Every year at this time when budgets are being passed, conservative groups succeed in convincing a great many citizens that the primary purpose of government is to cut our taxes by doing less. These groups have been so successful in recent years that few people even bother to examine their simple-minded economic theories any more. It is accepted as fact that everyone benefits from paying less in taxes because all that...

When Newt Gingrich warned Republicans that they were making a grave "mistake" by driving out moderates and enforcing the angry orthodoxy of the far right, the sober tone of his remarks was stunning. This is a politician who is no stranger himself to the wilder shores of extremism, a populist and a purist who rose to great power against the GOP establishment, and a demagogue whose lexicon...

Milwaukee County supervisors shot down a plan to go ahead and privatize the Milwaukee County Zoo last week, a plan that had been billed as merely a $60,000 “study” of potentially privatizing the zoo. But in fact it was much more. That budget item actually contained about $40,000 for outside legal counsel to draw up documents to create a “not-for-profit corporation...

Last month, actor and filmmaker Madison Young visited our fair city to present "Reclaiming Pornography One Orgasm at a Time," which examined the differences in and the debate about mainstream, independent and feminist pornography. After she gave this talk to a standing-room-only audience clad in nothing but her underwear...