Writers on economics have been talking since the election about why the "fiscal cliff" metaphor is misleading. Alternative metaphors have been offered like the fiscal hill, fiscal curb, and fiscal showdown, as if one metaphor could easily be replaced by another that makes more sense of the real situation. But none of the alternatives has stuck, nor has the fiscal cliff metaphor been abandoned. Why? Why do some metaphors have far more staying power than others, even when they give a misleading picture of a crucial national issue? The reason has to do with the way that metaphorical thought and language work in the brain.
Fertility rights are hugely important. But what's happening in (nee) Middleton's middle shouldn't be up for public discussion. It's fantastic that another royal is on the way but it would be even better if the press could stop the speculation on how it's gestating for the next half year.
Here are seven things I will surely not be doing during the most wonderful time of the year. Won't you not join me?
At a time when tens of millions of people are still unemployed, underemployed or out of the labor force altogether as a result of the fallout created by the collapse of the housing bubble, in Washington it is serious to argue that our biggest problem is that custodians at the VA hospitals are getting paid too much.
I revisit my seventeen-year-old son's death, and ponder what people said or did that seemed helpful and not so helpful.
I thought the clouds would part and the angels would descend with a Vera Wang gown. Reality? Not so much. No one ever tells you how to handle the purgatory between knowing you found The One and Saying I Do.
In Washington, "winning the 24-hour news cycle" is victory. You know what victory is for patients down the hall from me? Walking.
Symbolically, the Oslo ceremonies are an historical turning point for Europe. By recognizing the European Union's peacemaking past, the Nobel Prize challenges Europe to escape once and for all the destructive pull of narrow national interests and passions.
Daniel Radcliffe is, in fact, not just very nice, and very polite, and very hard-working, and very bright. He is also, I can finally tell him, and do, over a glass of wine for me, and a glass of water for him, at the drinks after the screening, a very good actor indeed.
Now is the time to encourage the president to put poor people first. He can do that by delivering a major policy speech on eradicating poverty in America, and then convene this conference and push poverty to the top of his second term agenda.
The breakup of a family may signify the loss of childhood for girls. These same girls may grow into womanhood and become particularly vulnerable to fears and anxieties about the future -- just as they are forming their own romantic relationships.
Television networks devoted much of their Sunday news shows to the fiscal cliff, reflecting the urgency and importance of the topic. So did you end up wasting precious weekend hours watching shows that just covered familiar old ground? No.
Pleasure (whether or not that leads to orgasm) is important. And you deserve it.
Mitt Romney was not the problem for Republicans this year. In fact, he was the best candidate that Republicans had, by far. Seriously. Consider who was running for president in the Republican Party this year.
By publicly raising the issue of the money gap, NOM's Brian Brown may have inadvertently touched on a new and significant development in the fight for LGBT equality: a steadily decreasing appetite among the right wing, especially among small donors, to support anti-LGBT initiatives.
We finished 8-4 in just our second year of existence. This program is for real and we are here to stay. However, 8-4 won't be good enough next year and we are taking that mentality into the offseason. It's time, once again, to prepare 353 days for 12 Saturdays on the gridiron.
If the filibuster rule continues to be abused in the Senate, little will be accomplished in the second Obama term. But proposed reform of the rule is not as simple as it looks from the outside.
It was Winston Churchill who said that you can always count on Americans to do the right thing, after they've tried everything else. Obama, belatedly, is doing the right thing.
If Republicans refuse to negotiate from the White House proposal, they'll be refusing to negotiate with the electorate. They shouldn't feel insulted by that offer. The real insult -- the only that really must sting -- is the one voters just gave them at the polls
Even though the messages it contained were not always positive, it was a pleasure to read "Post-Industrial Journalism," an essay outlining the current state of the journalism industry (or lack thereof) and where we go from here.
The university is in danger of losing its monopoly, and for good reason. There is a rapidly widening gap between the model offered by big universities and the natural way that young people who have grown up immersed in digital technologies best learn.
The Boardwalk Empire Season 3 finale built on that momentum with another stellar episode that gave Boardwalk fans the bloodbath they've been waiting for and brilliantly tied up nearly every loose end the show raised this season.
So when are poems used appropriately in movies? They tend to work in two cases: when the grandeur of a scene is already elevated, or when a scene brings the grandeur of a poem down to its level. I've collected a few of my favorite examples.
The milagro (magic) of El Sistima -- Venezuela's program of taking impoverished kids and teaching them classical music -- can be summed up in one sentence uttered by its founder: "If you put a musical instrument in the hand of a kid, he or she will not pick up a gun."
I am five months from graduation. Choosing to resign at this point also carries significant risk. What could possibly compel me to pass over this incredible opportunity in exchange for such harsh penalties?
I'm the one who asked you about global warming at the Council on Foreign Relations last week. I accused you of being in denial. I'm afraid your answer proved it.
These cuts would be counterproductive to the short and long-term interests of our country, thwarting our safety and security, our innovation and growth -- the very goals the U.S. must achieve to remain strong and competitive.
Watching cable television you might not know it, but the Senate is on the eve of a major decision that -- regardless of outcome -- will ripple around the globe. It's time for action in the Senate on the Disabilities Treaty, and it's time for grassroots action to help push us across the finish line.
The safety net worked. That's right -- the deepest recession since the Great Depression and poverty didn't go up, at least not when you measure it correctly.
In my 25 years of working I've only really seen one kind of business: the high-risk and entrepreneurial kind. Being an entrepreneur is everybody's business, no matter whether you are on the bottom of the totem pole or at the top of heap.