LaVonne Neff is an amateur theologian and cook; lover of language and travel; wife, mother, grandmother, godmother, dogmother; perpetual student, constant reader, and Christian contrarian. She blogs at Lively Dust and reviews books for various magazines.
Posts By This Author
It's Time For Us to Grow Up and Sacrifice
The other day the mail brought an advertisement for something I desperately need (or so the ad suggested). If I ordered it right now, the ad said, I would save a hefty percentage off the usual price. In vain I searched the flyer for the price. None was listed -- not the total, not my monthly payment. I was apparently supposed to place my faith in the kindly marketers and order it anyway.
I guess I should be used to this sort of marketing. After all, that's how our federal government does business. Shall we a. fight a war in Iraq? b. add a war in Afghanistan? c. subsidize medical care for seniors and the poor? d. rescue failed financial institutions? e. subsidize growers of corn and soybeans? or f. fund interstate highways?
The Infuriating, Scary, and Ironic Inside Job
The Medicaid Card: A Useless Piece of Plastic?
Violent Stories That Change Us for the Worse
End-of-Life Planning: Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow
Four Reasons Not to Mess with Payroll Taxes
Give Smart: Three Tips to Make Donations Count
Which Corporations are Buying Your Candidates?
The midterm election season is upon us, the first since the Supreme Court's January 21 ruling that allows corporations to spend as much as they wish on political advertising -- as long as they disclose their involvement.
A Different Idea for Ground Zero
Righteous Imports: I'm OK With Strawberries Shipped in from California
What I Meant To Say About Missouri
Missouri's Health-Care Dilemma
Understanding the Immigration Debate
Follow the Money
Fixing Immigration: President Obama's Speech
President Obama is getting no respite from contentious issues. Today, speaking at American University's School of International Service, he tackled immigration reform, held hostage for decades, he said, by political posturing.
Beyond Camelot: Britain's Un-American Austerity Program
Bill McKibben's Brave New Eaarth (No, That's Not a Typo)
A couple of weeks ago I read Paul Greenberg's excellent review, "Hot Planet, Cold Facts," of Bill McKibben's newest book,
10 Good Things Vegetarianism Can do for You (and the World)
Eating Animals: 10 Reasons to Avoid Factory Farmed Flesh
"On average," writes Jonathan Safran Foer, "Americans eat the equivalent of 21,000 animals in a lifetime." Alas, most of these animals came from factory farms, n