Blog Profile / Opinion L.A.
| URL : | http://opinion.latimes.com/opinionla/ | |
|---|---|---|
| Filed Under: | United States / Los Angeles | |
| Posts on Regator: | 5337 | |
| Posts / Week: | 19.7 | |
| Archived Since: | March 9, 2008 | |
Blog Post Archive
The boys of summer, past and present
The integration of Major League Baseball, so heroically carried by Jackie Robinson and ingeniously engineered by Branch Rickey, occupied one spring and summer season in 1947.
More proof that soda bans would fizzle
Soda bans seem like a good idea in theory. Soda has no nutritional value whatsoever. Worse, it’s a sugar bomb. Given the mounting obesity problem in this country, some might think soda bans are an admiral effort to curb our collective waistline, an initiative absolutely worth trying.
The fights Obama picks over Medicare
The budget that President Obama released Wednesday doesn't include the sort of headline-grabbing initiatives that House Budget Committee Chairman Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) included in his proposal for fiscal 2014, such as a dramatic overhaul of the tax code and a transformation of Medicaid into block grants. Show More Summary
Student loan debt 101
A bill before the California Legislature to address soaring student loan debt would require high school students to take a personal finance class.
'Knife control' and gun laws: Readers weigh in
As I've noted before, in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting in December, most Times readers who write letters on gun control favor strong action by Congress. But the coincidence this week of a mass knife attack in Texas and a compromise in the Senate on expanded background checks for firearms buyers has emboldened pro-gun rights readers.
Rich and bored? Try a $500-a-night home movie
“What would you do if you won Powerball?”
Metro's free ride may soon be over
A sign of things to come: The entrance turnstiles to the Red and Purple Metro lines at Union Station were locked ("latched," in Metro-speak) Tuesday morning, forcing would-be riders to actually buy a ticket to get on the train.
3 million Californians could receive health insurance subsidies
Some Republicans still cling to the hope that they'll be able to repeal Obamacare someday, but a report released Wednesday by Families USA shows why it may be even harder for them to do so after Jan. 1.
The vicissitudes of the National Spelling Bee
My husband loves words like "leister." It's a seven-letter word, conferring a 50-point bonus on a Scrabble player, that's made up of common letters in the game's universe of tiles. So are its anagrams "sterile" and "retiles," of course, but you can add an "s" to leister, if there happens to be a spare one on the board.
Stumbling into another Korean war
Shouldn’t we just nuke North Korea now and get it over with?
Don't play into a paranoid conservative narrative
Are Roman Catholics, evangelical Christians and “ultra-Orthodox” Jews religious extremists comparable to the Ku Klux Klan and Al Qaeda? Yes, according to a PowerPoint slide that was apparently used by the U.S. Army Reserve in a training program. Show More Summary
Mormonism and the discussion of a woman's place
The newer, smaller and more centrally organized a religion is, the less prone it is to reformed versions breaking away. It also helps if the religion's followers form an insular group, to one extent or another, away from the tug of societal trends.
Will 21st century broadcasting use the airwaves?
In light of a second preliminary court ruling in favor of Aereo, a service that lets people record and watch broadcast television programs through the Internet, a top News Corp. executive says the company may take its Fox television stations off the airwaves, Bloomberg's Andy Fixmer reported Monday. Show More Summary
Margaret Thatcher, political revolutionary
The closest figure to Margaret Thatc her in British history wasn’t another prime minister. Nor was it even Boudica, the legendary first-century British tribal queen who defied the Romans.
A hint that affirmative action may survive
All but eclipsed by the speculation about how the Supreme Court will rule on same-sex marriage is the fact that the court will also hand down a decision in the next few months about the constitutionality of affirmative action at state...Show More Summary
Extra, extra! 'Illegal immigrant' and other language changes
For U.S. reporters and editors, the term “illegal immigrant” looks to be going the way of the eight-track tape.
Shelter animals need watching over through the night
Brenda Barnette, the general manager of the Los Angeles Department of Animal Services, ignited a firestorm of protest when she sent out an email last month explaining why she intended to eliminate animal care technicians on the midnight to 6 a.m. shifts and move them onto day and swing shifts.
Target's "manatee gray" and the hunt for insults
Target has apparently stubbed its toe on a touchstone of obesity sensitivity with the color label for one of its plus-size dresses — manatee gray.
Why North Carolina can't have its own official church
In recent days my Facebook feed has been littered with links to stories about a bill in the North Carolina Legislature that would allow the state to establish its own religion. Here was another example, my outraged friends said, of Bible Belt cluelessness. Show More Summary
President Obama: When making nice can be naughty
Does it matter that President Obama was right? That Kamala Harris is “the best-looking attorney general in the country”?