Dr. Word Asks: Can You Be Black and Blue Collar?

by David Safier In the media, the term “Blue Collar Voters” is both a euphemism and a code term for “White Working Class Voters,” and its use harms the political dialogue and has ugly racist overtones. Political campaigns use terms like this to spin the voters all the time, but here, as happens all too … Read more

Pay Students to Dig Out the Bufflegrass

by David Safier (TASL) If you don’t know about the threat of buffelgrass to Tucson’s desert ecosystem, you need to educate yourself. Jim Kiser has an excellent op ed in today’s Star, a group of scientists and politicians put together an eye-opening 10 minute video and the Bufflegrass Information Center website is filled with information. … Read more

Subscription Cancelled

by David Safier If you, like me, are a New Yorker subscriber who is furious about their Obamas-as-Muslim-terrorists satirical cover misfire, you might want to do something about it. Here’s what I’m doing. I’m sending the cover to the New Yorker’s Letters to the Editor section. I figure this is enough of a message to … Read more

“It’s Art” No Excuse for New Yorker Cover

by David Safier If you haven’t seen the New Yorker cover with Barack and Michelle Obama depicted as Muslims and terrorists, you’ll have to look elsewhere. I won’t give that cover another viewing here. I think the cover is despicable and wrongheaded. We don’t need yet another version of the Obama-as-Muslim/terrorist myth played out on … Read more