We have roosting vultures everywhere, left, right and center, salivating over what many are perceiving as the carcass of the Obama administration. I hear my friends on the left excoriating Obama for failing to do enough to bring BP's catastrophe under control. I read about the anti-government goons--Bobby the Joker...

I recently learned something that nearly made me weep. The oil that the earth so far has volcanically disgorged from the failure of BP's Blowout Preventer is about the amount that we in the United States of Blatant Profligacy use in just one day. One day.

The pelicans that...

Seething with anger barely touches how I feel about the unfolding catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico. The costs that we are willing to accept borders on insanity as the fossil fuel pushers reap obscene financial gain, keeping us tethered to the toxic tit of a substance that may well...

I keep thinking about that smirk on Senator Max Baucus' face while he was in the Congressional catbird's seat, driving the Senate Finance Committee's "health care reform" agenda, otherwise known as Gifts Unlimited to the "health care" industries. It was he to whom everyone was kowtowing in order to bring...

Do you remember the only state to vote for McGovern in 1972? The state that had the honor of being the only state not to blame for the debacle otherwise known as Richard M. Nixon? It was the state where every other car bore a "Don't blame me; I'm from...

Our last day was a frenzy of packing in as much as possible. I felt as though I needed to see everything in hyper-vision. Having seen so much that I had not expected, I could not shake the feeling that I was going to leave without seeing all that I...

When we entered Afghanistan, we were supposed to have a passport photo to give to the police at the airport so that they could make an identity card for us. To have for what...exactly? No one had an answer. It is one of those details that seemed so superfluous, it...

Friday held the most wonderful coincidence for us. Our guide had been told of some women's conference being held in Kabul that day. Catnip! We headed straight for it first thing in the morning. The Delhi Policy Group was sponsoring a Women's Trialogue, focused on peace and conflict resolution among...

Why I wanted to come face to face with a member of the Taliban I am at a loss to explain. The Taliban represent just about everything I find repulsive. Morbid fascination? Maybe. But I could not take my eyes off him. Our fourth day began at the Peace and...

By our third full day, I had figured out what made the 200 plus parakeets in the cage ten paces from my door start their noisy conversations well before day break. Just before the chirping started, I was awakened by a noise so surreal, I panicked because I couldn't figure...

By Tuesday morning I was getting rather careless with my scarf. I just do not do hats or anything on my head. In a blizzard, you will find me hatless. I was expecting--hoping--it soon will be carried off by the wind. Why should I suffer because some male...

After a particularly uninspired breakfast on our first full day, we donned our oppressive scarves and hopped onto the minibus to head for the Kabul headquarters of Women for Women International, an NGO that assists women in devastated parts of the world through vocational training and micro loans. Tea was...

As former lawyer, I tend to approach issues from an advocacy point of view. At the core of law school, is the training to argue both sides of an issue. Nevertheless, I have to confess, sometimes I struggle to be objective. It took going to Kabul, Afghanistan, to realize that...

What do George Washington and Abraham Lincoln have in common? Each had virtually no relevant experience before becoming president. And what do you suppose Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney have in common -- besides being perfidious, nefarious, malignant, noxious, ignominious reprobates? They both came to Washington with more experience...

The long descent from the soaring, spontaneous, brilliant speeches of the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy to the vapid, inane, mindless mutterings of our putative President, George W. Bush, is almost too painful to contemplate. Not until watching the movie, Bobby, did I fully realize how starved I am for...