October 30, 2009
When Social Security was enacted in 1935, conservatives were outraged. They called it socialism and accused President Franklin D. Roosevelt of bankrupting the nation with his "financial hocus-pocus," as an editorial in The New York Times said.
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October 16, 2009
When I made the appointment for my annual mammogram, it happened to coincide with National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I didn't expect anything to be wrong, but life can change in an instant. The American Cancer Society says one out of eight wome...
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October 2, 2009
Roman Polanski, the Academy Award-winning director who's been on the lam for 31 years for raping a child, was arrested in Switzerland last Saturday. Should U.S. courts let bygones be bygones for the brilliant filmmaker, or should Polanski, now 76, b...
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September 18, 2009
The bad news about President Obama is that he got off his game this summer. He sat on the sidelines and let the screamers and fist shakers dominate the debate about health care and turn it into a firestorm. The good news about Obama is that he admit...
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September 4, 2009
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's funeral was as close as it gets to a state funeral without being one. The great cathedral, the statesmen, the honor guard. All of the trappings were on display. Yet hovering in the shadows of the funeral Mass was the darker...
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August 21, 2009
I was glad when Tiger Woods lost the PGA tournament to the South Korean, when the hurricane season cranked up in the Caribbean, when the Obama family went out West to visit national parks. Why? Because these stories momentarily diverted our attentio...
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August 7, 2009
I write this on behalf of the thousands -- maybe tens of thousands -- of Americans who've had what I shall call "a bad airport experience" this summer. I had one last Friday at New York's LaGuardia Airport, one of the nation's busiest.
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July 24, 2009
When my sons suggested we have our family reunion on the West Coast and much of it on Whidbey Island, I reached for a map. Whidbey Island? I'd never heard of the place. I'm an East Coaster who's fairly familiar with barrier islands off the Atlantic coast......
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July 10, 2009
Saddam Hussein made news the other day despite the 24-hour media saturation focused on Michael Jackson's death, Sarah Palin's bizarre resignation and Gov. Mark Sanford's philandering in Argentina. The Saddam story illustrates how a nation's leaders -- bot...
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June 26, 2009
Like Bill Clinton before him, Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina has "a zipper problem." You've heard the riveting details. On Father's Day weekend, Sanford, 49, mysteriously disappeared. It's one thing for a private citizen to go missing but f...
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June 12, 2009
Think back for a minute to your own school days. Do you remember that special teacher who exposed you to bold ideas and a bigger world? Somebody whose standards were exceedingly high and expected nothing less from your own?Meet Johnson Harriss, a beloved...
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May 29, 2009
I was in Washington last weekend and happened to drive through Georgetown, that posh neighborhood of elegant houses inhabited by senators, cabinet members and the well-heeled. Among Georgetown's former residents were John and Elizabeth Edwards of North Ca...
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May 15, 2009
The topic today is: How to kill the Republican Party. I'm not referring to the GOP's perennial foes, the Democrats. I'm talking about Republican leaders who are spouting off stuff that's a recipe for political disaster. Let's start with Dick Cheney, our f...
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May 1, 2009
As readers of this column know, I occasionally visit Seattle, that city of stunning beauty in the Pacific Northwest. I don't travel across America for the scenery but to visit Clara, Louisa and Jack Dee. Oops! I just heard you yawn. As a friend once said...
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April 17, 2009
At Chapel Hill, the glow of winning the 2009 NCAA basketball championship still radiates, and the university can understandably puff with pride. Until Tuesday, that is, when UNC’s reputation was badly tarnished. That’s when a bunch of student...
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April 3, 2009
At a time of global economic crisis, deadly wars and other grim topics, let's change the subject. Let's talk about a cheerful, folksy restaurant where the food is down-home, the prices can't be beat, and everybody seemingly knows your name. Yes, I stole t...
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March 20, 2009
Dear Mr. President, I recently read that you receive about 5,000 letters a day at the White House. I read that most of the letter-writers give you a big earful of advice about how to run the country. I've got some good ideas on that subject myself, but fi...
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March 6, 2009
A few months ago, I made a small wager with a friend: North Carolina, within three years, will ban drivers from using hand-held cell phones. My friend vigorously disagreed. Politicians will never forbid it, she said, because cell phones and dri...
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February 20, 2009
On the day after Barack Obama was elected president, people stood in line outside The Washington Post to buy copies of the election edition, both to read it and to keep as souvenirs. That same thirst for newspapers occurred at the News & Record, The N...
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February 6, 2009
What on earth was the woman thinking? And what, pray tell, was the doctor at the fertility clinic thinking? I'm referring to the case of Nadya Suleman, the California woman who gave birth last week to octuplets -- six boys and two girls. Her feat was i...
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January 23, 2009
His inaugural address has been delivered and parsed; the 10 inaugural balls have finally ended; the chief justice has redone the flubbed oath of office; the cleaning crew has swept up 130 tons of garbage on the Mall and parade route; the 1.8 million Ameri...
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January 9, 2009
This month marks the 50th anniversary of the Cuban revolution and Fidel Castro's seizure of power on Jan. 1, 1959. Castro has outlasted every American president beginning with Dwight Eisenhower, but I'm going to make a bold prediction: Before Barack Obam...
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January 2, 2009
During World War II, Berlin was heavily bombed by Allied planes, yet remnants of Nazi architecture still stand as a menacing reminder that Hitler and his jack-booted Nazis once presided over these fortress-like buildings. One afternoon a few years ago...
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December 26, 2008
Last weekend I discovered what every mortal should do if the run-up to Christmas gets overwhelming. You simply pack your suitcase and flee. You escape Christmas shopping, gift-wrapping, house-decorating, card-writing and all the burdens and responsibilit...
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December 19, 2008
Like most parents, Barack and Michelle Obama must arrange their lives around their children's school schedule. So they've got a problem. Their daughters are supposed to begin classes at Washington's Sidwell Friends School on Jan. 5, but Barack's new job...
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