CLUSTER-FED: Tapers With 7% Unemployment
Alex Wong via Getty Images
The historic interim agreement between the permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany (P5 1) and Iran over its nuclear dispute is not just about enrichment, centrifuges and breakout capabilities. Ultimately, it will help determine who and what will define Iran's foreign and domestic policies for decades to come. Will it be the security-oriented, confrontational and internally repressive orientation preferred by the Iranian hardliners? Or will the more cooperative, moderate and win-win approach favored by President Hassan Rouhani and the majority of the population take root and prevail?
Investors have responded favorably to the outcome of today's highly-anticipated Federal Reserve policy meeting, and rightly so. Here are four key takeaways that speak to more than this afternoon's impressive market moves; they also shed light on what may be ahead.
While we're moving in the right direction when it comes to overall energy efficiency, there's a lot more we can do to cushion the impact of our ubiquitous tech usage. Here are ways we can continue to positively impact our Earth and ensure that our resources are preserved for many future generations to enjoy.
It's weird how Republicans seem to love the Democratic parts of the health care law but aren't so keen on the Republican parts of the law. But I suppose that's where guys like Hannity come in: to twist and distort reality so that these uncomfortable and irritating truths don't get injected into his audience's epistemic bubble.
This grim anniversary of the Newtown, Conn., killings, with 28 dead, reminded us of that moment back in 2000 when Charlton Heston made his defiant boast at the NRA convention that gun control advocates would have to pry his rifle from his "cold, dead hands."
This past week, I witnessed a true Christmas miracle in the early hours of Dec. 12. 2013 come true for a seven-year old little boy, right on 34th Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Little boys and girls in Catholic schools all across the world are still being taught that homosexuality is "intrinsically disordered." And Catholic teachers have been removed from jobs simply for exercising their rights as gay Americans. I haven't heard the pope weigh in or stop it, while many other people are actually fighting the fight for them.
With the holidays almost here, Cindi Leive, Mika Brzezinski and I have decided that there is no better time to unplug, recharge and renew ourselves in time for the new year. And what better way to do that than by unplugging and disconnecting from all our devices?
In public, Apple's rivals in the smartphone market have tried to downplay the technological advances Apple introduced in the iPhone 5s. But it turns out that one breakthrough -- Apple's speedy, 64-bit A7 microprocessor -- has set off a panic inside its competitors.
For his actions, Snowden should be applauded, not vilified. He should be granted full immunity from prosecution. And he should be allowed to resume his life in the United States as a proud American citizen.
Who taught me to be confident, brave, and self-sufficient? Alanna the Lioness, Lyra Belacqua, Jo March and many other YA heroines who refused to let gender roles hold them back.
The reality is, motherhood is, while blissful, downright scary and beyond overwhelming -- especially after 40.
When Col. John Bogdan took the witness stand at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, he'd been called to testify about the strict limits he's imposed on defense attorneys' visits with their death penalty clients. The attorneys representing the defendants accused of masterminding the 9/11 terrorist attacks claim his rules make their jobs unreasonably onerous.
What makes the column still more revealing and sad is that, far from serving up an older but wiser man's humility, it recycles what Brooks has been saying quite often since even when he was younger and, one might have hoped, less cynical.
"Sorry, as a magazine editor, I know what it's like to flip through dozens of shots to find the right one. And, do you know what gets my e-mail gong? "That shot, her lipstick is smudged. Her shirt is wrinkled."
Flick through any magazine, TV station or website this Christmas and the messages are mostly about perfection. How to get the perfect skin, body, clothes, relationship... life. But underlying all of it is that your life isn't good enough, you're not good enough.
Do you watch the currently popular prestige drama that everyone's always talking about? Oh, you're still catching up. Where are you? Only on season two? Man. Wait til you get to season three. Season three is definitely the best.
The arrogance of people like Jamie Dimon deserves mockery, and the lack of tough accountability coming from the Department of Justice deserve mockery, so that is what we are offering up.
Was Hitchens' incredulity acerbic and coarse? Irreverent and obscene? Depends on your tastes and sensitivities. More importantly, these qualities were imbedded in charm and wit that set up the discussion of religion in a way that awoke our reflective capacities.
I'm not one to use the term "tipping point" lightly, because one can only say you've hit it so many times before losing one's credibility, but I do think we've hit the tipping point on marijuana legalization -- for three reasons.
As millions of Americans struggle with inadequate health care, low wages, deteriorating public services and uncertainty about their futures as the wage gap between the wealthy elite and the working poor widens, billions upon billions of taxpayer dollars are pouring into the coffers of the Department of Defense every year.
It is impossible to predict what the situation in Ukraine will be by the time these lines appear. Already certain, however, is that the events of the past month are extraordinary in every respect.
I've been thinking about grace a lot lately. I think you're supposed to think about grace during the holidays. I'm thinking about it because I've had a really rough last two and a half months and grace feels like the hardest thing in the world to find right now.
It is, to say the least, a huge honor that for me ranks right up there with the Oscar and the Palme d'Or at Cannes. The National Film Registry is a slightly rarefied list of movies in the history of cinema.
News media should illuminate conflicts of interest, not embody them. But the owner of the Washington Post is now doing big business with the Central Intelligence Agency, while readers of the newspaper's CIA coverage are left in the dark.
Make no mistake: Here in D.C., the secret political contributions from the 1 percent of the 1 percent of the 1 percent are doing as much damage to our environment as anything else.
If North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un had whispered to his uncle, "Looking forward to seeing you over the holidays" it would have taken the cake on this year's Top Ten List... but this year there were even stronger real contenders.
It is its specificity of purpose -- lyrically, sonically and artistically mining what it means to be Beyonce -- that makes BEYONCE such stirring success. The disciplined commitment to following her own muse coupled with her mammoth natural talents mark her as the most important mainstream pop artist working today.
Every year before Christmas, I spend hours stringing popcorn and cranberries with the goal of producing three long strands to drape around our Christmas tree. I do it every single year without fail even though my kids no longer relish the idea of pricked fingers or too-crumbly popcorn. Why do I do it? Because my mother always did it -- and her mother as well.
At this point I think the evidence suggests that Disney favors compositions in which women's hands are tiny compared to men's, especially when they are in romantic relationships. How do real men's and women's wrist sizes differ?
Really? In a year full of LGBT rights milestones, it's Pope Francis who's the "person of the year," simply for pulling slightly back from Benedict's bigotry? We're handing out accolades because someone makes us feel hopey-changey?
In these days of record-breaking-spending legislators and aspiring politicians, regardless of party, pursue campaign dollars from high-income donors as a matter of simple political survival. They follow the advice of Willie Sutton who, when asked why he robbed banks said, "that's where the money is."
