USA TODAY articles from March 2008

USA TODAY archives from March 2008

Obama's color-blind approach appealing.(YOUR LIFE)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... A large majority of the young Democrats who cast ballots for Barack Obama do so because his largely "color-blind" approach to racial issues appeals to those who embrace multiculturalism and reject the politics of the old civil rights guard,...

Primaries and caucuses show parties' vital signs.(YOUR LIFE)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... The primaries and caucuses tell Americans more than just who will be running for president, indicates a professor of political science from Purdue University, West Lafayette, Ind. 'qhe underappreciated feature of our presidential nomination...

Would you like that order super-sized?(YOUR LIFE)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... About two-thirds of the U.S.'s largest cities have reported the appearance of "McMansions"--new, much larger houses built on lots that once contained more modest homes, reveals a study from Ohio State University, Columbus. One in five of the...

Is North American union in offing?(YOUR LIFE)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... Jerome Corsi co-authored Unfit for Command, the book that stopped John Kerry's presidential campaign in its tracks. Corsi certainly does not regret his role in denying Kerry access to the world's most powerful office, but Pres. George W. Bush's...

Divorce begets divorce but not genetically.(YOUR LIFE)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... The first study to examine genetics as a culprit in the higher-than-usual divorce rate among children of divorced parents found that the parents' divorce itself, not genes or even problems such as parental substance abuse or delinquency, played...

Consumers ready for their DTV.(YOUR LIFE)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... Consumer awareness of the federally-mandated transition to digital television (DTV) has grown substantially over the past year, according to a survey commissioned by the National Association of Broadcasters, Washington, D.C. The survey of a...

Executives would rather be e-mailed.(YOUR LIFE)
March 1, 2008... As professionals with overflowing in-boxes may attest, people are doing more typing than talking when communicating on the job. Results from a survey by OfficeTeam, Menlo Park, Calif., a staffing service specializing in the placement of...

Bush finally advocates for info technology.(YOUR LIFE)(George W. Bush)
March 1, 2008... Pres. George W. Bush's call for Congressional action to fund American competitiveness programs, promote health information technology, address immigration reform, and tear down barriers to U.S. goods and services in foreign markets is being...

Global warming ignites wildfires.(Your Life)
March 1, 2008... Over the last 20 years, global warming has caused a 300% increase in the number of large wildfires and a 600% jump in the area burned in the U.S., according to fire and climate scientists gathering at the Association for Fire Ecology Conference...

FDA science and mission at risk.(Your Life)(Food and Drug Administration)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... The nation's public health is at risk, as are the regulatory systems that oversee the nation's drug and device supplies, according to a Food and Drug Administration Science Board report, which attributes the deficiencies to soaring demands on...

Climate change welfare will not help.(BIG GOVERNMENT NEEDS TO BUTT OUT)
March 1, 2008... A major theme of the recent climate change conference in Bali, Indonesia, is that wealthy, industrialized nations have an obligation to help poor countries adapt to climate change. Delegates agreed to activate an "adaptation fund" to assist...

Making money in medicine is moral.(BIG GOVERNMENT NEEDS TO BUTT OUT)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... After the Massachusetts Public Health Council announced new rules that will allow CVS and other retailers to open in-store clinics designed to treat minor ailments, Boston Mayor Thomas M. Meno declared that the decision "jeopardizes patient...

FDA regulations can prove deadly.(BIG GOVERNMENT NEEDS TO BUTT OUT)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... The Supreme Court recently considered a petition to hear the case of Abigail Alliance for Better Access to Developmental Drugs v. von Eschenbach. The Abigail Alliance is challenging a lower court's ruling which found that terminally ill...

Liberate, don't stimulate, the American economy.(BIG GOVERNMENT NEEDS TO BUTT OUT)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... Fearing a recession in the wake of the collapse of the subprime mortgage market and other economic difficulties, Washington is offering a "stimulus package" to come to the rescue. "However," points out Yaron Brook, executive director of the...

Sky's the limit for super-rich.(Your Life)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... Americans may be fretting about rising energy prices, the worsening home mortgage crisis, and falling home values but, in the rarified air at 40,000 feet where the super-rich cruise aboard their private jets, it is a different story. A custom...

Economic stimulus carries wrong signal.(Your Life)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... "It's strangely ironic that Washington is telling Americans to go out and spend to help save our troubled economy," notes Mark Johannessen, president of the Financial Planning Association, Denver, Colo. "It might help the economy, but it won't...

School choice's ace in the hole.(National Affairs)(Critical essay)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] SCHOOL CHOICE is becoming the most popular education reform idea, but not all school choice is created equal. The most powerful kinds allow parents to choose any school--public, independent, or religious. Most of the...

An invisible hunger.(Life in America)
March 1, 2008... IT IS HARD TO BELIEVE that, in the world's wealthiest nation, more than 12,000,000 children suffer from food insecurity; a staggering one in six youngsters is at risk of hunger because of limited or uncertain access to nutritious food. They are...

Global warming: man-made or natural?(Ecology)(Critical essay)
March 1, 2008... IN THE PAST FEW YEARS, there has been increasing concern about global climate change on the part of the media, politicians, and the public. It has been stimulated by the idea that human activities may influence global climate adversely and...

Water resources drying up.(EYE ON ECOLOGY)
March 1, 2008... AS THE WORLD'S DEMAND FOR WATER has tripled over the last half-century and, as the need for hydroelectric power has grown even faster, dams and diversions of river water have drained many rivers dry. As water tables fail, the springs that feed...

Faith's fate in the presidential primaries.(Religion)(Critical essay)
March 1, 2008... WHAT ROLE DOES your faith play in determining who you vote for president of the U.S.? What role should a candidate's faith play in determining his or her fitness for office? In the 2008 presidential primaries, this issue has come up in a...

Populism redux.(STATE OF THE NATION)(significance of populism in the American economic and political situation)(Critical essay)
March 1, 2008... POPULISM, ACCORDING TO a brief dictionary definition, is political philosophy supporting the rights and power of the people in their struggle against the privileged elite. Populists, as historian Michael Kazin describes them, "conceive of the...

Understanding prominent politicians through their signatures.(Science & Technology)
March 1, 2008... WHAT POLITICIANS SAY and what they really mean are not always the same, and the way they act in public sometimes is at odds with their true personalities. However, every time they pick up a pen to sign their name, certain character traits are...

Assessing apple pie.(POLITICAL LANDSCAPE)(political campaign strategies of Barack Obama)(Critical essay)
March 1, 2008... HIS LIFE, AS PRESENTED by the media, is a "fairy tale," maintains one critic of Sen. Barack Obama (D.-Ill.). Someone else notes that he needs further vetting, which is political jargon for, "Are we sure we have exhausted all efforts to find...

Being his grandfather's son.(American Thought)(Associate Justice Clarence Thomas)(Interview)
March 1, 2008... The following is an edited transcript of conversation with Associate Justice Clarence Thomas. Conducting the interview in his chambers at the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., were Kaitlyn Buss, Daniel Burfiend, and Jillian Melchior, seniors...

Now playing: the bottom line.(WORDS IMAGES)(oligopoly in the American mass media industry)(Critical essay)
March 1, 2008... IF THE WRITERS GUILD of America strike proved nothing else, it once again put a spotlight on how most of what we see and hear is controlled by about seven worldwide conglomerates. The Hollywood and New York writers learned quickly that they...

There's always hope.(Medicine & Health)
March 1, 2008... THE AIM OF the exhibition "Expression of Hope" is to honor each person living with a lysosomal storage disorder (LSD) and provide creative perspectives that inspire new ideas and renewed energy in fighting genetic disease. Numerous patient...

Rhythms of India: sixty years after India's independence, this exhibition highlights the ideals of the visionaries who succeeded in its achievement.(The World Yesterday)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] BORN IN BIHAR, INDIA, Nandalal Bose (1882-1966) spent most of his life in Bengal as a pan-Asian artist and teacher. At the beginning of his career in 1905, he was one of many artists and visionaries who sought to...

Nature's "Kindred Spirits".(Museums Today)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ASHER B. DURAND (1796-1886) was a leading member of the New York art world who, with Thomas Cole, is credited with founding the U.S.'s first national school of art, the Hudson River School. This mid-19th-century art...

The truth about Sammy.(Literary Scene)(Short story)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] MY UNCLE MITCH broke through the ice where it was thinnest. We could hear the tell-tale "cuff" "cuff" in the clark as both boots went into the sump marsh. My eldest cousin, Court, held up a hand chapped bare with...

Laughter from the dark side.(REEL WORLD)(black humor in the movies)(Critical essay)
March 1, 2008... DARK COMEDY probably is the most macabre of film genres. Pioneering movie examples of black humor would include Frank Capra's adaptation of "Arsenic and Old Lace" (1944) and Charlie Chapfin's "Monsieur Verdoux" (1947). In the former, Cary...

"Shrink"-ing the mind: does psychotherapy work? Yes. It depends. What do you mean by "work"?(Psychology)(Critical essay)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] WHY BOTHER going to therapy? Can sittins around talking to someone really help anything'? Is it a scare? Are "shrinks" of every ilk--psychiatrists, psychologists, clinical social workers, counselors, addictions...

Psychiatry's valid but dishonest reconsiderations.(Psychology)(Critical essay)
March 1, 2008... MORE THAN HALF a century ago, Thomas Szasz shocked the world of psychiatry with his then, and still, electric book, The Myth of Mental Illness. Since that time, he has been unmasking the invalidity of psychiatric practice and its raison d'etre:...

Beating the butterflies.(AMERICAN EDUCATION)
March 1, 2008... A FRIEND OF MINE recently had to take a driving test upon her move to another state. Although she had been driving for more than 10 years, when she arrived at the testing center, she noticed that her heart was pounding and her hands were...

Blackouts seen in a new light.(Law & Justice)( health and social aspects of alcoholism)
March 1, 2008... IN THE MID 1980s, I was giving a lecture on alcoholism at the University of California, Santa Barbara, when a young man stood up and asked, "What's a blackout?" I had heard of them, of course. Hasn't everyone? Alcohol blackouts are the subject...

Playing the goat.(WORLD WATCHER)
March 1, 2008... BACK IN 1963, WHEN I BEGAN my training program for a Peace Corps assignment, our group was shown a film about Afghanistan. I knew nothing about the country other than its name. Thinking about it today, I only can recall one part of the...

The corruption of democracy in Venezuela: under Pres. Hugo Chavez's regime the last nine years, corruption has reached heights undreamed of by even the greediest of despots, as the people of Venezuela have been fleeced out of billions of dollars.(Worldview)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] HUGO CHAVEZ was elected president of Venezuela in December 1998 on the strength of three main promises: convening a Constituent Assembly to write a new constitution and improve the state, fighting poverty and social...

What is with Venezuela?(Worldview)(Critical essay)
March 1, 2008... UNDERSTANDING Hugo Chavez is not the key to understanding the process that led to his victory in 1998. Whether one sees him as a revolutionary visionary or a demagogic populist, AD (Acci6n Democratica) and COPEI (Christian Democratic Party)...

Organic fruit is the way to go.(WHAT'S NEW?)(Product/service evaluation)
March 1, 2008... Yes, we know; it's still winter, but not for long--and come springtime, our thoughts inevitably turn to fresh fruits and vegetables (okay, okay, we admit it; not so much vegetables). To hold us over till spring really has sprung, we like to pay...

Springtime and the cooking is easy.(WHAT'S NEW?)(Buyers guide)
March 1, 2008... There's nothing like the optimism and rejuvenation that comes with the beginning of spring. With visions of improvements in one form or another, many of us make plans to do things like take better care of ourselves, eat healthier, exercise,...

Is there bamboo in your amazing kitchen?(WHAT'S NEW?)(Buyers guide)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... You've seen her designs featured on HGTV's "Top 10 Amazing Kitchens," and you can be sure that stacked neatly in the cabinets and drawers (and on the countertops) of that kitchen is Joanne Hudson's ecologically and economically friendly line of...

A wisp of glass for your flower vase.(WHAT'S NEW?)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The idea is not to outshine the beauty of nature, but to complement it. We especially find this to be true when putting fresh flowers on display. The Wellesley Vase is perfectly suited to accent anything from a...

Please don't ask my mommy rude questions.(WHAT'S NEW?)(baby clothing products from Gymboree Inc.)
March 1, 2008... As our latest heating oil bill so painfully proves, winter has not gone away just yet. We're not sure if shortening shower and bath time (honey, why is the hot water heater running again?)--or lowering the thermostat a few degrees (honey, is...

Stay warm and comfy in SmartWool.(WHAT'S NEW?)(Buyers guide)
March 1, 2008... Sustainably harvested from free-range sheep in New Zealand, products from SmartWool, Steamboat Springs, Colo., are about as close to all-natural as you can get in today's world, as the company does not use chemicals or heavy metals when...

For comforts, there nothing like goose down.(WHAT'S NEW?)(Product/service evaluation)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... Yes, we've enjoyed what only can be described as an ultra-mild winter on Long Island here at the southeastern tip of New York: lots of warm rains, temperate breezes, sunny, springlike days.... You know what that means, though--the last few...

The landscape tool for your feet.(What's New?)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... Always go with the pros. If you want to purchase a baseball mitt for your son for his travelteam tryouts, buy a model used by the major leaguers. Looking for a winter coat that will stand up to the severest weather, check out what hunters wear....

When that baby grand is out of reach.(What's New?)(Product/service evaluation)
March 1, 2008... Our sixth-grade daughter's junior high class is trying to raise enough money to purchase a much-needed new piano for the music department. At the school's annual winter concert, the principal informed the audience of those efforts, and directed...

Getting dealt a pile of pressure.(What's New?)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... We love fast-paced games in which one of the key ingredients for success is not to crack under pressure. Arrrgggghhhhh! Sometimes we succeed; sometimes we don't. Of course, the simpler the task, the more pressure there is not to mess up....

This dictionary has heaviosity.(What's New?)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... Heaviosity, impactful, retro-futurist, manbag, carbon-neutral, goody bag, blogroll, Foggy Bottom, splitsville, and smoosh are among the 2,500 new words (and their meanings) added to the Sixth Edition Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, which is...

Mix it up with Dance Praise 2.(What's New?)
March 1, 2008... Since its debut, Dance Praise has been a huge success with families, churches, schools, and youth groups due to its challenging, high-energy gameplay and uplifting Christian themes. Suitable for Windows and Mac operating systems, the computer...

Satisfying the tween diva in your life.(What's New?)(products from Faber-Castell USA)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... It seems you can't turn on the TV or radio--or pick up a newspaper or magazine--without there being some mention of the ever-burgeoning and lucrative tween market. Fully realizing that crafts can indeed be cool, Faber-Castell USA, Inc.'s...

Museum memo.(What's New?)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... What's new in museums around the country? Among the more interesting exhibitions on view are: When Baseball Went to War, The National World War II Museum, New Orleans, through March 31. Grandma Moses: Grandmother to the Nation,...

Singing your way straight to the top.(What's New?)(American Idol Talent Challenge from Tech2Go)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... Year in, year out, writers strike or not, this country's number-one rated television show remains "American Idol" It is money---lots and lots of it--in the bank for Ryan, Randy, Paula, Simon, and the execs at Fox, as well as for many of the...

America's tween idol rules.(ENTERTAINMENT)(Hannah Montana)
March 1, 2008... Her parents named her Destiny Hope because they believed she would accomplish great things. At age 15, Miley Cyrus has an Emmy Award-nominated cable TV show and pulls down around $3,500,000 in salary annually--that figure undoubtedly bolstered...

The Prince of Darkness: 50 Years Reporting in Washington.(Book review)
March 1, 2008... THE PRINCE OF DARKNESS: 50 Years Reporting in Washington BY ROBERT D. NOVAK CROWN FORUM, NEW YORK 2007, 638 PAGES, $29.95 Contrary to the implication Robert D. Novak associated with the Devil, the book title comes from a label given...

Off the Record: The Press, the Government, and the War over Anonymous Sources.(Book review)
March 1, 2008... OFF THE RECORD: The Press, the Government, and the War over Anonymous Sources BY NORMAN PEARLSTINE, FARRAR, 5TRAUS AND GIROUX, NEW YORK 2007, 269 PAGES, $25.00 Norman Pearlstine, now a senior advisor to the Carlyle Group, was Time...

Somebody's Gotta Say It.(Book review)
March 1, 2008... SOMEBODY'S GOTTA SAY IT BY NEAL BOORTZ HARPERCOLUNS, NEW YORK 2007, 322 PAGES, $25.95 Host of "The Neal Boortz Show," a radio program syndicated in nearly 200 markets coast to coast, Neal Boortz started in 1970 at WRNG in Atlanta,...

Heroic Conservatism: Why Republicans Need to Embrace America's Ideals (And Why They Deserve to Fail If They Don't).(Book review)
March 1, 2008... HEROIC CONSERVATISM: Why Republicans Need to Embrace America's Ideals (And Why They Deserve to Fail If They Don't) BY MICHAEL J. GERSON, HARPERCOLLINS, NEW YORK 2007, 292 PAGES, $26.95 The author wrote this book to define heroic...

Parents, go home!(PARTING THOUGHTS)(parental support and separation anxiety)(Critical essay)
March 1, 2008... IN THE 1970s, MY BROTHERS played soccer. For the rest of the family, this involved dropping them off and picking them up at the sports fields. On occasion, families attended the games, which were organized loosely and, apparently, tremendous...