Part 1
part 2
Eric Obenauf | Posted December 8, 2009 | Books
One of the books that shaped my perception of the publishing industry at large, and served as the inspiration and impetus for us to start our own press, was Andre Schiffrin's "The Business of Books: How International Conglomerates Took Over Publishing and Changed the Way We Read". In it, Schiffrin,...
Joel Berg | Posted December 8, 2009 | Politics
This holiday season we note the sobering reality that more than 49 million Americans live in households that can't afford enough food. Locally, according to a new study by the organization that I manage, New York City Coalition Against Hunger, there was a 21% jump this year in people forced...
Franc. Reyes | Posted December 8, 2009 | Entertainment
Until recently, I embraced the American ethos, that all things were possible for all people. It never occurred to me that a Puerto Rican born in Spanish Harlem and raised in the South Bronx would find it so difficult to make films in the United States in the 21st Century....
When I first started writing I rarely had any sort of game plan and usually only worked when I felt inspired to do so. If, as I was typing away, I became aware of some flaw or otherwise gnarly problem in my story, I would usually flee the scene; telling...
Stefan Aschan | Posted December 8, 2009 | Living
Yes, sure, check magazines and you will find at least 10 new exercise programs. Or perhaps a friend told you about a great training technique that you might want to try out.
But what are the movements that you should cover in any exercise program?
There...
Lawrence Korb | Posted December 8, 2009 | World
Now that President Obama has decided to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan the question of how to pay for this increased level of operations has arisen. In fact the question of how to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan should have been raised shortly after the attacks...
Michael Parrish DuDell | Posted December 8, 2009 | Impact
The tinsel is hung and the Christmas music medleys have begun--ready or not, the holiday season is upon us!
At malls and shopping centers across the country, millions of Americans are fighting for parking spaces and speed walking through crowded aisles in search of that perfect present. But the...
Martha Flumenbaum | Posted December 8, 2009 | Green
Animal agriculture is a bigger cause of global warming than cars.
You'd be better off driving a Hummer than eating a steak.
Eating too much meat can cause heart disease and cancer.
Factory farms cause pollution and the people who live near them are getting asthma.
Animals on factory farms...
Michael Wolff | Posted December 8, 2009 | World
Not too long ago, Amanda Knox, convicted the other day in Italy of murdering her junior-year-abroad roommate, Meredith Kercher, was "Foxy Knoxy." Now she is martyred Amanda, a tabloid Joan of Arc, an immensely sympathetic character at the center of a monstrous international miscarriage of justice.
Because...
Mike Elk | Posted December 8, 2009 | Politics
Here she goes again: Wall Street's favorite Democrat, Rep. Melissa Bean, D-Ill., is once again shilling for the banks.
As I wrote back in October, Bean misrepresented the views of financial watchdog Elizabeth Warren in arguing that states should not be able to set tough laws against the...
Margaret Ruth | Posted December 8, 2009 | Entertainment
The newest ASTROgirl! magazine is on the stands and the colorful cover touts "Juicy Celeb Psychic Predictions!". And the person making those juicy psychic predictions? That would be none other than me.
I need to say first that I still get a hit from seeing myself in a national...
Chris Romer | Posted December 8, 2009 | Denver
Marijuana. Most people see it as a recreational drug and are skeptical of its tangible, medical benefits for patients with chronic pain, including those whose use of prescribed narcotics often leaves them vulnerable to addiction.
Take, for instance, the story of Janice Beecher. A Colorado resident since 1968, she...
Livia McRee | Posted December 8, 2009 | Impact
I don't have many heroes. Safari, a dedicated and compassionate ranger in Virunga National Park, inspires me to this day. When I heard of his murder in the line of duty, my heart broke at the selfish brutality, and I could not help but be affected by his gentle...
By Zach Carter, Media Consortium Blogger
President Barack Obama invited leading economic thinkers to a job creation summit on Thursday to help combat the worst unemployment crisis in decades. The stakes couldn't be higher: If Obama can't build momentum for robust legislation that will create jobs, the unemployment rate could...
There were no surprises last week in President Barack Obama's historic speech at West Point. His decision to enlarge and prolong the war in Afghanistan had been leaked well in advance.
The ugly, messy conflict Obama inherited from George W. Bush now belongs to the "peace president" and his...
Mark Green | Posted December 8, 2009 | Politics
Stephen Colbert famously complained that "reality has a liberal bias." Now, as 192 nations meet in Copenhagen on climate change, the Right and Business have seized on some stolen emails to argue against the nearly unanimous scientific judgment that global warming is a real and present danger. We've seen this...
Charlotte Safavi | Posted December 8, 2009 | Entertainment
One minute I am having hot lattes with two girlfriends at a coffee shop in Georgetown, the next I feel an unfamiliar hand on my shoulder. The man with a Mac laptop from an adjacent table, who knows one of my friends and has his other hand on her shoulder,...
Richard Pevear | Posted December 8, 2009 | Books
"The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories" is the third book of Tolstoy's fiction that we have translated, following "Anna Karenina" and "War and Peace", and in some ways the most difficult. Tolstoy's later stories are remarkable for the variety of their voicing and for their formal inventiveness. No...
Deepak Chopra | Posted December 8, 2009 |