LOGO: Truthdig: Drilling Beneath the Headlines. A Progressive Journal of News and Opinion. Editor, Robert Scheer. Publisher, Zuade Kaufman. Winner 2013 Webby Awards for Best Political Website
May 22, 2013

 Choose a size
Text Size

Trending:     chris hedges     economy     elizabeth warren     politics     robert scheer
Most Read

Lock Up Washington

Rise Up or Die

Revenge of the Bear: Russia Strikes Back in Syria

California Man Sues Officers He Says Nearly Beat Him to Death

The Promise of a Courageous Al-Jazeera America May Be Fading

Most Comments
Most Emailed

Reports
 * NEW! * How America Became a Third World Country: 2013-2023
 * NEW! * Lock Up Washington
Too Soon to Tell: The Case for Hope, Continued
Warming Climate Endangers U.K. Farming

Ear to the Ground

A/V Booth

Arts & Culture
Act of Congress
Daily Rituals
The Girls of Atomic City

Digs

Truthdig Bazaar more items

 
Tags

Tag: Family

We Are Family

Last week, one of the stars of the "soft" right, David Brooks of The New York Times, wrote a wake-up column with implications for readers who not only do not much like dark-skinned immigration, but are also hostile to such kindling issues as gay marriage and abortion. They seem incapable of understanding, once more, that these are family issues.

Posted on May 12, 2013 READ MORE


Weirdos

Share
Posted on Apr 4, 2013 READ MORE


Nothing Self-Made About Me

I disagreed with former President George W. Bush on many things. But on one issue, I admired him greatly: He was wise enough to marry a teacher and a librarian.

Posted on Feb 10, 2013 READ MORE



politicalhumor.about.com

Republicans Lost the War With Women the Moment They Declared It

A new poll shows that Obama will likely win re-election thanks overwhelmingly to female voters. Fight a war with women and you’ll lose, because women have always had to fight harder.

Posted on Sep 27, 2012 READ MORE



Gage Skidmore (CC-BY-SA)

Conservatives ‘Will Never Have’ Smart People on Their Side, Santorum Says

Apparently being smart and having conservative values do not go hand in hand. At least, that’s what former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum said during a weekend speech at the Values Voter Summit in which he also criticized the media and libertarians.

Posted on Sep 16, 2012 READ MORE


‘Daily Show’: Stewart Mocks Democrats for GOP-Like Convention

Jon Stewart is having difficulty telling the Democratic and Republican nominating conventions apart, thanks to some party role reversals this year.

Posted on Sep 6, 2012 READ MORE



AP/Biswaranjan Rout

Life Is Sacred

The giddy, money-drenched, choreographed carnival in Tampa and the one coming up in Charlotte divert us from the real world—the one steadily collapsing around us.

Posted on Sep 3, 2012 READ MORE



Kim G. Appels (CC-BY)

We Screwed Up: A Letter of Apology to My Granddaughter

There were plenty of signs we took a wrong turn but we kept on going. Dumb, stubborn, blind: Who knows why we couldn’t stop? Greed maybe—powerful corporations we couldn’t overcome. It won’t matter much to you who is to blame. You’ll be too busy coping in the diminished world we bequeath you.

Posted on Mar 28, 2012 READ MORE  |  20 COMMENTS



Gage Skidmore (CC-BY-SA)

Rick Santorum’s Family Provocation

Lost in the hubbub over Herman Cain’s love affair with the number 9 during last week’s Republican debate were some compelling observations by Rick Santorum about “the breakdown of the American family” and its relationship to poverty.

Posted on Oct 16, 2011 READ MORE  |  7 COMMENTS



Flickr / World Coalition Against the Death Penalty (CC-BY-SA)

Hundreds Attend Troy Davis Funeral

Family members, friends and hundreds of supporters flocked to Savannah, Ga., on Saturday to attend the funeral of Troy Davis, who was executed Sept. 21 in the murder of an off-duty police officer.

Posted on Oct 1, 2011 READ MORE



Mr. Fish

Phuck Is Not a Four-Letter Word

His name was Sam, no last name, and he wore no pants. He was lying on my little brother’s bed in a filthy orange T-shirt staring up at the ceiling, knees slightly bent, with blue eyes and curly blond hair and small pink lips that were frozen in a strange suckling of the air.

Posted on Apr 1, 2011 READ MORE  |  4 COMMENTS        


How Mama Grizzlies Say ‘Touché’

Just in case his wife doesn’t take Sarah Palin up on her offer, I’ll say it: Rick Santorum is a knuckle-dragging Neanderthal.

Posted on Feb 10, 2011 READ MORE  |  11 COMMENTS



Lelê Breveglieri (CC-BY)

Teen Girls Who Play Video Games With Parents Are Less Depressed

According to a new study, girls 11-16 years old who play video games with their parents are less depressed and, in the words of this Bloomberg report, “generally better behaved” than those who don’t. Apparently “Rock Band” creates Stepford children.

Posted on Feb 2, 2011 READ MORE  |  8 COMMENTS


Mary Quite Contrary

Share
Posted on Dec 22, 2010 READ MORE  |  75 COMMENTS        


Playing the Mommy Card

Excuse me, Mary Fallin, did I just hear you say, “Woman up”?

Posted on Oct 27, 2010 READ MORE  |  3 COMMENTS



Courtesy of the Arredondo family.

‘They Kill Alex’

Crazed and distraught with grief, the father went into his garage and took out five gallons of gasoline and a propane torch. He walked past the three Marines in their dress blues and began to smash the windows of the government van with a hammer.

Posted on Sep 5, 2010 READ MORE  |  165 COMMENTS



White House / Samantha Appleton

Give the First Lady a Break

As a political matter, the mother-daughter getaway to a five-star resort on the Spanish Costa del Sol was not a good idea. But I’d just as soon not have my First Family vacations determined by focus groups.

Posted on Aug 8, 2010 READ MORE  |  57 COMMENTS



AP / Australian Maritime Safety Authority via the Sunderland family

When Adults Help Kids Flirt With Death

Abby Sunderland was ill served by the grown-ups around her. Had the talented sailor suffered just a bit more bad luck at sea, she might not be alive to anticipate her 17th birthday.

Posted on Jul 18, 2010 READ MORE  |  41 COMMENTS



Flickr / katyhutch

Predicting Menopause

Scientists believe that a simple blood test could in the future be able to predict exactly when a woman will start menopause, a development that would be invaluable in helping women make reproductive decisions.

Posted on Jun 27, 2010 READ MORE


Family Values and Glass Houses

Enough with dividing the world between moral, family-loving Christians on the one side and supposedly permissive, corrupt, family-destroying secularists on the other.

Posted on May 23, 2010 READ MORE  |  123 COMMENTS



facebook.com

Jonesin’ for Their Net Fix

Researchers at the University of Maryland have studied the consequences of 200 American college students unhooking from all media—cell phones, social media, Internet—for 24 hours, finding that many suffered symptoms of withdrawal similar to those in drug and alcohol addictions.

Posted on Apr 25, 2010 READ MORE



AP / Marco Di Lauro

Adopting From Haiti: Too Soon?

Indeed it is too soon, says actress Angelina Jolie, who has three adopted children, from Cambodia, Ethiopia and Vietnam. In the wake of allegations of child kidnapping and fears of child trafficking in Haiti, Jolie has come out to make the very uncontroversial assertion that “an emergency is not the time for new adoptions.”

Posted on Feb 13, 2010 READ MORE  |  3 COMMENTS


Baby Sitter Blues

With 70 percent of children living in households where all adults are working, we need to reexamine the disparity that makes child care a luxury working families can’t afford.

Posted on Feb 3, 2010 READ MORE  |  21 COMMENTS



Gordon Brown Wants to Give U.K.’s Poor Free Laptops and Internet

The British PM has announced a plan to spend the equivalent of nearly half a billion dollars providing free laptops and broadbrand Internet access to 270,000 low-income families. The program will need parliament’s blessing.

Posted on Jan 12, 2010 READ MORE  |  5 COMMENTS



awkwardfamilyphotos.com

They Never Call, They Never Write, They Never Move Out

Nests across America are getting less and less empty as adult children take shelter from a lousy economy. According to Pew, 11 percent of adults now live with their parents and 10 percent of adults between 18 and 34 say the recession ... (continued)

Posted on Nov 24, 2009 READ MORE  |  6 COMMENTS



Flickr / apdk

Best Parents Ever Do Away With Homework

A Canadian couple have negotiated something called a Differentiated Homework Plan with their children’s school after learning that there is no guarantee that after-school toil does a lick of good. As a result, young Spencer and Brittany Milley of Calgary will not be judged on anything but their in-class performance. (continued)

Posted on Nov 18, 2009 READ MORE  |  1 COMMENT


Big Brother
Screenshot of "Telescreens" from the film "Nineteen Eighty-Four"

U.K. to Monitor Families With In-Home Surveillance

With millions of cameras watching its citizens’ every move, Britain is already one of the world’s leading surveillance states. Now the government wants to go even further, putting cameras in 20,000 private homes “to make sure children attend school, go to bed on time and eat proper meals,” reports the Telegraph. Update

Posted on Aug 4, 2009 READ MORE  |  25 COMMENTS


Black America’s New Reality

A century ago, when the NAACP was founded, black America was under siege. Some critics have wondered whether there is still a role for an organization like the NAACP. President Obama says there is.

Posted on Jul 20, 2009 READ MORE  |  5 COMMENTS


Mark Sanford
thenewliberator.wordpress.com

South Carolina GOP Souring on Sanford

Despite Gov. Mark Sanford’s public mea culpas and hopeful Scriptural references, it seems that several prominent figures from South Carolina’s Republican ranks are putting the heat on him to devote himself fully to his family—and we all know what that political parlance means.

Posted on Jul 1, 2009 READ MORE  |  11 COMMENTS



AP photo / Andy Wong

We Are Breeding Ourselves to Extinction

All efforts to save the planet will be useless if we do not cut population growth. By 2050, the planet will have between 8 billion and 10 billion people, according to a recent U.N. forecast. And yet studies, books and documentaries that deal with various crises fail to discuss the danger of all those billions of hungry people looking for a better life.

Posted on Mar 8, 2009 READ MORE  |  197 COMMENTS


book cover

Norman Birnbaum on Susan Sontag

The publication of Sontag’s early diaries provides a revelatory look at the self-inventions of the late writer.

Posted on Mar 6, 2009 READ MORE  |  3 COMMENTS


Finding Peace in the Culture Wars

If President Obama’s primary task is to restore economic growth, he has also been waging a quiet, long-term campaign to ease the nation’s divisions around religious and moral questions.

Posted on Mar 5, 2009 READ MORE  |  12 COMMENTS


Eight Is (More Than) Enough

It turns out that the woman who recently gave birth to eight babies already had six in vitro kids at home, no spouse, no job and a pending bankruptcy. There’s a word for this achievement of medicine’s reproductive business: nuts.

Posted on Feb 5, 2009 READ MORE  |  53 COMMENTS


A Huge Opportunity for the Mom in Chief

What will happen if Michelle Obama makes the personal her political issue? What would a serious work-and-family policy look like?

Posted on Jan 14, 2009 READ MORE


The Peril and Promise of Interesting Times

If things get much more “interesting,” we might have a collective nervous breakdown. But along with the anxiety, there’s also a sense of rare opportunity—a chance to emerge better than we were economically, politically and socially.

Posted on Nov 26, 2008 READ MORE  |  13 COMMENTS


Not a Scratch on That Glass Ceiling

It is time to stop kidding ourselves. This wasn’t a breakthrough year for American women in politics. It was a brutal one.

Posted on Nov 19, 2008 READ MORE  |  20 COMMENTS


Walker
notherapedocumentary.org

Alice Walker’s Message to Obama

Author and activist Alice Walker took a moment last week to write a note to Barack Obama, relaying a few requests and offering some advice, such as to find time to relax amid the challenges and changes that await him and his family.

Posted on Nov 9, 2008 READ MORE  |  32 COMMENTS



AP photo / Kevork Djansezian

To This Minister, Prop. 8 Is Repugnant

The thousands of same-gender couples who have married in the few months since the California Supreme Court cleared the way are in fact married. The notion that a majority vote by people who are not party to these marriages of love, commitment, care and family will have the power to impose a divorce on these couples is flatly repugnant.

Posted on Nov 3, 2008 READ MORE  |  42 COMMENTS


America Ferrera

Los Actores de ‘Ugly Betty’ Se Oponen a la Prop. 8

If you can read this headline, you might be part of the audience that this No on Prop. 8 ad is targeting, with a little help from three key “Ugly Betty” cast members.

Posted on Oct 29, 2008 READ MORE



Obama for America

Obama Will Stop Campaigning for Two Days

Barack Obama will spend Thursday and Friday off the campaign trail in order to visit his ailing grandmother, Madelyn Dunham. Obama was raised in part by his grandparents, and has credited his grandmother with teaching him “values straight from the Kansas heartland.”

Posted on Oct 20, 2008 READ MORE  |  7 COMMENTS


Sarah Zamboni Clears the Ice

Let us remember that Republicans had long targeted working mothers as the centerpiece of the culture wars. Now their heroine is the in-your-face governor who once said: “To any critics who say a woman can’t think and work and carry a baby at the same time, I’d just like to escort that Neanderthal back to the cave.” 

Posted on Sep 10, 2008 READ MORE  |  11 COMMENTS



gopconvention2008.com

Alaskans Picked Up the Tab for Palin’s Nights at Home

As governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin is entitled to bill the state for certain expenses she incurs on the job, such as travel (for herself and her family), food and lodging. That said, The Washington Post has delved into her records and discovered that Palin “billed taxpayers for 312 nights spent in her own home during her first 19 months in office,” charging per diem expenses intended to cover costs related to travel.

Posted on Sep 9, 2008 READ MORE  |  20 COMMENTS



AP photo / Washingtonpost.com

Palin Cut Funds for Teen Moms

As governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, now the mother of a pregnant teen, cut state funds that would have helped house and support teenage mothers. This on top of the news that both Palin and John McCain have opposed teen pregnancy prevention programs.

Posted on Sep 2, 2008 READ MORE  |  40 COMMENTS


McCain Steps Up Celebrity Attack

John McCain has found a theme he likes and he’s sticking with it: Barack Obama is popular and that’s bad. Much worse, apparently, than the Reagan-era economic philosophy the presumed Republican nominee is peddling.

Posted on Aug 6, 2008 READ MORE  |  6 COMMENTS


Obama and Family

It would be unfortunate if Obama’s words were read only as an attempt to win white votes. It actually matters that a presidential candidate is taking the costs of fatherlessness seriously.

Posted on Jun 16, 2008 READ MORE  |  21 COMMENTS


Obama

Obama’s Father’s Day Message

Here’s a lengthy (run time: 23:49) video clip from Barack Obama’s Father’s Day speech at Chicago’s Apostolic Church of God on Sunday, beginning with his riff about too many fathers from the African-American community being “MIA.”

Posted on Jun 16, 2008 READ MORE  |  6 COMMENTS



Flickr / bobster1985

California Court Ends Gay Marriage Ban

The California Supreme Court has ruled that gays and lesbians have a right to marry. Chief Justice Ronald M. George aptly explained the landmark 4-3 decision: “Even the most familiar ... traditions often mask an unfairness and inequality that frequently is not recognized or appreciated by those not directly harmed.”

Posted on May 15, 2008 READ MORE  |  11 COMMENTS


Family Ties

I always thought that genealogy was for people whose blood ran blue. It was for folks who traced their ancestry to the Mayflower or the American Revolution, not those who came over in steerage one step ahead of the Cossacks.

Posted on Apr 17, 2008 READ MORE  |  7 COMMENTS


Hollywood’s Thumbs-Down on Abortion

Pregnancy is way cool on the big screen these days. Moviemakers seem to be reflecting a cultural tide that has shifted key positions on both the left and the right.

Posted on Jan 2, 2008 READ MORE  |  25 COMMENTS


A Holiday for American Immigrants

The turkey may share the table with lasagna or guacamole or Asian-style rice bowls.  Welcome to America, Pilgrim.

Posted on Nov 22, 2007 READ MORE  |  4 COMMENTS


View older articles:  1 2 >

View the most popular tags overall?

Newsletter

sign up to get updates


 
 
 
 
Join the Liberal Blog Advertising Network
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A Progressive Journal of News and Opinion. Editor, Robert Scheer. Publisher, Zuade Kaufman.
© 2013 Truthdig, LLC. All rights reserved.