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Well, that was an eventful week in politics, wasn’t it?
On the Republican side, we’ve endured two more of a seemingly-unending series of televised debates between the candidates. Newt Gingrich did not physically attack either Mitt Romney or a member of the media, for which we can all be thankful. The deep and pressing issue-of-the-day seriously discussed was putting a manned base on the moon — which will come as a relief to the legions of voters who have been clamoring for this crucially-important subject to be adequately debated in public.
Sigh. Seriously, you just can’t make this stuff up,

“If you want children to keep their feet on the ground, put some responsibility on their shoulders.” — Abigail Van Buren
Do you feel kids today are as responsible as kids a generation ago?
This recent conversation with a mom opened my eyes to this age-old concern:
Mom: Are your girls excited about the new high school?
Me: Yes, very. In fact, they started in the new building this week and love it already. More room, shiny walls and floors, and no going outdoors to get to the next class (the old school was open campus)… what’s not to love!
Mom: Sounds

The Six Pack is a new-school, cutting-edge radio show hosted by DJ Ben Harvey and comedian Dave Rubin. Distributed online and on SiriusXM, the show gives you a weekly dose of hot topics, celebrity guests, and brand new music, all packaged in six convenient parts. Ben and Dave take you on a journey through what’s trending now, from news to views to dudes. Previous guests include Joy Behar, Andy Cohen, Fran Drescher, Steve-O, Congressman Barney Frank and many more.
Currently in its third year, The Six Pack is one of the top comedy podcasts on iTunes, with listenership in over 70

Sundance, for me, begins and ends with Ice-T. Attending for the first time this year, I landed Saturday amidst a disastrous snowstorm, and, due to time constrictions, was forced to schlep my suitcase around in the blizzard. Plus, I forgot my hat (I live in California!). Nevertheless, I remained calm in the face of meteorological adversity, knowing my reward was the premiere of Something From Nothing, Ice-T’s documentary on the craft of hip

This week, ten movies were nominated for Best Picture by the Academy of Motion Pictures. Many media critics have pointed out that the nominated movies notably harkened back to an older Hollywood. We aren’t nostalgic for a bygone era … we are, Hollywood movie-wise, stuck in a bygone era: the representation of men and women, both in front of and behind the camera, is actually exactly the same as it was in

Once again, the “have it all” myth has reared it’s schizoid head. This time, the poster-woman is Facebook’s second most famous face, COO Sheryl Sandberg, who graced the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle on Sunday.
Don’t get me wrong. I love Sandberg. We all

Look at the latest GOP polls coming out of Florida. It appears that Mitt Romney is slowly pulling away from Newt Gingrich, opening up a 9-point lead in the most recent poll, with just four days left before next Tuesday’s critical, winner-take-all primary.
You might think that means that Romney is also leading Gingrich nationally. You’d be wrong. Gingrich, while slipping in Florida, is actually pulling ahead of

One of the many unjust results of a state legal system that refuses to recognize and validate a same-sex marriage or civil union is the absence of a binding structure and system for dissolving a fractured same-sex couple. LGBT couples typically have many, if not all, of the same legal issues to confront. How is custody of their children shared? How is their shared property divided? Who must help to support whom when the union ends? As a practicing family lawyer who has been married for 36 years, I have often reflected on how legally imposed rules and structure can support and preserve a marriage. And those of us active in the legal world of family law are constantly reminded that “the law” significantly lags behind the realities of modern human

On arrival at Davos I wrote about how appropriate the “transformation and new models” theme of this year’s World Economic Forum is for framing what needs to happen in education. What I’m realizing a few days into the Forum however is that the topic of education really isn’t on the agenda at all!
We’ve addressed everything but — the threats to our economic strength, our environment, our public safety, our health. We’ve addressed youth unemployment and the need for international cooperation and collaboration. But we just aren’t focusing on education or on the need to address the enormous educational disparities that persist in countries all around the world.
How can this be?
Maybe the world’s leaders have thrown up their hands about the possibility of change in education? And yet as I said in my last blog, there is plenty of evidence around the world that we can have not only incremental change but truly transformational change in education if we channel our leadership energy against it.
Perhaps the issue is that the world’s leaders believe that education is the one issue that is intensely local? What I’ve seen in our own work at Teach For All, however, is that educational disparities are universal in their

A furor is obviously escalating as to who gets diagnosed for what, psychiatrically speaking. In particular, the New York Times on Jan. 25, 2012 had a front page article by Benedict Carey, entitled “Grief Could Join List of Disorders,” which includes the current discussion of whether grief and its agony could and should be considered a part of depression and thus be funded by insurances for medical and therapeutic treatment.
It seems noteworthy that the anguish and utter despair which are often a part of bereftness do not currently qualify for insurance benefits unless they are part of a disorder. This means that in order to account for funding possibilities, the only way presently open is to further pathologize one more human condition which simply and not, at times requires professional

A paper just published in the journal History of Psychology provides a fresh look at one of the most often-discussed early studies of human behavior.
The study, referred to as the “Little Albert Experiment” was performed by John B. Watson and Rosalie Rayner in 1920 while they were with Johns Hopkins University. Watson took 9-month-old baby Albert

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), delivered an impressive speech today on what is, or what surely will be one of the hot-button issues in this year’s presidential election — immigration. The speech, at the Hispanic Leadership Network, did not start easily for what many believe is on a short list for the eventual Republican nominee’s pick to be the vice-presidential running mate. Senator Rubio did little to disappoint the party’s

Davos — Precisely one year ago, during the annual conference of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, the participants, major intellectual and political leaders and businessmen, were caught by surprise by the developments in Egypt. They followed them from the Alps with both amazement and questions. At the time, a Tunisian delegation that included young people and modernists had come to the forum. Its members were enthusiastically welcomed when they spoke at a seminar that praised the change that had taken place in Tunisia without prior

What makes social media an interesting field to study and follow is that you simply can’t predict what will happen next; it’s a world where things change every moment, where a simple ‘tweet’ could reach millions with a press of a button and a Facebook page could help bring down governments.
The one thing that was always constant was that most people believed that humanity has finally developed a medium that is truly democratic, in the sense that is it is free from any means of control or influence which could prevent a message from reaching the masses as it was intended by the sender.
People, including yours truly, often ridiculed those who spoke of conspiracy theories that there is a person or an organization which pushes a certain agenda across sites like Twitter or Facebook.
Of course, there were always the ‘acceptable’ measures which very of us ever complained about, such as the removal of graphic or obscene content (e.g., pornography or France and Germany banning Nazi content — an example used by Twitter to justify their policy). Every now and then, there would be a particular page or tweet removed but this just didn’t occur enough to become an

There has been a great deal written recently about the now-banned silicone breast implants made by Poly Implant Prothse (PIP), a French company which has since closed down. In 2008, French plastic surgeons reported an unusually high rate of rupture — over five times the expected rate — for breast implants manufactured by PIP. The high rupture rate prompted French authorities to inspect the PIP manufacturing facility. It was found that PIP substituted industrial grade silicone for medical grade silicone, which led to the closing of PIP’s manufacturing facility in the spring of 2010.
Who is at risk?
Women around the world have reported the rupturing of their PIP breast

The Shelly Palmer School of Connected Living has one primary thesis: “Technology is good.” I believe that all technological progress is good and that the story of the evolution of mankind is inextricably linked to the story of the evolution of our technology. We are tool builders, and we are tool users. It is, in large measure, what separates us from virtually every other species in the known universe.
I also acknowledge “Technology is good” is an optimistic point of view. I am, by nature, an

How does that go again, be careful what you wish for? Something along those lines must be going through the head of our esteemed mayor. That temporary position was such an apparently easy gig, the full-time one would be just as fun, right?
Oops.
Let’s see now, we have had Occupy, the increasingly complicated America’s Cup, the lights going out in Candlestick Park on national television, Occupy again, trying to get Lee’s 17-point plan for the city underway, and of course, Occupy again. Finally, just to make sure there are enough balls being juggled in Room 200, there is that small dust-up with the sheriff.
Having fun yet Mister Mayor? Somewhere along the line, you must have realized that there is no grace period for this job. And worse, that there is no place to

The perpetual rabble-rousing issue of Republican politics — illegal immigration — is making its way through the primary season. In largely predictable ways, candidates mold their view to the particular contours of each primary state — vicious toward undocumented workers in places like South Carolina, more nuanced in Hispanic-rich Florida.
Mostly, Romney, Gingrich and Santorum pile on the old tropes about job-stealing Mexicans, criminal gangs of Latinos, the porous border that may be infiltrated by no less than al Qaeda, and, of course, President Obama’s craven incompetence in securing America from all these terrible things.
What is striking about the rote denunciations of the “illegals” and the federal government is how completely fact-free the campaign rhetoric has become. It’s not only detached from what we know about immigration, but is counter-productive with respect to the two putative goals of the GOP’s fire-and-brimstone — economic growth and the sizable number of illegal immigrants who have settled in the United

Last week I saw a link to a website that listed “10 Handsome Men (Who Were Born Female).” I reposted it to Facebook with the commentary, “Of course trans guys are hot.” I was just excited that we, trans males, were being seen as attractive. However, the longer I thought about the list, the more troubled I became.
This list favors specific types of trans men: well-known trans guys (including Chaz Bono), white trans men, “passing” trans men, and those who display a very stereotypical type of masculinity, the kind seen in magazines such as GQ. What does this mean? It means that the type of trans male being seen as good-looking is a famous, white, masculine, passing trans guy.
As the trans community comes into its own, we need to resist giving into the assimilationist mindset. We need to make sure that we don’t leave any of our own behind as we fight for trans

Over a century ago, Dr. Maria Montessori discovered through scientific observations of children that they are not empty vessels to be filled — they are intrinsically motivated doers. She saw that providing a hands-on learning environment that valued choice, concentration, collaboration, community, curiosity, and real-world application produced lifelong learners who viewed “work” as something interesting
and fulfilling instead of drudgery to be avoided. Now, research in psychology and neuroscience continually validates

This video is an update of my eighth week on testosterone. I’ve been noticing a little facial hair growth and also some increase in muscle mass.
This week I would like to tell you about a movie I watched at the Berkshire Museum that has to do with confusion about ones gender. It is a French independent film called Tomboy. It is about a 10-year-old who moves to a new town and begins presenting as a boy named

Don’t bet on Newt if beating Obama is the goal.
Just recently I made up my mind to vote for Mitt Romney for president. In assessing the rather weak field of GOP candidates, I believe Romney is the only one who has the experience, temperament, steady hand and enough appeal to independents and swing voters to beat Barack Obama.
Newt Gingrich’s potential jackpot victory in Florida on Tuesday will only come at the behest of conservative Republican voters who don’t like Romney. Gingrich is betting they will leave their conscience at the door and forget about all the things they claim they value (morality, smaller government, no amnesty for illegals) roll the dice and vote for him. It’s an election strategy most Vegas odds-makers called a long-shot just weeks ago.
But Newt’s silver tongue, intellect and remarkable recollection of history have served him well.
He’s wagering voters’ memories aren’t as remarkable as his own.
Gingrich would rather voters forget about the strangeness surrounding his marital affairs and extramarital

Forty-eight years after President Lyndon Baines Johnson handed the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. the pen he’d just used to sign the Civil Rights Act in 1964 at the White House, the Civil Rights Movement has a new infusion of tangible hope from the 99 percent in Los Angeles.
Mid afternoon on Monday, January 16 as the annual Kingdom Day Parade embarked from Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, LAPD officers blocked a group of 50 predominantly college-aged activists from Occupy LA from joining the procession. A crowd spontaneously formed around the officers chanting, “Let them march!” Cops went into retreat mode and allowed the occupiers to join the