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| A little context for the BP oil spill: It isn't the Apocalypse COMMENTARY The Gulf of Mexico spill is a calamity with enormous costs. Nevertheless, writes Ken Ringle, there are factors at work, observed in similar calamities years ago, that suggest the damage to the environment may be less than is widely feared, and reporters should be alert to them. 
George Wilson’s column | A plea to deal with soldiers’ invisible wounds COMMENTARY House veterans affairs chairman Filner, citing suicides, says he will push for more psychological aid for veterans but that the VA and Pentagon bureaucracies are stuck in an old ‘never’ mindset.
Young women, children, immigrants, minorities, gays as targets | Cheap shots and scurrilous comments on the Internet, as seen from the heartland COMMENTARY Some old Des Moines newspaper hands wade into the argument over anonymous postings on websites. One is reminded of a country song, "I'm Ashamed To Be Here (But Not Ashamed Enough To Leave)."
Weapons as a public works program | A trillion dollars a year on two little wars? COMMENTARY| April 110, 2010 Asks George Wilson: How is it possible to spend so much when we are fighting “two little wars against enemies with no ships, warplanes or tanks.”
Indefinite incarceration | Will not one but two Guantanamos define the American future? COMMENTARY There is no sign that the notorious eight-year-old detention facility in Cuba is close to a shut down. And worse yet, writes torture expert Karen Greenberg, when it does close it may be replaced by two Guantanamos -- one in Illinois and the other in Afghanistan. That's not the way out of the quagmire of incarceration that the Bush administration mired us in.
| We’re No. 1, says Verizon CEO Seidenberg COMMENTARY Never mind that Hong Kong’s broadband is 200 times faster in downloading, 1000 times faster in uploading than the average U.S. service, and at lower monthly fees.
War spending | Tax day, America's wars, and one mayor's powerful statement COMMENTARY| April 102, 2010 The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have cost Americans an average of $7,334 per taxpayer, according to the counter from the National Priorities Project. The group's director found one mayor who wants everyone to know what he could have done with his city's 'war tax'.
Examining Congress | Congress may not be broken but oversight is COMMENTARY One Capitol Hill veteran says it is detail work, the grease that keeps the system running, that is failing, a casualty of a changed culture. He says it’s the people, not the rules, that are the problem.
Extreme prosecution, extreme sentence | Another look at the Kerik case COMMENTARY The judge in the corruption trial of Bernard Kerik, acting at the request of prosecutors, suppressed testimony that could have been helpful to the former New York police commissioner. Taking a hard look at these events is Andrew Kreig, founder of a project that examines high-visibility white collar crimes.
Narco-nationbuilding | In Afghanistan, an unending cycle of drugs and death COMMENTARY A historian of the drug trade writes that Afghanistan's status as the world's No. 1 narco-state is a big reason why Obama's war is doomed.
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