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Now that Republicans in Congress won important concessions from President Obama in the debt ceiling debate, the next partisan battle is likely to be over what promises to be the first major scandal of the Obama administration: the botched gun sting known as “Operation Fast and Furious.” The administration should waste no time and come clean about what happened, who approved it, and how it can be avoided again.
Unfortunately, the early signs are that Obama is going to handle this controversy as poorly as he handled the debt ceiling debate.
First, a little background. The operation began in November 2009 in an effort to crack down on Mexican drug cartels, which have been known to use military-style firearms purchased in gun shops on the U.S. side of the

You wouldn’t think that Lady Gaga has a lot in common with Joy Behar.
But you’d be wrong. Because, as it turns out, they’re both Italian, and
they both love to cook. And, if you must know, they both go to the same
gynecologist.
On Monday morning, Lady Gaga — avant-garde superstar and white-hot center
of the pop cultural universe — was just another chatty co-host on The
View. And guess what? She fit right

You’ve seen the teeth and fins — it’s Shark Week again over at the Discovery Channel. And while SNL’s Andy Samberg has been getting viewers hyped, in California this year the excitement is accompanied by the global tidal wave of action to protect these fascinating, and critically important, creatures.
Hollywood movies aside, the truth is that humans are a far greater threat to sharks than they are to us. That’s why ocean advocates around the world are shining a spotlight on a deadly practice that is causing shark populations to plummet worldwide: shark finning.
Sharks are one of our oceans’ top predators, keeping the entire ecosystem balanced and in check. They are an essential component of the food web, and are vital to the health of our

The recent debt ceiling deal announced this week means two things for clean energy. One, forget Washington as a source of significant new funding and programs for a long time. Two, look once again to the states to keep momentum on clean energy alive.
The first point is fairly

The debate we have just witnessed has shown Washington, D.C. not just to be broken, but corrupt. The American people are disgusted watching politicians play political chicken with the nation’s economy and future. In such a bitter and unprincipled atmosphere, whoever has the political clout to enforce their self-interest and retain their privileges wins the

What is it about Belgian beer that commands so much attention?
Innovation and complexity factor strongly, but not in the same way we’re accustomed to here in the States. You won’t find extreme beers modeled after our hop-heavy double IPAs lining store shelves in Brussels. What you will find are brewing techniques that date back to the Middle Ages, spontaneous fermentation methods, and beers that live in the bottle and improve over time rather than expiring after the “best by” date.
Of course some have ventured over and experienced the difference for themselves, but still, what exactly it is that sets these beers apart has remained relatively obscure. Only in the last decade have American brewers really begun to embrace the centuries-old traditional styles that Belgium is renowned

I recently sat down with Chicago White Sox Manager Ozzie Guillen for an episode of In Depth. The outspoken skipper, who led the White Sox to their 2005 World Series win, holds nothing back while explaining his volatile relationship with General Manager Kenny Williams and where his future stands with the ball club. The native Venezuelan opens up about his tough childhood and the man who influenced him the most as a child. Guillen also tells the surprising story of why he was drunk during both his interviews for the White Sox Manager job and explains why he thinks actor Sean Penn is a loser for his comments on

In late June, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) held an unusual, open-door and emotionally-packed meeting of its Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC). The topic was Avastin, a costly cancer treatment. The panel listened to testimony from women, including my cousin, about their ongoing cancer treatments. It heard, also, from representatives of some breast cancer advocacy groups, from Genentech — the drug’s manufacturer, and from the agency’s Center for Drug Evaluation and

The tension has been building for months — the online protests started in April, and then there were the rallies in May. Not to mention the Facebook threats and numerous complaints to public officials. Despite all the brouhaha, an “American-style” child beauty pageant sponsored by Texas-based Universal Royalty took place over the weekend in Melbourne, Australia.
About 80 girls competed and 200 people attended the pageant. The event was not open to the general public, but it was covered by Australia’s A Current

Events of July 3, 2011
In the course of spending five weeks living in a city like Washington DC that’s so popular with tourists, I couldn’t help but think about the way different people have different reasons for visiting a site or attraction. Architecture, history, landscaping, personal memories, “see every (whatever) in the city”-type scavenger hunts, the desire to visit the site where a movie or TV show was filmed…
When my father came to visit me for the weekend, I suggested that we spend our first whole day together visiting the Washington National Cathedral, as I hadn’t been there yet. It wasn’t too far from the hotel where my father was staying (Which was just down the street from the BU dorm), so we decided to walk. The cathedral ended up being uphill from where we were, and since this was late-morning in early July, we did get a little sweaty, but I was used to it after so long in DC and my dad was a good sport about

Did you ever forget where you put your keys, or why you walked into a particular room, or what someone’s name is?
Such memory lapses have been dubbed “senior moments,” since many people find their brains slowing down with age. In fact, 69 percent of older adults say that one of their top fears is losing their mental function. I’m here to tell you to stop being afraid — and start exercising your brain. Many years ago I started the Foundation for Advanced Brain Studies to explore how the brain

For 13 years I had one consistent role and I performed it well. It’s been my primary area of expertise and with it I have molded social groups and inspired movers, shakers, and decision makers. I’ve given sustenance to the thirsty, hungry, sick, needy and taught the illiterate to read and write. I’ve served as professor emeritus in the fields of Comparative Religion, English, Earth Science, Physics, Chemistry, Music, Ethics, Political Science, Economics, Architecture and

Lately, I feel like God is my abusive ex-boyfriend. I love him, I need him, I cling to him. But he just ignores me and does whatever the hell he wants.
I’m sure I’ve got the whole thing wrong. But I find myself — after decades of sailing serene spiritual waters — wondering why humans need a concept of God so

The preschool application process in New York City can make any mother anywhere on the tiger-to-earth spectrum begin to quiver in her espadrilles. It’s the first round of the school process, and it’s intimidating. In small towns and more manageable cities, preschool admissions don’t loom with the menace they do in New York. Here, it’s the first round of a many-tiered fight, with quality education, a seemingly scarce resource, as the prize.
The application process is all the more intimidating for me, a single mother by choice, who recently attended a panel discussion on the topic, where I seated myself among a gathering of sophisticated

I spent a few Saturdays this summer taking art enthusiasts to artist studios in and around Los Angeles. Some artists live in their studios, others drive to their studios just like a day job. Lots of artists have their studios in their garage.
Los Angeles is a paradise when it comes to artist studios. There is no such thing as five-story walkups with no hot water

The die has been cast. Obama’s “nearly complete capitulation to the hostage-taking demands of Republican extremists,” as an editorial in the normally sedate New York Times described the deal to raise the debt ceiling, is a disaster in the making. It rules out a vigorous government response to the persistent economic stagnation in which joblessness, housing foreclosures and an ever-widening gap between the top 2 percent and the rest of Americans have become the norm.
But to use the word “capitulation” is too kind, since this president, as was Bill Clinton before him, is clearly one of those “New Democrats” who welcomes the opportunity to jettison the legacy of Franklin Delano Roosevelt as outmoded political baggage. Otherwise, why would Obama have reached for a “grand bargain” in which he even put Social Security and Medicare cuts on the table before the Republicans rolled him?
That same opportunistic reasoning got us into the Great Recession, thanks to President Clinton joining with congressional Republicans to destroy the sensible controls on Wall Street greed that FDR had put in place in order to prevent a repeat of the

A Conversation with John Hiatt
Mike Ragogna: Hiya, John.
John Hiatt: How ya doin’, bud?
MR: Doing well, thanks. Your new album Dirty Jeans And Mudslide Hymns kicks off with a pretty universally themed song, “Damn This Town.” It’s true, no matter what town you grow up in, every kid can’t wait to get out of it.
JH: Yeah, of course, the character in this song is particularly twisted, but I thought it was something that everybody could probably relate to. At some point, we all think “If I can just get out of here, I know things will be better.” (laughs) But of course, everywhere you go…there you are.
MR: And another one that speaks to the basics is “‘Til I Get My Lovin’ Back.” I think you’re saying, in a very sweet way, I can’t get my life back on track until I’m done with my love for you. Man, it doesn’t get truer than that.
JH: Yeah, I thought it was looking at a love story from a little different angle, you know? Sometimes, we don’t get into relationships, we take hostages, so it’s looking at love from that

Each day, seven thousand people wait for hours at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan to look at women’s high-fashion clothes designed by Alexander McQueen. The exhibit, Savage Beauty, on view through August 7, showcases highlights of the career of the British fashion designer who committed suicide last year at the age of 40. According to the New York Times critic Holland Cotter, the show is “a button-pushing marvel: ethereal and gross, graceful and utterly manipulative, and poised on a line where fashion turns into something else.” I arrived the other day to view the exhibit during the special early-morning members’ hour. At 8:15am, a hundred people were already

I am a big fan of the saying, “No matter where you go, there you are.” I have found it to be true personally, as well as in those around me. Peace Corps reminds me of this adage frequently. The experience of moving to another country to volunteer has a way of stripping you naked, forcing you to look at yourself without as many distractions or escape routes that are present in the States. Fortunately the experience also provides a ton of downtime to work on any issues a person wants to

The Beauty of The Circle Connection is that the recipient is also the giver. (Hence the circle.) Each participant experiences the complete process. No one gets a shirt without creating one and vice-versa. What we are running is much more that a pen-pal program using shirts and

If you are over 35, you’re probably aware of the increased risks of having a baby. Older women are more likely to have miscarriages, c-sections, suffer high blood pressure, and develop gestational diabetes. Your child is more likely to be born too early, not weigh enough, have chromosomal birth defects (most commonly Down syndrome), and other serious, potentially life-threatening conditions. Women are familiar with these hazards because their doctors talk about them

The recent “end-of-the-world” hysteria raised by political wrangling surrounding the U.S. government’s debt ceiling — amid the most blistering summer on record for many places — should be a wake-up call that we all owe more than just financial debt: there is an ecological debt to pay. Like the government’s monetary debt, it can’t be avoided, interest is accruing daily, and the longer it is delayed, the harder it will be to repay in full.
Debt is a simple

Human trafficking is horrifying and complex: it includes forced labor, sex trafficking, bonded labor, involuntary domestic servitude, forced child labor, child soldiers, and child sex trafficking. It is a crime and a violation of human rights.
In most of the movies and television shows about human trafficking, the villains are disturbed, shady people out to make a quick buck buying and selling women and girls and/or belong to organized criminal enterprises. They don’t seem like people we’d know. Of course, movies and television are often informed by a true story but simplify reality and often sensationalize it.
But the movie, The Whistleblower, which will be opening on Friday, August 5 does

My fascination with Marseille-based band, Watcha Clan, began in April 2008, when a free pair of tickets from a local friend found me standing in the Parisian basement club, La Maroquinerie. Transglobal Underground offered a solid set of dub heavy, guitar ripping digitalism, yet they were truly openers for this four-piece force known for fusing Balkan, Spanish, Jewish and Moroccan music into an electronic-driven frenzy. Given that most sounds were triggered by the equally frenetic Suprem Clem, who stood stoically behind a wall of keyboards and MIDI devices, every live element of Watcha Clan’s performance was crucial to drawing out the organic textures of this predominantly beat-driven show. No musician on stage failed to do just that.
Watching them perform at Central Park’s Summerstage on a late July day, thick with the humidity wall locals know and abhor and yet somehow crave from this greenhouse gas-trapping metropolis, the evolution that this band has gone through from its breakthrough Diaspora Hi-Fi to the recent Radio Babel is