Columnists

New: DISPATCHES FROM THE EDGE: Horsemeat & Horsepucky

By Conn Hallinan
Sunday February 24, 2013 - 04:45:00 PM

As the Great Horsemeat Crisis continues to spread—“gallops” is the verb favored by the European press—across the continent, and countries pile on to blame Romania (France, Holland, Cyprus, etc.), what is becoming increasingly clear is that old-fashioned corporate greed, aided and abetted by politicians eager to gut “costly” regulations and industrial inspection regimes is behind the scandal. -more-


AGAINST FORGETTING: You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby (Or Have You?) The Women’s Movement, the Next Half-Century

By Ruth Rosen,
Saturday February 23, 2013 - 04:56:00 PM

[This article was originally published on TomDispatch.com]

In 1968, the Phillip Morris Company launched a memorable campaign to sell Virginia Slims, a new brand of cigarettes targeting women, itself a new phenomenon. It had a brand-new slogan: “You’ve come a long way, baby.” The company plastered it on billboards nationwide and put it in TV ads that featured women of the early twentieth century being punished for smoking. In all their advertising, smoking was equated with a set of traits meant to capture the essence of women in a new era of equality -- independence, slimness, glamour, and liberation. -more-


THE PUBLIC EYE: The Keystone Pipeline: Which Side Are You On?

By Bob Burnettt
Saturday February 23, 2013 - 03:46:00 PM

On Sunday, February 17th, 40,000 Americans gathered in Washington, DC, to protest against approval of the Keystone XL pipeline. Thousands more demonstrated in Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, and other US cities. Nonetheless, there is momentum for pipeline construction; a recent Harris Poll found 69 percent of respondents supported it. However, Environmentalists believe pipeline approval would be the tipping point in the fight against global climate change. -more-


SENIOR POWER: “I hear tell…”

By Helen Rippier Wheeler, pen136@dslextreme.com
Saturday February 23, 2013 - 03:51:00 PM

Now is the time to contact your U.S. Senators and Congressional representative to urge them to do all in their considerable power to sustain a HUD budget that will acknowledge the presence of low-income disabled senior citizens in your community. Do not refer to “affordable housing”. Specify “low income” Section 8 subsidized projects for disabled seniors. -more-