Bob-herbert
Losing our way
So here we are pouring shiploads of cash into yet another war, this time in Libya, while simultaneously demolishing school budgets, closing libraries, laying off teachers and police officers and generally letting the bottom fall out of the quality of life here at home.
Mar 30, 2011 | 12:00 am
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Separate and unequal
One of the most powerful tools for improving the educational achievement of poor black and Hispanic public school students is, regrettably, seldom even considered. It has become a political no-no.
Mar 23, 2011 | 12:00 am
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Football needs to change
Dave Duerson was once a world-class athlete, a perfect physical specimen whose pro football career included Super Bowl championships with the Chicago Bears and New York Giants. Friends and former teammates would tell you that he was also a bright guy — a graduate of Notre Dame with a degree in ec…
Mar 16, 2011 | 12:00 am
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Flailing after Muslims
It has often been the case in America that specific religions, races and ethnic groups have been singled out for discrimination, demonization, incarceration and worse. But there have always been people willing to stand up boldly and courageously against such injustice. Their efforts are needed ag…
Mar 09, 2011 | 12:00 am
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Unintended but sound advice
In Lewis Powell's now-famous memo to America's business community, which felt beleaguered in the political environment of 1971, the future Supreme Court justice stressed the importance of organizing.
Mar 02, 2011 | 12:00 am
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A grave risk
Buried deep beneath the stories about executive bonuses, the stock market surge and the economy's agonizingly slow road to recovery is the all-but-silent suffering of the many millions of Americans who, economically, are going down for the count.
Feb 23, 2011 | 12:00 am
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The legend of Reagan ...
Early in Eugene Jarecki's documentary, "Reagan," you hear the voice of Ronald Reagan saying, "Someday it might be worthwhile to find out how images are created — and even more worthwhile to learn how false images come into being."
Feb 16, 2011 | 12:00 am
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A terrible divide
The Ronald Reagan crowd loved to talk about morning in America. For millions of individuals and families, perhaps the majority, it's more like twilight — with nighttime coming on fast.
Feb 09, 2011 | 12:00 am
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How many deaths are enough?
On April 22, 2008, almost exactly one year after 32 students and faculty members were slain in the massacre at Virginia Tech, the dealer who had sold one of the weapons used by the gunman delivered a public lecture on the school's campus. His point: that people at Virginia Tech should be allowed …
Jan 19, 2011 | 12:00 am
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A flood tide of murder
By all means, condemn the hateful rhetoric that has poured so much poison into our political discourse. The crazies don't kill in a vacuum, and the vilest of our political leaders and commentators deserve to be called to account for their demagoguery and the danger that comes with it. But that's …
Jan 12, 2011 | 12:00 am
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A GOP rerun
You just can't close the door on this crowd. The party that brought us the worst economy since the Great Depression, that led us into Iraq and the worst foreign policy disaster in American history, that would like to take a hammer to Social Security and a chisel to Medicare, is back in control of…
Jan 05, 2011 | 12:00 am
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The data and the reality
I keep hearing from the data zealots that holiday sales were impressive and the outlook for the economy in 2011 is not bad.
Dec 29, 2010 | 12:00 am
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Damaged beyond repair
You can only hope that you will be as sharp and intellectually focused as former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens when you're 90 years old.
Dec 01, 2010 | 12:00 am
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A gift from the past
It was a half-century ago this month that John F. Kennedy won the presidency in a thrilling and heart-stoppingly close election against Richard Nixon. You'd probably be surprised at the number of Americans who are clueless about when Kennedy ran: "It was 1970, right?" "Wasn't it in the '40s, soon…
Nov 24, 2010 | 12:00 am
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This raging fire
When I was a kid my Uncle Robert, for whom I was named, used to say that blacks needed to "fight on all fronts, at home and abroad."
Nov 17, 2010 | 12:00 am
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The impossible dream
One of the most frustrating tendencies of mainstream leaders in the United States is their willingness, year after debilitating year, to embrace policies that have no hope of succeeding.
Nov 10, 2010 | 12:00 am
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The fast track to inequality
The clearest explanation yet of the forces that converged over the past three decades or so to undermine the economic well-being of ordinary Americans is contained in the new book "Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer — and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class."
Nov 03, 2010 | 12:00 am
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The corrosion of America
If you had a leak in your roof or in the kitchen or basement, you'd probably think it a good idea to have it taken care of before matters got worse and more expensive.
Oct 27, 2010 | 12:00 am
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That sinking feeling
Barack Obama seems to think he's done a pretty terrific job as president, but maybe he hasn't trumpeted his accomplishments effectively enough.
Oct 20, 2010 | 12:00 am
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Mississippi injustice for two sisters
You have to believe that somebody really had it in for the Scott sisters, Jamie and Gladys. They have always insisted that they had nothing to do with a robbery that occurred near the small town of Forest, Miss., on Christmas Eve in 1993. It was not the kind of crime to cause a stir. No one was h…
Oct 13, 2010 | 12:00 am
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Where the money is
It's beyond astonishing to me that John Boehner has a real chance to be speaker of the House of Representatives. I've always thought of Mr. Boehner as one of the especially sleazy figures in a capital seething with sleaze. I remember writing about that day back in the mid-'90s when this slick, ch…
Oct 06, 2010 | 12:00 am
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What is Carl Paladino about?
Is the Republican candidate for governor of New York a racist, sexist, pornography-loving creep? Or are there other, more benign, explanations for the stomach-turning e-mails distributed by Carl Paladino?
Sep 29, 2010 | 12:00 am
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Neglecting the base
Maybe it was just a coincidence, but it was striking, nevertheless.
Sep 22, 2010 | 12:00 am
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Long odds for a recovery
We can keep wishing and hoping for a powerful economic recovery to pull the United States out of its doldrums, but I wouldn't count on it. Ordinary American families no longer have the purchasing power to build a strong recovery and keep it going.
Sep 15, 2010 | 12:00 am
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Obama answers the call on jobs
On Labor Day afternoon in Milwaukee, President Obama finally began to vigorously push the kind of high-profile, rebuild-America infrastructure campaign that is absolutely essential if there is to be any real hope of putting Americans back to work and getting the economy back into reasonable shape…
Sep 08, 2010 | 12:00 am
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