Farnum Brown

Andy Rappaport and his chief lieutenant, Jamie Daves, were sitting in a midtown Manhattan office one rainy morning last July. Around the table were representatives of Link TV, the Guerrilla Radio Network, a progressive book club, a funder of public radio stations, a producer of socially responsible films and an investment firm that does work […]

In signature style, the Bush administration is once again selling us a pig in a poke, promising it’ll make bacon. As with Iraq, the administration’s proposals for “reforming” Social Security are a tissue of lies designed to promote a radical policy agenda while masking it from the public. At the heart of the president’s plan […]

What to do about the election? From all the e-mails on voter fraud in Ohio it seems many comrades have made it only to the first of Elizabeth Kubler-Ross’ Five Stages of Dying. That would be “Denial.” Others appear to have moved on to “Anger,” “Bargaining” or–my personal favorite–“Depression.” But few seem to have made […]

You could summarize the presidential candidates’ debate on the state of the economy as follows. Bush: “The economy is strong.” Kerry: “Is not.” Bush: “Is too.” While each cherry-picks a few factoids to support his case, at bottom they’re both saying the other guy’s wrong (if not lying) about the economy. Which is funny, since […]

A lawyer friend once said to me, “You know, people are funnier about money than they are about sex.” Indeed. And if the people in question are of the liberal persuasion, they’re even funnier. For lefties, money is not only highly personal and deeply mysterious, like sex; it’s also a source of guilt, shame, embarrassment […]