Opinions

10

May

By Dorothy Brand

Opinions, Business

Opinion: Why Apple’s iPad ad hit such a nerve

Apple is apologizing: that ad for the new iPad Pro with the all-powerful hydraulic press squeezing every element of culture and human experience into one wafer-thin device may have been a tad ill thought out. The ad, set to an old Sonny and Cher song, “All I Ever Need Is You,” seems to celebrate the destruction of human creativity, as we see a piano, a sculptured bust, all manner of art supplies, cameras, a television and more, being violently crushed. After the ad sparked a swift backlash, Tor Myhren, Apple’s vice president of marketing, said: “We missed the mark with…

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25

Apr

By Dorothy Brand

Opinions, Politics

CNN Poll: Few think Trump is being treated the same as other defendants

As the first criminal prosecution of a former American president began just 13% nationwide feel Donald Trump is being treated the same as other criminal defendants, a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS finds. Most of the country was divided over whether he is being treated more harshly (34%) or more leniently (34%) than other defendants. The poll, which began fielding a few days after the trial’s jury selection phase kicked off April 15, finds only 44% of Americans express confidence that the jury chosen for the case will be able to reach a fair verdict, while 56% more skeptical that a fair…

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25

Apr

By Dorothy Brand

Opinions

Opinion: Melania’s complicated ‘stand by your man’ routine

Former President Donald Trump is spending his days in a Manhattan courtroom facing charges that stem from accusations of a hush-money payment to pornography actress Stormy Daniels, with whom he allegedly had an affair just months after his wife, Melania, gave birth to their son Barron. Melania is notably not in the audience. This is not the first allegation of Trump cheating on Melania; he allegedly paid to cover up a separate affair with Playboy model Karen McDougal while Melania was pregnant. Sure, Melania is still standing by her man – the Trumps remain married, and Melania has been doing some light campaigning for her…

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21

Apr

By Dorothy Brand

Opinions

Opinion: Trump followers were asleep at the switch

“We are most deeply asleep at the switch,” wrote Annie Dillard, “when we fancy we control any switches at all. We sleep to time’s hurdy-gurdy; we wake, if we ever wake, to the silence of God.” Dillard’s line — from her short meditative book titled “Holy the Firm,” published in 1977, two years after she won the Pulitzer Prize at the age of 29 — invoked the role of the switchman, whose alertness was crucial in making sure trains got routed on the right track before the advent of automated switches. If America’s political leaders control any switches at all,…

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16

Apr

By Dorothy Brand

Opinions

Opinion: Skimpy Olympic uniforms for women are an outrage

I am a shameless fan of the Olympics. Every two years — whether it’s for the Summer or Winter Games — I gleefully tune in to watch the unimaginable, often gravity- and physics-defying prowess of the best athletes in the world. From the parade of nations at the opening ceremonies to the competitive medal counts, from historic moments of political advocacy by athletes to actor Leslie Jones’ hilarious online commentary, I love it all. Even the over-the-top nationalism moves me — a tall order for someone who was stripped of a long-established constitutional right by her government not too long ago and who…

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16

Apr

By Dorothy Brand

Opinions, Health

Opinion: What I didn’t know about my prostate almost killed me

Recently, a misfiring prostate launched Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to the forefront of the headlines, followed by the deaths of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s son, Dexter, and O.J. Simpson from prostate cancer. While their celebrity status drove the news, their underlying illnesses earned little more than a parenthetical shrug. In the blink of a news cycle, prostate cancer was again casually swept aside as among the best cancer to have. Treatments are often downplayed as “minimally invasive,” as if they were no more consequential than a teeth cleaning. As a prostate cancer survivor, I can report from painful experience…

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16

Apr

By Dorothy Brand

Opinions

Opinion: What gun laws can’t stop

When news broke of a stabbing, and mass killing, at a Sydney shopping mall in which a baby was attacked, right-wing commentators overseas were quick to falsely diagnose the motive. “Another day. Another terror attack by another Islamist terrorist. Six dead, others seriously injured, including a baby,” tweeted the British right-wing commentator Julia Hartley-Brewer. But Hartley-Brewer was wrong. And she later acknowledged the post was incorrect. The motive was not Islamist but an everyday threat for women: gendered violence. It was “obvious” said the New South Wales Police Commissioner Karen Webb, that now-deceased attacker Joel Cauchi, a diagnosed schizophrenic according to his family, had a…

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16

Apr

By Dorothy Brand

Health, Opinions

How cell phones are killing our kids, and what we can do about it

Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt probably has become a pretty unpopular guy among teenagers over the last few weeks. His new book, “The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness,” essentially calls for a revolution in how parents administer smartphones and social media to their teens. Put simply, Haidt writes that kids should have little to no access to either until they turn 16. While some have questioned the science behind Haidt’s thesis, Haidt argues the perspective is informed by years of research — investigations that depict climbing mental health struggles among American…

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14

Apr

By Dorothy Brand

Opinions

Opinion: What does Iran really want?

On the surface, Iran’s Saturday missile and drone attack on Israel was a response to the Israelis’ airstrike on an Iranian consulate building in Damascus two weeks ago that killed at least seven officials, including commanders of the nation’s Revolutionary Guards. Yet it also was an outgrowth of the enmity between Iran and Israel, including its ally the United States, that has been building for decades, a result of both the Iranian regime’s nature and of policy reversals and blunders by the US ever since the Western- and Israel-allied Shah of Iran was overthrown by Islamists in the 1979 Iranian Revolution. “A modern, strong, peaceful…

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14

Apr

By Dorothy Brand

Opinions

Opinion: The day of the Columbia disaster still haunts me

On January 16, 2003, I was in a place I loved doing a job I loved. I was the space correspondent for CNN and had been covering NASA and the shuttle program for the network for nearly 11 years. I was at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to cover the launch of the space shuttle, Columbia. My team and I were at “the press mound” three miles away from the launch pad, which is as close as they let anybody. As always, I was thinking about what I would say if things went really wrong. It was my responsibility to be…

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