WASHINGTON — Howard Wooldridge, a Washington lobbyist, is a former detective and forever Texan on an important mission — trying to persuade the 535 members of Congress to end the federal war on marijuana. Liberals tend to be an easier sell than conservatives. With liberals, Wooldridge dwells on the grossly racist way the war on […]

Newt Gingrich recently recalled the bipartisan deal that doubled the budget for the National Institutes of Health — with fondness. This was about 20 years ago, when Bill Clinton was president, and Republicans under Gingrich had just taken over Congress. Never a member of the Gingrich fan club, I nonetheless join other liberal-minded observers in […]

So machines are now able to assess a human’s mood. “Emotion detection software” has put robots one step closer to replacing the humans who work — or used to work — in what we in the olden days called “customer relations.” Assuming that you, dear reader, are a human and not a column-consuming robot, you […]

Ellen Pao’s gender discrimination suit against her employer contained the juicy elements that captivate us. The plaintiff was a Harvard-educated lawyer suing for a healthy $16 million. The defendant was Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, the high-powered venture capital firm. The locale was Silicon Valley, where many complain that the big fortunes go overwhelmingly to […]

A law in Indiana and a bill in Arkansas making life harder for their gay neighbors have lost their wheels in a surprising smashup. Business interests, usually associated with the conservative cause, lowered the boom on “religious freedom” legislation supported by social conservatives. But we are not here to discuss the Republican rift between economic […]

Let’s start on an upbeat. Next to what we had before, Obamacare has been a spectacular success. The Affordable Care Act has brought medical security to millions of previously uninsured Americans and has helped slow the rise in health care spending. But the health reforms would have been more spectacular had they been simpler to […]

Give thanks for the little things, they say. A bill that would stop the feds from going after medical marijuana users in states that permit such activity is something for which we should give thanks. But it is little. Let’s not criticize the sponsoring senators — Rand Paul, R-Ky., Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Cory Booker, […]