L.A. Times - Commentary

NSA's cyber overkill

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

A project to safeguard governmental computers, run by the NSA, is too big a threat to Americans' privacy.

Cyber security is a real issue, as evidenced by the virus behind July 4 cyber attacks that hobbled government and business websites in the United States and South Korea. It originated from Internet provider addresses in 16 countries and targeted, among others, the White House and the New York Stock Exchange.

Gov. Schwarzenegger, show us the fraud

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Is state money really being wasted by the In-Home Supportive Services program?

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has made fraud in California's In-Home Supportive Services program a budget issue as the state tries to deal with its financial crisis.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg and a question of eugenics

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

After the Supreme Court justice's comments in a recent interview, I would like to know if she believes some populations are in need of shrinking through abortion.

Here's what Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said in Sunday's New York Times Magazine: "Frankly I had thought that at the time [Roe vs. Wade] was decided," Ginsburg told her interviewer, Emily Bazelon, "there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don't want to have too many of."

A bipartisan blueprint for immigration reform

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The U.S. needs to create a system that responds to labor market needs, provides more effective enforcement and offers a fair way to deal with those living here illegally.

Our immigration system has been broken for too long, and the costs of that failure are growing. Getting immigration policy right is fundamental to our national interests -- our economic vitality, our diplomacy and our national security.

Our great hidden healthcare system

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Many uninsured are eligible for programs that already exist -- they just don't know about them.

Sometimes it pays to first look carefully at what doesn't doesn't work when you are trying to fix something. This could hold true with healthcare reform and the proposal before Congress to add a "public option" plan.

Divorce and hard times

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Economic woes often cause marital splits, right? Well, not so fast.

Can't stand your boring husband? Thinking of calling it quits? Well, you should have mustered the nerve to leave him well before this economic crisis. Now you might not be able to afford to live without him, literally.

Fire retardants and baby products: This isn't kid stuff

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

A battle is waging in the Legislature over the use of the highly toxic chemicals.

For decades, California has been the only state in the nation to require the use of highly toxic fire-retardant chemicals on cribs, infant carriers, strollers, nursing pillows, changing tables, high chairs and other baby products.

Misreading Iran's unrest

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

What the West is seeing as an uprising for regime change is really just a power struggle between factions of the 'Old Guard' clergy.

The troubles that have followed the Iranian presidential elections have been generally misread by the Western media and policymakers. What we are witnessing is not a frustrated East European-style "color revolution"; nor is presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi's movement an uprising of liberal, Westernized sympathizers against the principles of the Iranian Revolution -- although there are surely some who are hostile to the revolution among his supporters.

China's ill-considered response to the H1N1 virus

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Quarantining foreigners under difficult conditions runs counter to public health norms and hints of xenophobia.

When I

The end of Obamania

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

On his overseas trip, the president was met with a lot less cheering and a lot more tough talk.

Barack Obama has fallen back to Earth.