January 8, 2009
Viewpoint
Viewpoint: Are Americans too sensitive?
Clint Eastwood has had it up to here with sensitivity.
Viewpoint: Vice presidents, real and fictional
It is said that Joe Biden will be the first vice president of the United States from Delaware.
Viewpoint: Criminals or terrorists?
If you're old enough to have been around in the 1980s, and possibly even if you aren't, you probably know the name Leon Klinghoffer. A wheelchair-bound elderly businessman, Mr. Klinghoffer was murdered and dumped over the side of the cruise ship Achille Lauro by Palestinian terrorists in 1985.
Why we should raise the gas tax
President-elect Barack Obama faces many urgent decisions, but great leaders also make decisions that may not seem as urgent yet are even more critical to shaping the future. For Mr. Obama, leading America to make some of these future-shaping decisions is his greatest challenge. Perhaps the most important of these is reducing our dependence on foreign oil.
Viewpoint: After Gaza, what's next?
While the Israel Defense Forces conduct surgical airstrikes against Hamas in the Gaza Strip in response to the barraging of southern Israel by Hamas missiles and rockets, it is critical to look forward. What is the tactical game plan, and what are the strategic objectives? This must be the essence of the debate. These questions must be asked - and hopefully answered - while the fighting is ongoing. Shooting is not an excuse for not asking: "What's next?"
Viewpoint: Huntington's clear vision on the primacy of culture
This time of year, newspapers and magazines swell with retrospectives on the year that was, predictions for the year to come, and cogitations on meaningless trends and contrived fads.
Viewpoint: What they said in 2008
The Top 10 quotes of 2008, as compiled by the editor of the Yale Book of Quotations:
Viewpoint: Why liberals love America less
I don't love America. That's what conservatives are always telling liberals like me. Their love, they insist, is truer, deeper and more complete. Then liberals, like all people who are accused of not loving something, stammer, get defensive and try to have sex with America even though America will then accuse us of wanting it for its body and not its soul. When America gets like that, there's no winning.
Bush's rare glimpse at discontent
When President George W. Bush had to duck a pair of shoes thrown at him by an irate Iraqi journalist at a news conference in Baghdad, the depressing part was not just that his administration has managed to alienate many Iraqis. It was also that the president of the United States had to go to Iraq to find himself face-to-face with anyone who openly rejects his policies.
Viewpoint: Bailing out yesterday's industry, or investing in tomorrow's?
Now that all the public hand-wringing about whether or how to bail out the U.S. auto industry has been punted to the next administration, it's time to look at historical precedents and facts to see whether we have been asking the wrong questions about what to do with this industry. It could be that we've been ignoring lessons of the past and portents of the future.
Viewpoint: No regrets from a president who 'fell to the occasion'
I was doing fine until I saw the rocking chairs. My attacks of Bush-bashing were in remission. I told myself it was time to move on, to embrace the change you can believe in and, well, you get the idea.
Viewpoint: It's better to give — but focus on what works
At home, social services groups and charities face enormous budget shortfalls just as demand is intensifying. Abroad, systemic increases in food prices have pushed the number of people facing starvation to nearly 1 billion.
Viewpoint: Inflation no longer so fearsome
One of the great achievements of our time has been the conquest of inflation. In the 1970s, it ravaged our savings, raised our taxes and kept the economy on a roller coaster. So it is a measure of our current economic crisis that the return of inflation might be the best thing that could happen.
Viewpoint: a woman whose moment has come
In 1962, a young Massachusetts man who had barely passed the constitutional age barrier decided to run for the Senate. At the time, one of his brothers was president of the United States; the other brother was attorney general.
Viewpoint: Finding inspiration in adversity
Call it the gospel of hard times. With all this bad economic news, we're starting to hear a chorus of voices preaching the cultural benefits of financial crises.
Viewpoint: In crisis, don't forget hard-learned lessons
We are in what might be called the Great Freakout of 2008.
Viewpoint: George Bailey, where are you now?
A movie scene keeps playing in my head.
Viewpoint: Obama's 'Pet Goat' moment
"I was appalled and disappointed by what we heard in those transcripts," Barack Obama said Thursday about the documented misconduct of the governor of Illinois. That's right. He was appalled. And it only took him 48 hours to realize it.
Viewpoint: Rethinking the benefits of growth
It says something about our economy that the current recession, bad as it is, also means cleaner air as driving slows, paving open space lessens, and nature in general gets breathing room as what we call "progress" grinds to a halt.
Viewpoint: Reducing our spending, rediscovering our values
It read like a manifesto for the new zeitgeist, a signpost for an America decking the halls with boughs of thrift and singing carols to the values of frugality:
Viewpoint: Why my son can't have a computer in his room
"Mom, you just don't trust me. Everyone I know has a laptop in their room," said my son as he sat at the dining room table and logged on to the Internet.
Viewpoint: Terrorists crave the attention we give them
Remember when your high school teachers tried to give their lessons more urgency by repeating the old adage that those who forget history are condemned to repeat it? Well, those days are over, or at least they should be. That's because in today's hyper-connected world, oblivion and forgetting are no longer options. The much greater danger today is our postmodern penchant to watch, replay, fixate and fetishize history even as it's happening.
Viewpoint: Beware false cures for the recession
Times of emergency produce demands for action, and President-elect Barack Obama does not need to be urged twice. Weeks before taking office, he wants Congress to pass a fiscal stimulus bill costing half a trillion dollars or so, and his allies on Capitol Hill will undoubtedly give it to him. Amid a recession that some fear will spiral into a depression, no one wants to be accused of doing too little.
Viewpoint: America's hypocrisy on tobacco exports
"Global citizen," that retroism from sunnier days, is back. Calls for the U.S. to be a better model for the rest of the world peppered the presidential campaign. Reforming global tobacco policy will be a critical first step.
Viewpoint: Hillary's life as a work of improvisation
It was a moment bound to give anyone second thoughts about Sen. Hillary Clinton's nomination as secretary of state: Rush Limbaugh called it a "brilliant stroke." If Rush, who had said America wasn't ready to see Mrs. Clinton age in the Oval Office, was ready to see her age at Foggy Bottom, what was I missing?
Viewpoint: Blogging can help get us through tough times
The headline in the Los Angeles Times said it all: "Charities Can't Keep Up with Deepening Poverty."
Viewpoint: 'Third places' are scarcer, just when we need them most
The economic sky might be falling, but here I am at Starbucks in Los Angeles' Koreatown, fretting over the death of the cafe. Really. The New York Times had a story recently about the decline of traditional cafes and bars in France - there were 200,000 in 1960 and today there are only 41,500 - and it made my heart sink. I mean, if the French are losing the art of sitting around in public doing nothing together, what hope do we Calvinistic Americans have?
Viewpoint: Make financial rescue bolder, not bigger
The costs of Washington's bailout fiesta are now so huge that you can see them from space.
Viewpoint: Gay adoption — the real agenda
On Nov. 4, Arkansas voters approved a ban on adoption by unmarried couples. The purpose of the ballot measure, according to the Family Council Action Committee, was "to blunt a homosexual agenda that's at work in other states and that will be at work in Arkansas unless we are proactive about doing something about it."
Viewpoint: A new trio for our times
The era of dumb, dissed and dysfunctional government may be ending. Cynicism, cronyism and conventional political wisdom are threatened as a new, transnational political culture of idealism, activism, and potential multi-partisan cooperation dawns.
Viewpoint: Hillary plus Obama equals high drama
It's too early to tell what changes Sen. Hillary Clinton will bring to Barack Obama's foreign policy, but she's already had an enormous effect on his brand. Her addition to his team has turned "No Drama Obama" into "Mo' Drama Obama."
Viewpoint: Cutting costs in a tough economy
I have bad news. In the midst of the worldwide economic meltdown we are experiencing these days, I have taken a hard look at revenue from this column and find that I am earning but a tiny fraction of the $6.5 million I had projected for 2008, which leaves me no choice but to impose aggressive cost reductions, including a 75 percent reduction in writing time and the elimination of editing. I apologize for the inconvenience. And I thank you for your patience.
Viewpoint: The real school scandal
Hypocrisy is an overblown sin. Better to be a hypocrite who occasionally violates his principles than a villain who never does.
Viewpoint: A presidency for the books?
If you thought exiting your last job was painful because you had to stand around eating sheet cake and acting excited about your impending "freelance projects," imagine being an outgoing president. Not only do you have to give up your career, move out of your house and bid farewell to your jet all on the same day, you're expected to embark on one of the most onerous tasks known to humans: writing a book.
Viewpoint: Patience, Republicans
It was the aftermath of the presidential election, and everyone was explaining why the losing party lost. It was out of step with ordinary people. Its voters were too old. It was too identified with hot-button issues like abortion. It had a problem with Hispanics, young people and independents. It was increasingly confined to a limited number of states.
Viewpoint: I was spied on by the state police
I'm not sure what's more shocking, the news that the Maryland State Police wrongfully maintained an intelligence file on me for months as a "suspected terrorist" or that despite my surveillance, officers might not recognize me if I walked into police headquarters tomorrow.
Viewpoint: Torches passing, generations reconciling
Did you miss this in the post-election news? Sen. Robert C. Byrd, 91, Democrat of West Virginia, announced that he will give up the chairmanship of the Senate Appropriations Committee to Sen. Daniel K. Inouye, 84, Democrat of Hawaii. The torch has passed to a new generation.
Viewpoint: Rights shouldn't be voted away
What now for California? In May, its Supreme Court announced a right to same-sex marriage. Gays and lesbians rushed to take advantage of the opportunity; by early November, 18,000 such marriages had been performed. But on Nov. 5, they stopped. By a 52 percent to 47 percent margin, California voters approved Proposition 8, an amendment to the state constitution prohibiting same-sex marriage.
Viewpoint: Dog days ahead for the Obamas
In case you hadn't heard, Barack Obama's daughters are getting a dog. They were promised one after the election regardless of the outcome, and as the president-elect noted at his first news conference, the subject is generating "more interest on our Web site than just about anything." He said this in the same somber tone with which he also discussed Cabinet appointments and Iranian nuclear proliferation, referring to "criteria that need to be reconciled" (the need for a hypoallergenic dog and a preference for a shelter dog) and calling it "a pressing issue in the Obama household."
Viewpoint: Are some religions more equal than others?
Ever heard of Santeria? If you weren't born in Cuba or Miami, you might not have. Santeria is a syncretic faith that originated in Cuba as a combination of the Yoruba African slave traditions mixed with the Roman Catholicism of the Spanish plantation owners.
Viewpoint: The real 'woman story' of 2008
Have you ever seen a transformation this fast? In barely two months, the Barracuda became the Scapegoat. Think of it as evolution on steroids.
Viewpoint: The fear that underlies Obama's 'hope'
There's little doubt that President-elect Barack Obama's redemptive message of change grabbed Americans by the throat. After all, it's in times full of fear and despair that people are hungry for hope. Mr. Obama's triumph and victory speech were moving not only because they reminded us that this country is based on the idea of possibilities but because, for at least a moment, much of the nation believed that hope was reborn. And that raises a question: Why are Americans so obsessed with hope?
Viewpoint: Pushing to leave no child inside
It's a glowing spring morning, April 22, 2008. Earth Day. The place is Patuxent River State Park, where marsh, lake and forest converge and many migratory birds seek refuge.
Viewpoint: Change we don't have to pay for
President-elect Barack Obama's campaign mantras were "change we need" and "change we can believe in." His victory, and the enthusiasm of his more ardent supporters, may suggest that Americans dream of doing what Thomas Paine proposed we do in 1776: "begin the world over again." In fact, underlying the vote is yearning to return to how things were before: before the Iraq war, before torture, before the housing bust, before the recession.
Viewpoint: Maryland in good position to weather economic storm
My sons asked me recently if I had ever seen such turbulent and volatile economic conditions. I told them the same thing I tell people who ask me that question at work: While I have never experienced anything like this before, I am confident that our economy will recover in time.
Viewpoint: Election questions no one asks
No doubt everyone is relieved to have the election behind us, even if some of us are less than ecstatic about its result. The president-elect and Democrats in Congress very much want to move forward, talk about the future and get busy on their agenda. After all, the oceans aren't going to stop rising on their own.
Viewpoint: The plague of economic illiteracy
With the Dow Jones down by nearly 40 percent over the last year, $2 trillion in retirement savings vanishing in the last few weeks, 2.2 million foreclosures in 2007, and America's national savings rate at zero, the country's current anxiety certainly seems warranted. But, as psychiatrists would say, anxiety is based on apprehensions about the unknown, whereas fear is based more on informed knowledge of danger.
Viewpoint: South Korea's kimchi problem
There's probably no nation in the world more emblematic of the pitfalls and challenges of rapid modernization than South Korea. South Korean society is a caldron of competition and contradiction, caught between respecting the past and striving for the future.
Viewpoint: Today's certain loser: President Bush
Regardless of what the polls say, it's not clear who is going to win the presidential race. But it is clear who is going to lose: George W. Bush. If this contest proves anything, it's that the electorate is sick of him and eager for someone very different.
Viewpoint: The McCain fan who wasn't mugged
It smelled worse than rotting garbage in triple-digit heat, but I'm not surprised some folks swallowed it anyway.
Viewpoint: The effects of government, a 14th-century Tuscan perspective
In the week before Election Day, I once again cast an absentee ballot into an Italian mailbox. A part-time, expatriate painter from New York may not appear, especially in these times of pro- and anti-Americanism, as typically American, but American I am. And despite the tragedies and indignities suffered in the last eight years, I am still happy about it. Contrary to the opinion that expatriates are somehow less "American" than their compatriots living within the United States, nothing puts an awareness of American identity, in all of its positive and negative aspects, into focus more than living in another country. One of the big ideas that has gotten lost in the endless squabbles over nonissues these days is that of the importance of government and its potential impacts on society. Recent events, most notably the disintegration of the financial system, demonstrate that responsible government is a sine qua non for the proper functioning of our economic system. Yet, since at least the early 1980s, we have witnessed an assault on government as a source of society's problems.
Viewpoint: Sarah Palin's contribution
Considering all the attention focused on Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and her slipping support in the polls, Sen. John McCain has unwittingly provided a public service in selecting her.
Viewpoint: Obama's not new
There's an old saying: The oldest word in American politics is "new." Only in that sense is there anything new to Sen. Barack Obama.
Viewpoint: Abortion out of the closet
Do you remember the New Yorker cartoon showing a couple in their living room reading the newspaper? "Gays and lesbians getting married," reports the husband to his wife, whereupon he adds, "haven't they suffered enough?"
Viewpoint: Payback time for a Georgia senator?
When Sen. Barack Obama brought his 50-state-campaign plan to Georgia, a bastion of crimson-state conservatism, Republicans scoffed. They dismissed his TV ads and voter-turnout effort as money misspent in a GOP stronghold. And, sure enough, Mr. Obama practically pulled up stakes in Georgia two months ago, taking his treasure to a Dixieland more receptive to Democrats, to red states like North Carolina and Virginia that might bleed into blue.
Viewpoint: When DNA goes public
If you haven't heard of the PGP-10 yet, you will. No, they are not defendants in some crime of the century. Nor are they a new techno group. If anything, the PGP-10 resemble a chorus line performing what one geneticist calls a Molecular Full Monty.
Viewpoint: The problem with average Joes
Until last week, the most common axiom about plumbers was that when they bent over to fix a pipe, you could see the crack of their butts.
Viewpoint: Lessons from the braceros
Their images share the haunting starkness of prints from the Great Depression.
Viewpoint: Paths to gay marriage
When you set out to do something important, it doesn't matter just whether you achieve it - it also matters how. That's why Hank Aaron is a baseball immortal for breaking the career home run record, while Barry Bonds, who did the same, is a pariah.
Viewpoint: Obama's getting off easy
The Democratic nominee scorned the "prejudice and bigotry and hatred and division" on display in the Arizona senator's campaign. As for his own platform, he said that "we will do all these things because we love people instead of hate them. ... Beware of those who fear and doubt and those who rave and rant about the dangers of progress."
Viewpoint: ACORN flap is latest in Republican fear-mongering
If Mickey Mouse shows up at the polls in a couple of weeks, Sen. John McCain might have cause for the alarm he showed over alleged voter fraud during Wednesday's debate. If Minnie and Goofy also turn up with state-sponsored photo ID, then the Justice Department and the FBI will need to turn their attention away from terrorism, bank robberies and billion-dollar financial scams to investigate fake voters.
Viewpoint: Gays come out of the closet, abortion goes back in
.Do you remember the New Yorker cartoon showing a couple in their living room reading the newspaper? "Gays and lesbians getting married," reports the husband to his wife, whereupon he adds, "haven't they suffered enough?"
Viewpoint: The GOP and the perils of populism
If Sen. Barack Obama wins the presidency next month, Republican strategists probably won't waste too much time deconstructing the pros and cons of Sen. John McCain's candidacy. Mr. McCain is clearly a figure of the past, and that's most likely where he will remain.
Viewpoint: The minority mortgage libel
In the great search for somebody to blame for the nation's economic meltdown, an easy scapegoat is emerging.
Viewpoint: Gratitude with attitude
Question: What prize was recently characterized by one of its winners as "mundane"?
Viewpoint: Candidates in Fiscal Fairyland
When it comes to taxes, this election presents a clear choice. On one side you have a Democrat who proposes to raise taxes. On the other, you have a Republican who proposes to raise taxes.
Viewpoint: 'The Affluent Society,' reconsidered
"The Puritan ethos (save first and enjoy later) was not abandoned. It was merely overwhelmed by the massive power of modern merchandising."
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