In the Public Interest

The world’s greatest folklore scholar died on March 30 the way he lived— while teaching a graduate seminar in anthropology at Giannini Hall on the campus of the University of California-Berkeley. “To call Alan Dundes a giant in his field is a great understatement, observed George Breslauer, Dean of the Division of Social Sciences, adding…

The on-again-off-again alliances between conservative and liberal groups is on again, but not without its contradictions. Back in the early Eighties, during the Reagan years, conservatives joined with anti-nuclear power groups to end the multi-billion tax dollar boondoggle called the Clinch River Breeder Reactor in Tennessee. Their joint lobbying in Congress overcame the opposition of…

The Terri Schiavo tragedy unfolds in many layers of controversy. They range from the bitter dispute between her husband, Michael, and her father and mother, Robert and Mary Schindler, all the way to the involvement by the Governor, the Congress, the federal courts and many religious, disability rights and medical organizations. If the focus is…

The Republican majority leader in the House of Representatives, Cong. Tom DeLay of Texas, and I agree on one issue dear to his mind and heart. We do not want him to resign from Congress in the midst of deepening scandal surrounding his aggressive political and fundraising activities. Stay put, Tom. The Republican Party needs…

Corporate cyborg, Arnold Schwarzenegger, must be thinking these days that it was not like this in his movies. On the screen, Arnold was the pursuer, the hunter, and the attacker. On the hustings now, it is the nurses, along with the teachers, and the firefighters, who are dogging him everywhere with their protests against his…

Having moved along the path of destroying the freedoms and rights hitherto accorded wrongfully injured or defrauded Americans to have their full day in court via state class actions, George W. Bush is now pushing the Congress to make it even more difficult to sue for injuries and fatalities coming from medical negligence or incompetence.…

George W. Bush often says that the safety of all Americans is his highest priority. He doesn’t mean advancing vigorously the implementation of laws he has sworn to enforce against occupational disease and trauma, traffic injuries, air pollution, medical malpractice and other unsafe conditions that are taking the lives of many tens of thousands of…

It is difficult even for news hounds to keep up with the repeated and new prevarications of President George W. Bush. When he told his council of advisors a while back that he did not have to explain because he was the President, El Jefe was not kidding. It is difficult even for news hounds…

The phrase “participant-observer” comes from social science literature to mean someone who writes about an event or process while having participated in it. I’m going to have to do a little of that to make the following remarks. Bob Herbert is one of my favorite columnists. Writing twice a week in the New York Times…

Our lawless President and his Congressional cohorts are pushing legislation that would significantly erode Americans’ last defense against corporate crimes and frauds; the civil justice system. With a bill scheduled to reach the Senate floor next week, our freedom to redress harms in courts of law is in danger. S. 5, a proxy for last…