Opinion Columns
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Obama resilient in face of flagging poll numbersDec 08, 2013 4:00 am - For a guy whose presidency was supposed to be on life support, Barack Obama has certainly had a productive couple of weeks. With his poll numbers sinking toward George W...
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Mortality in the near distanceDec 08, 2013 4:00 am - In my mid-20s, I had a new bride, a plum job on Capitol Hill, and, apparently, the beginnings of a cancerous tumor on my right kidney. For 20 or 25 years — the best esti...
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Compassion needed for the depressed, suicidalDec 06, 2013 4:00 am - When ordained more than 28 years ago, I found myself celebrating many funerals and burying young people dying of AIDS. A young man whom I spent much time with prior to h...
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Photo ethics now more important than everDec 05, 2013 4:00 am - One day a long time ago, a woman stormed into the newsroom of the small northwestern Illinois daily where I worked, her somewhat embarrassed pre-teen son in tow. The boy...
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Why doesn’t Congress aim higher?Dec 05, 2013 4:00 am - Congressional budget negotiators are moving to meet a Dec. 13 deadline to produce, well, something. For weeks, we’ve been told to keep expectations low. There’ll be no “...
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The Hillary alternativeDec 04, 2013 4:00 am - A recent issue of the New Republic had Elizabeth Warren on the cover with the headline “Hillary’s Nightmare?” It was one of a spate of such stories, all of them saying t...
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Fallout from the ‘nuclear option’Dec 03, 2013 4:00 am - J. Harvie Wilkinson III is a federal circuit court judge, appointed in 1984 by Ronald Reagan, but he’s never seen himself as a doctrinaire conservative trying to “storm ...
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A mixed message over food stampsDec 03, 2013 4:00 am - If you peruse the news on any given day, the farm bill/food stamp debate produces two general impressions: Republicans are heartless turkey thieves; Democrats are spendt...
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Fulfilling one DREAMDec 02, 2013 12:57 pm - When you talk to DREAMers — those undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States by their parents — what you hear most often is that they just want to get...
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Arne Duncan’s moment of truthDec 01, 2013 4:00 am - When we talk about improving public education in America, should we mention race and ethnicity? Here’s a better question: If we’re honest about one of the biggest probl...