A woman with whom I went to high school is an astronaut in the space shuttle program. When the Columbia broke apart over Texas a few weeks ago, I – and I suppose a number of people in our graduating class – passed moments of heightened anxiety until we learned she was not on board. […]

I’m writing this on Wednesday morning; I’ve got a deadline to meet. In the next office, a public-interest health care advocate is preparing legislative testimony on medical malpractice insurance. Her documents show jury awards for medical malpractice are not outrageous, as some doctors and the insurance industry would have us believe. The rising cost of […]

The Bronze Age lasted 2,500 years; the Iron Age 1,100. As technology becomes more sophisticated one age is quickly overtaken by the next. What should we call the period dominated by petroleum products? “Age” seems too expansive a term for what will be an eyeblink of history; perhaps we should call it the “Oil Moment.” […]

Consider the case of Douglas Nelson. Mr. Nelson is spokesperson for a Washington-based trade association called CropLife. As a spokesperson, it’s Mr. Nelson’s responsibility to see CropLife portrayed favorably in the media, so he works with spin; he tries to put an attractive face on news concerning his trade association. One person’s spin is another […]