Why Do Conservatives Love Sarah Palin? Because She Never Stops Whining

Matt Taibbi, True/Slant

Sarah Palin constantly complains about the imaginary injustices done to her person. And our country loves whiners.

Barbara Ehrenreich: Our Maniacal Optimism Is Ruining the World

Anis Shivani, In These Times

Many people are not getting by. The human species faces dire ecological threats. Pretending everything will be OK helped get us into this mess, and it won't get us out.

Will There Be Justice for the Victims of El Salvador's Jesuit Massacre?

Pamela Merchant, AlterNet

World: El Salvador's President Funes has affirmed his commitment to seeking the full truth of the military's role in the massacre.

5 Bad Things That Immediately Happen to Your Body When You Eat Sugary Junk

Vicki Santillano, Divine Caroline

Sugary food tastes great going down, but the effects it has on our insides are far less appetizing.

The War on Soy: Why the 'Miracle Food' May Be a Health Risk and Environmental Nightmare

Tara Lohan, AlterNet

Water: Vegetarians aren't the only ones who should be concerned; there's soy in just about everything you eat these days -- including hamburgers, mac 'n cheese and salad dressing.

15 Signs American Society Is Coming Apart at the Seams

David DeGraw, Amped Status

Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace: Are we nearing a tipping point as rapacious elites push a heavily armed populace too far?

In Trying to Prevent Gay Marriage, Texas May Have Accidently Abolished it for Everyone

Liz Langley, Liz Langley's Blog

Sex and Relationships: It's rare a story about banning gay marriage actually has a silver lining.

Army Sends Mom to Afghanistan, Infant to Protective Services

Dahr Jamail, AlterNet

World: "This would do irreparable harm to her child. I think they are doing this to punish her."

Senate Votes to Move Forward on Health-Care Bill: McCain Accuses Reid of Criminal Scheme

Adele Stan, AlterNet

Politics: In debate leading to vote, McCain compared Reid to Madoff, Hatch invoked socialism, and Lincoln promised trouble ahead

Is Right-Wing Media Hustler Trying to "Blackmail" Obama's Attorney General over ACORN Videos?

David Edwards, Muriel Kane, Raw Story

Media and Technology: Andew Breitbart appears to be threatening to release more ACORN smear videos to avoid a serious DOJ investigation.

20 Weird, Crazy Ideas for Helping the Earth

WebEcoist

Environment: Many ideas for stemming environmental catastrophe have turned out to be impossible, dangerous, or just … ridiculous.

Companies Kill 16 Workers A Day

Robert Greenwald,

Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace: Sixteen workers are killed a day in the United States because of reckless negligence on the part of their employers.

Dobbs' Resignation Was Long Overdue

Janet Murguía, AlterNet

Rights and Liberties: My problems with Dobbs surfaced more than two years ago, during the debate over the last version of immigration reform.

Economic Crisis Is Getting Bloody -- Violent Deaths Are Now Following Evictions, Foreclosures and Job Losses

Nick Turse, AlterNet

Rights and Liberties: Despite ever rosier economic predictions and a surging stock market, the body count from the economic crisis is destined only to grow in the weeks and months ahead.

Why Is Congress Demonizing an Investigation of Israel's War Crimes in Gaza?

Bill Moyers, Bill Moyers Journal

World: Recognition of human rights expert Richard Goldston's investigation is essential to the peace process in Israel and Palestine -- and the Congress is trying to demonize it.

Maddow: Anti-Muslim 'McCarthyism' Making Us Less Safe

David Edwards, Raw Story

Rights and Liberties: Wave of prejudice among Republican politicians may actually be frustrating anti-terrorism efforts Maddow says.

New Right-Wing Craze: Using Bible Quote to Pray That Obama’s 'Days Be Few'

Amanda Terkel, Think Progress

Rights and Liberties: A new slogan is making its way onto t-shirts and even teddy bears: 'Pray for Obama: Psalm 109:8,' which reads, 'Let his days be few; and let another take his office.”

Thanks to GM, People Are Being Displaced So Their Forests Can Become Offsets for SUVs

Mark Schapiro, Mother Jones

Environment: Should we focus on industries paying to preserve distant trees rather than reducing emissions closer to home? It's the question of the day in Washington and Copenhagen.

Out-of-Control Rick Perry Overrides Rare Clemency Vote, Executes Man Who Killed No One

Liliana Segura, AlterNet

Rights and Liberties: The TX Board of Pardons voted to spare the life of Robert Lee Thompson, who took part in a robbery that led to a murder. The killer is serving life. Perry chose to kill him anyway.

Pharmaceutical Giant Paid $500,000 to Psychiatrist Who Used Chicago's Poor as Guinea Pigs

Christina Jewett and Sam Roe, ProPublica

Health and Wellness: Dr. Michael Reinstein reaped a cool half million off his patients' misery.

What if People Actually Treated Religion as Just a Metaphor (Like Trekkies and Secular Jews)?

Greta Christina, AlterNet

Belief: It's possible to keep the good parts of religion -- like the music, rituals and pageantry -- and get rid of the sex-hating dogma, the belief in god and other troublesome aspects.

Hey Guys, Don't Want Kids? A Vasectomy Is Probably the Way to Go

Anna Clark, RH Reality Check

Sex and Relationships: Historically, the burden of family planning has almost always fallen on women. Isn't it about time for that to change?

Mystery of World's Worst Mass Arsenic Poisoning Finally Solved

AFP

Water: The culprit are tens of thousands of man-made ponds excavated to provide soil for flood protection.

Reagan Didn't End the Cold War -- Leftist Intellectuals Did

Stephen Zunes, AlterNet

World: Reagan was inspirational, but to claim he defeated Communism is a disservice to the millions of Eastern Europeans who struggled against great odds for their freedom.

How Limousine Liberals, Water Oligarchs and Even Sean Hannity Are Hijacking Our Water Supply

Yasha Levine, AlterNet

Water: A group of water oligarchs engineered a disastrous privatization scheme to make a fortune out of California's most precious natural resource.

Rachel Maddow Interview with Former Evangelist Frank Schaeffer: Christian Right Is 'Trolling for Assassins'

AlterNet

Rights and Liberties: Schaeffer: "There is a crazy fringe [receiving] messages that have been pouring out of FOX News ... talking about doing away with Obama, asking God to kill him."

Modern Life Is Probably Screwed by Peak Oil, But It's Not Too Late to Avoid Mass Starvation

George Monbiot, Monbiot.com

Food: The challenge of feeding 7 or 8 billion people while oil supplies are falling is stupefying. It'll be even greater if governments keep pretending that it isn't going to happen.

An Inside Look at Nepotism and Corruption in Karzai's Afghanistan

Pratap Chatterjee, Tomdispatch.com

World: An eye-opening inside look at how the system of nepotism and corruption in Afghanistan actually works.

Is House Health Care Bill a Threat to Our Constitution?

Barry W. Lynn, Americans United for Separation of Church and State

Rights and Liberties: The House health-care bill isn't just a threat to women's rights; with the Stupak amendment, it's a breach of the Constitution.

Do Yearly Mammograms Save Women's Lives?

Naomi Freundlich, Health Beat

Reproductive Justice and Gender: Controversial new recommendations on breast cancer prevention have caused a stir in the women's health community. But do yearly mammograms really change death rates?

'Precious': How a Film About an Obese Harlem Teenager Turned the Tables on Hollywood

Emily Wilson, The Women's Media Center

Reproductive Justice and Gender: The success of this harrowing new movie undermines the conventional wisdom about what audiences want to watch.

World's Biggest Polluters Strike a Deal: U.S. and China Agree to Comprehensive Clean Energy and Climate Plan

Joseph Romm, Climate Progress

Environment: The overall plan is much more ambitious in scope and depth than anticipated.

Hightower: Obscenely Rich Bankers Claim to Do God's Work -- They Can Go to Hell

Jim Hightower, AlterNet

Top executives were initially hurt by the public's moral outrage. But their sense of entitlement quickly kicked in, and now they claim they're the good guys.

For 12-Year-Old Without an Arm, Insurance Has Run Out

Danielle Ivory, The Huffington Post Investigative Fund

Health and Wellness: 12 year old Benjamin French lives in one of 33 states where insurance companies are allowed to set annual and lifetime caps on prosthetic coverage.

Stupak Amendment Could End Abortion Coverage -- For Everyone

Daniela Perdomo, AlterNet

Rights and Liberties: An independent study predicts that the Stupak amendment could end insurance coverage of abortions -- for everyone -- in the long-run.

Anti-Abortion Group to Protest Palin

Stephanie Mencimer, Mother Jones Online

Rights and Liberties: To liberals, she epitomizes the anti-choice far right of the GOP. But to American Right to Life, Sarah Palin is not pure enough.

Pick the Most Influential Progressives. Fill Out Our Survey. Maybe Win a Prize!

Don Hazen, AlterNet

We're eager to hear what you love, and what you might want to change about AlterNet.

When It’s Crunch Time at College, Students Turn to Adderall

Erik Hayden, Miller-McCune.com

DrugReporter: Can ADHD stimulants like Adderall be the answer for college students looking to increase academic performance? They think so.

How Far Right Must GOPers Lean to Please a Crazy Base?

Steve Benen, Washington Monthly

PEEK: Far enough to completely contradict themselves, apparently.

A Year After the 2008 Election Galvanized Young Voters and Organizers, Where Are They Now?

Elizabeth Méndez Berry, The Nation

Politics: Getting to the bottom of who the "Yes We Can" generation really is.

Still No Justice for Priests in Notorious El Salvador Massacre 20 Years Later

Norman Stockwell, AlterNet

World: In 1989, six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter, were brutally murdered in El Salvador. Two decades later, the extent of U.S. complicity remains largely unspoken.