Author: Lance Garrison
On Sunday, lawmakers in Washington released the first major bipartisan bill to reform immigration policy in a decade. The Senate may vote on the proposal, a $118 billion plan that includes $20 billion aimed at bolstering immigration enforcement, as early as Wednesday, but the likelihood that it reaches the president’s desk is slim. The House speaker, Mike Johnson, described it as “dead on arrival” in his chamber.The nation already spends more money on border policing than at any other point in its history. In the last two decades, Customs and Border Protection’s budget has almost tripled and Immigration and Customs…
A former colleague of mine liked to say that there are certain ideas that vanish in the presence of thought. Among those ideas is settler colonialism — or rather, the invidious, hypocritical and historically illiterate way in which it is often denounced in anti-Israel polemics and protests.What is settler colonialism? The Legal Information Institute offers the following definition: “A system of oppression based on genocide and colonialism that aims to displace a population of a nation (oftentimes indigenous people) and replace it with a new settler population.” What is settler colonialism as it applies to Israel? The idea that Israel…
Feb. 6, 2024 — Nutritionists are sounding the alarm on just how much your dietary consumption can affect your risk — or lack thereof — for cancer. A whopping 25% of the 18 million cancer cases in the U.S. could be prevented by improving your nutrition, according to research out of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Being overweight or obese can put you at risk for a slew of cancers, including cancer of the breast, liver, and colon, among a handful of others, according to the American Cancer Society. A healthy diet can help offset these diseases by reducing…
What did Kurt Vonnegut, the novelist, and François Mitterand, the socialist president of France from 1981 to 1995, have in common with Donald Trump? Both, at some point, believed in what economists call the lump of labor fallacy. This is the view that there is a fixed amount of work to be done and that if someone or something — some group of workers or some kind of machine — is doing some of that work, that means fewer jobs for everyone else.And Trump clearly shares that belief. As I noted in my most recent column, it underlies his hostility…
To the Editor:Re “Most Migrants Arrive Believing They Can Stay,” by Miriam Jordan (news analysis, front page, Feb. 1):While Ms. Jordan acknowledges that we live “in an era of mass migration — fueled by conflict, climate change, poverty and political repression,” her analysis understates the human needs that push desperate people to seek protection at our borders.An investigation by The El Paso Times found that migrant deaths surged at the El Paso border in fiscal year 2023 to the highest level on record. Cruel policies like Title 42 and “Remain in Mexico” stranded many in dangerous situations in cities like…
Feb. 6, 2024 — What if there was an easy way to enhance your brain function, reduce stress, boost your mood, and protect yourself against a host of health conditions — and that anyone can do it, even you? Science says it’s not too good to be true: Recent research has linked yoga to all these benefits and more. Evidence is piling up that yoga has therapeutic effects on a wide range of conditions and diseases, including heart disease, diabetes, asthma, Parkinson’s, irritable bowel syndrome, and menopause. Research shows it can improve heart health, flexibility, and strength. It’s also been shown to reduce anxiety and stress and…
To many Americans, Las Vegas is a burst of glittering hotels and seedy wedding chapels, a mirage-like city rising improbably from the Mojave Desert.The Americans who live in Las Vegas know the city as a destination for the middle class: Valets and cocktail waitresses become homeowners. Immigrants who arrive with empty pockets build thriving businesses. Workers without college degrees, empowered by strong unions, accumulate real wealth.Lately though, Las Vegas — like much of the United States — has become more expensive. The cost of housing is soaring. People from California and other expensive states are moving to Nevada, driving up…
Produced by ‘The Ezra Klein Show’Around 40 percent of people who marry eventually get a divorce. Almost half of children are born to unmarried women. The number of close friends Americans report having has been on a steep decline since the 1990s, especially among men. Millions of us are growing old alone. We are living out a radical experiment in how we live, love, parent and age — and for many, it’s failing.That’s partial context, I think, for the recent burst of interest and media coverage of polyamory. People want more love in their lives, and opening their relationships is…
Adam Bodnar, Poland’s new justice minister, recently explained to me the immense challenge of rebuilding liberal democracy in his country after an eight-year slide toward authoritarianism. Imagine, he said, that Donald Trump had won the last election and been in power for two terms instead of one. “What would be the damage?” he asked.After only four years of Trump, President Biden inherited a furiously divided nation, its courts seeded with right-wing apparatchiks and the nature of reality itself in deep dispute. But as even MAGA die-hards will acknowledge, Trump often failed to bend the state to his will, which is…
Every so often there is a piece of legislation on Capitol Hill that defines America and its values — that shows what kind of country we want to be. I would argue that when it comes to the $118.3 billion bipartisan compromise bill in the Senate to repair our broken immigration system and supply vital aid to Ukraine, Taiwan and Israel, its passage or failure won’t define just America but also the world that we’re going to inhabit.There are hinges in history, and this is one of them. What Washington does — or does not do — this year to…