Time for a truce in the ‘Mommy Wars’

Guest Post by Morbo Linda R. Hirshman is a retired professor of philosophy and women’s studies at Brandeis University and author of a recent book with the provocative title “Get to Work: A Manifesto.” In this tome, Hirshman urges women to work outside the home, arguing that staying at home to tend to children is […]

Iraqi government declares state of emergency in Baghdad

Guest Post by Michael J.W. Stickings Reality in Iraq is not always what it seems. Sometimes it’s worse. Consider that highly sensitive cable sent from Ambassador Khalilzad to Secretary Rice, the one WaPo recently acquired and made public, the one that says that Iraqis who work for the U.S. in the Green Zone live in […]

Is Jon Stewart bad for democracy?

Guest Post by Michael J.W. Stickings Jon Stewart? Bad for democracy? Am I losing my mind? At the Post, columnist Richard Morin points to a study by two East Carolina University political scientists which found that “young people who watch [The Daily Show] develop cynical views about politics and politicians that could lead them to […]

A case of genital mutilation in Kenya

Guest Post by Michael J.W. Stickings Sometimes it’s hard to know what to say. This horrific story out of Kenya is from the BBC: Kenyan villagers have been shocked by the death of girl who bled to death after trying to perform female genital mutilation (FGM) on herself. Pamela Kathambi did the procedure on her […]

Is Dean or Emanuel right?

Guest Post by Tom Schaller I’m writing a book in which I argue that Democrats need to end, not begin, their path back to a national majority in the South. The metaphor I use is that of filling a fruit basket: The Northeast and Pacific Coast states are the windfallen fruit at our feet which […]

Them misguided Dems: Iraq, the media, and the success of White House “happy talk”

Guest Post by Michael J.W. Stickings About a week and a half ago, as some of you may remember, the Carpetbagger wrote about “the new media narrative,” the one where “Bush and the GOP have momentum and are on the upswing”. He argued that, in truth, there is no such “comeback” or “resurgence” for the […]

Destroying the deep seas

Guest Post by Michael J.W. Stickings According to the U.N. (via Guardian Unlimited), “[d]amage to the once pristine habitats of the deep oceans by pollution, litter and overfishing is running out of control”. Consider: Last year some 85 million tonnes of wild fish were pulled from the global oceans, 100 million sharks and related species […]

Happy to be here

Guest Post by Tom Schaller What can I say? I’m honored to have been asked by Steve to blog* for him in his absence. Such is the nature of today’s media world (and world more generally) that we are “friends” virtually–that is, we’ve never met in person. I must also plead guilty to being the […]

Should the U.S. bomb North Korea?

Guest Post by Michael J.W. Stickings In today’s WaPo, former Secretary of Defense William Perry and former Assistant Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter, both under Clinton, argue that “if North Korea persists in its launch preparations” — which I recently discussed at The Reaction — “the United States should immediately make clear its intention to […]

Santorum’s spin on Iraqi WMD; or, what happens when desperation takes over

Guest Post by Michael J.W. Stickings As Steve noted yesterday, Rick Santorum, arguably the Senate’s most offensive member, still lags well behind his Democratic rival in Pennsylvania, Bob Casey. A recent poll puts the margin at 18 points. And Santorum’s job approval rating stands at an anemic 38 percent. Santorum must be desperate. Desperate to […]