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How to update census' race question

Clarence Page — Sun, 05 May 2013 05:00:00 GMT

A notable example of how Americans fall through the cracks in census data-gathering caught my eye recently. It appeared on the black-oriented TheRoot.com website under this intriguing headline: "I found one drop; can I be black now?"

Obama's 2nd-term blues?

Clarence Page — Wed, 01 May 2013 05:00:00 GMT

Was President Barack Obama really joking at Saturday's White House Correspondents' Association dinner? Or was he showing, as I suspect, early signs of the second-term blues?

Give 'bomb control' a chance

Clarence Page — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 05:00:00 GMT

He thought his wife was in love with another man, police say, so James L. McFillin of Baltimore decided to blow up the other man.

When profiling becomes a real menace to society

Clarence Page — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 05:00:00 GMT

Some media found the possibility that foreign terrorists bombed the Boston Marathon to be too tantalizing of an explanation to pass up, even when it snares the wrong suspects.

Gun vote reveals new GOP divide

Clarence Page — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 05:00:00 GMT

It pains me to congratulate the National Rifle Association, but the organization's aid to the U.S. Senate's defeat of background checks for gun purchasers was an impressive victory — against common sense.

No. 1 goal: Find who did it

Clarence Page — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 05:00:00 GMT

President Barack Obama has made it official. The Boston Marathon bombing was an "act of terror."

Rand Paul has lotsa 'splaining to do

Clarence Page — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 05:00:00 GMT

Within hours after Sen. Rand Paul's news-making speech at historically black Howard University, someone posted this new definition on the user-driven Urban Dictionary website of an awkward-sounding but quite timely verb: "whitesplain":

Not a 'quota woman'

Clarence Page — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 05:00:00 GMT

Margaret Thatcher never cared much for feminism and other progressive equal-rights movements. Yet she deserves to be honored by those of us who do, whether we like the result of her politics or not.

We'll still hear Ebert at the movies

Clarence Page — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 05:00:00 GMT

Roger Ebert's death is mourned by many, but I will remember it as bringing down the curtain on a special guy in a special time: He was multimedia before multimedia was cool.

An odd push to privatize marriage

Clarence Page — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 05:00:00 GMT

Should government get out of the business of defining marriage? That's not a new question. But as conservatives appear to be losing ground in the same-sex marriage debate, some are showing new interest in changing the rules.

Fear of gay-marriage backlash far-fetched

Clarence Page — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 05:00:00 GMT

Even U.S. Supreme Court justices care what people think about them, experts say. In their current same-sex marriage cases they fear a big public backlash if they overreach. But history shows such fears to be greatly exaggerated when a controversial decision's time has come.

Where Obama should hear Paul: Legal pot

Clarence Page — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 05:00:00 GMT

As the nation's capital prepares to open its first legal medicinal marijuana dispensary and Sen. Rand Paul's call for legalization basks in bipartisan praise, it's time for President Barack Obama to clear the air around his own passive-aggressive position.

Dr. Ben Carson, new right-wing hero

Clarence Page — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 05:00:00 GMT

Whenever somebody says something like, "Now, I know this isn't PC, but ... ," watch out. It probably means they're about to say something rude.

GOP in need of a reboot?

Clarence Page — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 05:00:00 GMT

Will Republican leaders listen to a bruising new internal report that calls for more minority outreach? First, they have to persuade their party's right-wingers to avoid making younger and nonwhite voters feel about as welcome as a cheeseburger at a vegan buffet.

Rand Paul's stunt misses the point

Clarence Page — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 05:00:00 GMT

If you took Sen. Rand Paul duck hunting, he'd probably shoot the decoy.

Basketball diplomacy, Pyongyang-style

Clarence Page — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 06:00:00 GMT

It is really not so odd that we would find Dennis Rodman partying heartily with North Korea's Kim Jong Un. After all, they have so much in common. Think of Kim as Rodman with less height, fewer piercings, more nuclear menace — and more blood on his hands.

High court ponders: Is racism over?

Clarence Page — Sun, 03 Mar 2013 06:00:00 GMT

Sometimes U.S. Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia remind me of Statler and Waldorf, the grumpy old cranks in the balcony of "The Muppet Show" — except that in the courtroom Thomas usually lets his fellow conservative do all the talking.

Signs that the NRA is losing

Clarence Page — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 06:00:00 GMT

Now that they're facing Washington's first serious push for new gun violence prevention laws since the Columbine massacre, gun lobbyists are grasping at straws — as in "straw" purchases.

Jackson Jr.'s 'promise' turns pitiful

Clarence Page — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 06:00:00 GMT

Even by the jaded standards of Illinois politics, former U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.'s spending spree with his campaign cash sounds breathtakingly shameless, partly because it sounds so senseless.

Rubio vs. an invisible Obama

Clarence Page — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 06:00:00 GMT

Republican Sen. Marco Rubio's manufactured outrage over President Barack Obama's leaked immigration proposal illustrates the GOP's dilemma: They have to sound like they're doing battle with this president even when they agree with him.

Boys in the back of the class

Clarence Page — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 06:00:00 GMT

Every year millions of well-intentioned American kids show up for kindergarten or first grade woefully unprepared to learn. Some can't even tell you their complete name, let alone spell any of it.

GOP's civil war stumbles on

Clarence Page — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 06:00:00 GMT

After Mitt Romney's 2012 election shellacking, a predictable blame-storm erupted between Republican pragmatists who want to win elections and the conservative zealots who love to argue.

Clinton grilled, punches back

Clarence Page — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 01:02:23 GMT

It was darkly amusing to watch Republicans go after Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton during the Capitol Hill hearings regarding the tragic fiasco in Benghazi, Libya. But the Grand Old Party's attack dogs were barking up the wrong tree.

Obama: The sequel

Clarence Page — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 01:02:23 GMT

President Barack Obama's critics are shocked, shocked to hear him sound in his second inaugural address like what he is … a liberal progressive. One wonders what they expected.

Obama's license to kill by drone

Clarence Page — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 08:02:41 GMT

If you really want Washington's chattering classes to pay attention to something, an old saying goes, leak it to the media.