Many telemarketer calls use canned voice recordings, and a human selects which response to give next.

I don't see telemarketing as particularly bad, just wasteful and annoying. I have never bought anything from a telemarketer, and I don't let the call go on for more than a few seconds, because I don't want to spend my time on them.

It is useful to train yourself out of applying normal ideas of politeness — for instance, that it is rude to hang up on someone — to a commercially-motivated call from a stranger.

I think it might be good to legally require telemarketing calls to start by playing a recording that says, "Stay on the line if you wish to talk with a telemarketer."

The new style of apology from a politician that gets caught.

Everyone: call for elimination of the National Football League's tax-exemption.

Here is the background.

Everyone: call on Chick-fil-A to stop harassing the artist that makes "Eat more Kale" shirts.

Report on the living conditions of migrant workers in Abu Dhabi.

Some individual stories.

Allowing an employer to hold a worker's passport is the gateway to abuse.