 59-page UN inquiry determined that the junta leader of the West African nation of Guinea "had direct responsibility" for killings, rapes and other atrocities against peaceful protesters.

Mr. President, Will You get Pissed off for Once?

Miles J. Zaremski, 12.21.2009

Attorney and writer

I need not tell you that we are in the red zone with less than one minute to go in the game. What you need to do is get mad, get angry, even pissed off, at what you see not occurring.

It's Holiday Shopping Time, while the Peace of the Graveyard Marches on

Jane Guskin, 12.22.2009

In Colombia there is an expression: la paz del cementerio - the peace of the graveyard. This is the kind of peace that powerful forces enjoy when everyone who resists them is dead and buried.

Will One Senator Stand Up for Women?

Wendy Button, 12.21.2009

Who will be our Lieberman? Who will be our Nelson? There has to be someone who will stand for us because when one woman is demeaned in the name of the greater good, that's not progress, that's a sign of a country in deep crisis.

David Kaufman's Misguided, Race-Based Rant on LGBT Rights -- and 'Homo-Toms'

Pam Spaulding, 12.21.2009

Head Barista at pamshouseblend.com

David Kaufman, like most of us, assumes way too much about race and sexuality without acknowledging all of the picture. That's something we can be proactive about addressing, rather than unproductively ranting about.

In a Season of Compassion, Let's Stop Hate Killings of the Homeless

Brian Levin, J.D., 12.21.2009

Director, Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, California State University

In 2009-2010, it is about time that we turn our attention to the plight of homeless people -- a forgotten hate crime group -- who are being attacked in growing numbers, based simply on an ugly stereotype.

Abortion Language in the Health Care Bill: Another Women's Smackdown and What to Do

Amy Siskind, 12.21.2009

President and Co-Founder of The New Agenda

Is it me, or is Obama's health care bill increasingly like the movie Groundhog Day? Another day, another women's health smackdown. Women's health is under assault.

Beyond Fluoride: Pharmaceuticals, Drinking Water and the Public Health

Jacob M. Appel, 12.21.2009

Bioethicist and medical historian

If we are willing to ingest fluoride to prevent tooth decay, surely we can tolerate a trace of lithium to prevent suicides.

The Coca-Cola of Forgetting or The Cane Juice of Nostalgia

Yoani Sanchez, 12.19.2009

Award-Winning Cuban Blogger

The only thing that will end this oneiric sequence of being shut in and forced out, is the end of the immigration restrictions for Cubans. I want to have the right to travel.

U.N. Women's Treaty Can Not Wait for U.S. Senate

Linda Tarr-Whelan, 12.18.2009

Demos Distinguished Senior Fellow and author of "Women Lead the Way"

The path to ratifying CEDAW would be much easier if our Senate, like those of 23 other countries including Rwanda, Argentina, Angola, Costa Rica and much of Europe, had 30 percent women.

Uganda Antigay Sentiments Hit Close To Home

Kim Stolz, 12.18.2009

MTV News Correspondent

In his State of the Union Address in January 2003, President George W. Bush gave one of his more eloquent and moving speeches about his upcoming ...

Human Rights Abuses in Plain Sight: Migrant Workers in the U.S.

Chandra Bhatnagar, 12.18.2009

Today is International Migrants Day, marking the anniversary of the passage of a United Nations resolution adopting the landmark International Convent...

Ben Nelson is My New Hero: At Least He Has the Courage of His Convictions

Rebecca Sive, 12.18.2009

Community organizer and women's rights activist

The Senate's discussion of its health care bill has devolved from farce to a tragedy, in which female and male senators alike are trading the lives of women for the sake of re-election.

Chevron's Blogger Propagandists: Accuse First, Ask (No) Questions Later

Paul Paz y Miño, 12.17.2009

Human Rights and Environmental Advocate

We would like to introduce you to a few of the "pro-Chevron" bloggers out there, and the groundless claims they made in the aftermath of September's phony "bribery scandal."

Field Dispatch: Jonglei, Southern Sudan

John Prendergast, 12.17.2009

Co-Founder of the ENOUGH Project

This guest post was written by Maggie Fick, Enough's field researcher based in southern Sudan, and originally appeared as a field report on enoughproj...

Improving Human Rights and Counter-Terrorism

George A. Lopez, 12.17.2009

In shifting from stonewalling to shared problem-solving, the US has indicated a willingness in recent months to listen and then lead in a manner the Security Council welcomes and the UN badly needs.