IPS Blog

This week in OtherWords, Jill Richardson makes the case for raising chickens in your backyard and Sam Pizzigati discusses Ford's worker-financed bailout.

Donald Kaul is taking a spring break this week and will be back on April 3, when we'll run a Tax Day special edition.

Here's a clickable summary of our latest commentaries and a link to our new cartoon. If you haven't already subscribed to our weekly newsletter, please do.

1. A Plateful of Justice / Javier Rojo
   The people that wash your dishes and the folks who cook and serve your food deserve better.
2. Ditching ‘Rape Culture’ for Good / Alana Baum
   From HBO's "Girls" to CNN's coverage of the Steubenville case, it's time for people to start talking about rape in a more productive way.
3. A Dubious Honor / Wenonah Hauter
   How can Smithfield rank so high on Fortune's list of most-admired companies?
4. Don’t Cheat Your Grandma / Martha Burk
   One idea for cutting Social Security that's gaining popularity in Washington would hurt the elderly, especially older women.
5. When Workers Foot the Bill for Bailouts / Sam Pizzigati
   U.S. executives, including Ford CEO Alan Mulally, are personally profiting off their employees' pain.
6. Why I’m a Chick with Chicks / Jill Richardson
   As a visit to my Cluckingham Palace coop proves, small-scale chicken raising is compatible with modern city life.
7. Obama’s Unethical End Run / Jim Hightower
   Obama's transparent deception on special-interest money.
8. A Tortured History / William A. Collins
   Could you or I be kidnapped and waterboarded and still have no right to sue?
9. Invisible Hand University / Khalil Bendib cartoon

This week in OtherWords, Jo Comerford likens the imminent across-the-board budget cuts to a truck careening toward a brick wall and Jill Richardson explains what’s wrong with an ingredient found in most liquid soaps that Americans use.

Below you’ll find links to our latest work. If you haven’t already subscribed to our weekly newsletter, please do.

1. A Global Spotlight on Voter Suppression / Ron Carver
   Heinous schemes to limit the right to vote keep appearing in state legislatures.
2. We’ve Got to Get Out of That Place / Usha Sahay and John Isaacs
   Rather than prolonging the quagmire in Afghanistan, Obama should take this opportunity to finally to honor his commitment to bring our troops home.
3. Why Use a Bludgeon When a Calculator Will Do? / Jo Comerford
   Some lawmakers have an almost-mythical resistance to raising revenue at a moment when affluent individuals and big corporations have the lowest tax burden in more than half a century.
4. Give the Post Office a Break / Donald Kaul
   If the Postal Service were run like Congress, postal workers would only show up on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays — except when they were on vacation, which would be a lot.
5. A Triumph of Sewage and Stench / Sam Pizzigati
   It takes more than a nice cruise ship buffet to make a billionaire.
6. We’re All Guinea Pigs / Jill Richardson
   I don’t want to expose the most precious people in my life to an endocrine disruptor.
7. The Organized Sports Racket / Jim Hightower
   Big sports teams toss unwise investments to taxpayers and let them fumble.
8. What Post-Racial America? / Emily Schwartz Greco and William A. Collins
   It will take more than President Barack Obama’s tenure to vanquish American prejudice and racial injustice.
9. Declaring Victory in Afghanistan / Khalil Bendib cartoon

This week in OtherWords, Donald Kaul puts the brutality of drone warfare into historical context, Jill Richardson explains why you should compost and replace your lawn, and Jim Hightower says that a $9 minimum wage would still be too low.

This week in OtherWords, John Cavanagh explains why President Obama's State of the Union address falls short, Ben Freeman says that scaling back the Pentagon's budget isn't just for progressives any more, and Donald Kaul skewers the latest Republican antics.

Please be sure to visit our blog. We've got a bonus commentary by Jim Hightower regarding the hilariously lavish (except that we taxpayers have to foot the bill) bathroom renovation ordered by George W. Bush's Secretary of the Interior. And Alana Baum's post about V-Day — a global movement to stop violence against women. Plus reflections by Rabbi Leila Gal Berner on the arrest of Sarah Silverman's sister in Jerusalem for wearing a prayer shawl and worshiping at the Western Wall.

Below you'll find links to our latest work. If you haven't already subscribed to our weekly newsletter, please do.

1. No Game-Changer / John Cavanagh
   Obama's State of the Union address nudged the debate in the right direction, but not far enough.
2. Mission Essential / Ben Freeman
   Pentagon pork is too easy to push through Congress.
3. It’s Time to Move Forward on Climate / Michael Brune
   President Obama has the power to make the transformation to a clean-energy economy.
4. What about Gun Control Abroad? / Riahl O’Malley
   The killing of four Hondurans by local police backed by DEA agents highlights the gruesome effects of our militarized War on Drugs.
5. Bulwark of Ignorance / Donald Kaul
   Republicans are calling for a "compromise" as they gear up for another knock-down-drag-out fight.
6. A More Down-to-Earth CEO Pay Plan / Sam Pizzigati
   Tree-huggers and power suits are finding some surprising common ground.
7. Another Side of the Immigration Debate / Jill Richardson
   We reap the benefits of cheap farm and meatpacking labor in the form of low-priced food, thanks to the contributions of millions of undocumented workers.
8. Retail Injustice / Jim Hightower
   Most big retail chains treat their employees as nothing but a drain on profits.
9. Betting on Gambling / William A. Collins
   Rather than treating the growing addiction to gambling, the states prey on it.
10. Federal Budget Buster’s Last Stand / Khalil Bendib cartoon

Emily Schwartz Greco is the managing editor of OtherWords, a non-profit national editorial service run by the Institute for Policy Studies OtherWords.org

This week in OtherWords, Jill Richardson explains what’s wrong with most of the roses that populate our Valentine’s Day bouquets, Don Kraus proposes a great Valentine for women everywhere, and Donald Kaul sizes up the latest inaction on gun control.

This is Kaul’s third column on guns since his return from a five-month break. As I explained in an earlier blog post, the first one was widely quoted out of context. That generated a torrent of hate mail, to which Kaul responded with a follow-up column.

I would like to take this opportunity to RSVP to the hundreds of people who invited Donald Kaul to go visit you in person and take your guns away. He sends his regrets. And while I’m speaking on his behalf, I’d like to thank the NRA for including him on its blindingly long list of gun-control advocates. Yes Wayne LaPierre, Donald Kaul is certainly as important in this fight as the CEO of Stoneyfield Farms Yogurt and actress Catherine Zeta-Jones.

Below you’ll find links to our latest work. If you haven’t already subscribed to our weekly newsletter, please do.

1. The. Very. Best. Valentine. Ever. / Don Kraus
   The United States is one of only seven countries not to ratify a landmark international agreement that affirms principles of fundamental human rights and equality for women.
2. Zero Dark Thirty’s Losing Premise / Chris Toensing
   Torture doesn’t “work” but that’s not the point.
3. Stronger At Home, More Respected Abroad / Jeff Blum
   We must cut the things we don’t need, including Pentagon pork, to pay for the things we do.
4. Banning Assault Weapons Makes More Sense than Arming Teachers / Donald Kaul
   If what you need weapons for is to fight the government, semi-automatics don’t cut it.
5. The Ever-So-Brief Success of the Income Tax / Sam Pizzigati
   Federal taxes, once upon a time, put a squeeze on grand fortunes.
6. A Better Way to Say I Love You / Jill Richardson
   Most of the roses sold in the United States are grown in Colombia and Ecuador, where they are doused with toxic pesticides.
7. High Time for Hemp / Jim Hightower
   This commonsense crop should become commonplace in the United States again.
8. The Road Back to Serfdom / William A. Collins
   Today’s robber barons have little interest in long-term, full-time employees.
9. Free Trade Economics 101 / Khalil Bendib cartoon

Emily Schwartz Greco is the managing editor of OtherWords, a non-profit national editorial service run by the Institute for Policy Studies OtherWords.org