Conservatives, liberals and socialized booze

Abolish the Liquor Control Board? But how will we live?

It's that time of year again, when legislators wonder why the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is in the liquor business. As a free-lance writer for whom this subject has become something of a cash cow, I say: Hey, the system works for me.

Marshall A. Ledger

Jul 23, 2011 · Essays · 4 minute read

Michele Bachmann's migraines

Dear Michele Bachmann: Let's face facts about migraines

Michele Bachmann thinks her migraine headaches won't preclude her from serving effectively as president. As a migraine sufferer from the age of five, let me tell you: When in the throes of a severe migraine, it's not possible to engage in anything except a fervent prayer to die.

Joy Tomme

Jul 23, 2011 · Essays · 4 minute read

A lesson from the Women's World Cup

Triumph of the liberals

Soccer is the national sport in every major country except the U.S. How, then, could a team of American women reach the finals of the World Cup? The answer provides a lesson for any society that hopes to advance itself— on or off a soccer field.

Tom Purdom

Jul 19, 2011 · Essays · 5 minute read

Miracle on the Boardwalk

My faith in America, restored

Just when the banalities of our pop culture had all but destroyed my faith in my fellow Americans, an epiphany restored my faith. It occurred, of all places, on the Boardwalk by the Jersey shore.

Bob Ingram

Jul 16, 2011 · Essays · 4 minute read

Information packaging, Victorian style

Before Google, there was Goodykoontz

How did anyone live before Google? In Victorian times, books like Goodykoontz's Manual and Collier's Encyclopedia told people everything they needed to know. They made useful doorstoppers, too.

Andrew Mangravite

Jul 10, 2011 · Essays · 3 minute read

What messages do today's women send?

Casualty of the sex abuse debate: Whatever happened to women's intuition?

Today's media revolution has eliminated millennia of intergenerational knowledge about what it means to be a human being. And if we women don't fully understand ourselves and the messages we're sending, how can men?

Margaret Chew Barringer

Jul 09, 2011 · Essays · 3 minute read

Antidote for sex addicts: chocolate

Like sex for chocolate

Always another sex scandal in the news. And what's the big deal about sex, anyway? Eating chocolate, on the other hand, produces pleasure that extends from your mouth and taste buds all the way down to your tummy.

Perry Block

Jul 05, 2011 · Essays · 2 minute read

Greece's fiscal crisis — and ours

Government by bankers, or: Watching democracy die in its cradle

The key question in Greece's current fiscal crisis goes something like this: When you already have a democracy that won't respond to its citizens, what do you revolt against then?

Robert Zaller

Jul 05, 2011 · Essays · 7 minute read

Sex abuse: How to respond to Dan Rottenberg

Sex abuse and Dan's column: What's sexy, and why it matters

To correct Dan Rottenberg and simply say that women are never responsible for male sexual aggression isn't really addressing the very real male reactions to cleavage, legs, etc. And why are women still buying into male definitions of what is "sexy"?

Madeline Schaefer

Jun 28, 2011 · Essays · 4 minute read

Rethinking America's priorities

We're Number Two? Sounds good to me

Rome and the British Empire foundered on their overweening pride. Maybe it's time for Americans to re-examine the costs and benefits of being Number One in perpetuity.

Maria Thompson Corley

Jun 28, 2011 · Essays · 2 minute read