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Forever Frugal?
By the end of college I learned some valuable life lessons. One of the most important is that coupons are your friend; the grocery store is your frenemy. Another would be the benefits of peanut butter and ground meat when your wallet seems like it’s becoming bulimic. And thanks to my student loans, I’ve become…
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Bay Bay's (and everyone else's) Kids On Your Night Out
Maybe it’s my age—aren’t old people supposed to be grumpy?—or maybe it’s the economy. Maybe both. But whatever the reason, it seems to me there are a lot more people bringing babies and toddlers to places they shouldn’t be. (And, just to nip some of the outrage I know is coming in the bud: I…
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The Black Pack, Again: EBONY Profiles White House Rainbow Coalition
Pop, politics and race collide in this month’s issue of EBONY magazine, which features a remarkable photograph of a dozen top-level, African American advisers (most of whom are women!) to President Barack Obama. It was never certain that the first black president would have a particularly black administration (though the campaign’s reservoir of young black…
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Lost Martin Luther King Jr. audio tapes found
Lost audio of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s stop at the University of Dayton, and you read all about it and listen to excerpts here. I wonder if there are more of these kinds of things in our basement. Do any of your people have pictures with MLK or Malcolm X? Single Father, Author, Screenwriter,…
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Barack Obama's Tax Day Talking-To: "Prose, Not Poetry"
President Barack Obama has just finished giving a big speech about the economy. You can tell it was a big speech because it has a name: “A New Foundation,” to be precise. In the address, delivered at Georgetown University on the eve of Tax Day (and a number of Republican protests, if the GOP echo…
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A Democratic Tough Guy—Who Knew?
The successful return of Capt. Richard Phillips of the Maersk Alabama—a small but significant overseas victory on the Obama watch—highlights some interesting contrasts in the president’s approaches to foreign policy over the past several days. In reaction to the launch of a North Korean missile, the Obama administration ardently pursued the support of other world…
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Another World
The corridors of the West Wing are narrow enough that the entourages of visiting Cabinet officials cause the occasional bottleneck. On a recent afternoon, Mona Sutphen, the White House deputy chief of staff for policy, ran into an eddy swirling around Kathleen Sebelius, secretary-designate of the Department of Health and Human Services, who extended her…
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Obama and the Cuba Tease
Yesterday afternoon I was sitting in a cafe in Bed-Stuy and a sister screamed and threw up her hands. I looked over at her and noticed her laptop screen read Obama Lifts Cuba Restrictions. Not exactly the whole truth, but I expressed my own excitement, smiled, and sat back in celebration like I was Cuban.…
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Dead Pirates, Good Politics
After his make-nice tour of Europe and the unfortunate Saudi bow, Somali pirates may have been exactly what Barack Obama needed. There is nothing like a little lethal sniper action to shut down questions about whether you’re decisive enough. It is not the basis for a broad foreign policy, but the willingness to kill bad…
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Why Bono, Madonna and Brangelina Cannot Save Africa
Traditional proverb: Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish; and you have fed him for a lifetime. In Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working And How There is a Better Way For Africa, former Goldman Sachs and World Bank employee Dr. Dambisa Moyo adeptly posits…