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Paul Campos

A native of Colorado, Paul Campos practiced law in Chicago before returning to his home state in 1990 to join the law faculty at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He has written extensively on the role of law in American society. His most recent book is The Obesity Myth: Why America's Obsession with Weight is Hazardous to Your Health. Since March of 1999 he has written a weekly column for the Rocky.

Recent stories

For columnist, last words are the hardest

February 27, 2009

Ten years ago this month I had lunch with John Temple and Vincent Carroll, publisher and editorial page editor, respectively, of the Rocky Mountain News. We talked about the possibility of my writing a weekly column for the paper. I had written a half dozen Op-Ed pieces for various publications, but the prospect of a regular column was something else altogether.

CAMPOS: The never-ending nonstory

February 25, 2009

The latest outburst of what Richard Hofstadter famously called "the paranoid style" in American politics is the absurd controversy over President Barack Obama's birth certificate. For months, a bizarre story has been circulating that the documentation of Obama's Hawaiian birth is incomplete or forged or otherwise defective, and that he was really born in Kenya.

CAMPOS: Is sports drug war worth it?

February 18, 2009

The news that New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez tested positive for anabolic steroid use in 2003 should come as no surprise to anyone who knows something about elite-level athletics. (Rodriguez has since admitted to using steroids between 2001 and 2003. He claims not to have used them since.)

CAMPOS: A woman's judgment

February 11, 2009

The news that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is suffering from pancreatic cancer raises the theoretical possibility that if the next appointment to the Supreme Court isn't a woman, that institution will once again be all-male.

CAMPOS: A taste of their own medicine

February 4, 2009

An old saying has it that if you owe a bank $1 million you're in trouble, while if you owe the bank $100 million the bank is in trouble.

CAMPOS: To the manner born

January 28, 2009

I once heard a recording of a BBC broadcast announcing the birth of Queen Elizabeth II of England's son. The announcer intoned, "Her Majesty has given birth to . . . a prince."

CAMPOS: Obama's tough moral choice

January 21, 2009

As I write these words Barack Obama is about to take the oath of office as the 44th president of the United States. It is of course a historic occasion in all sorts of ways, and many people are justifiably thrilled to be witnessing it.

CAMPOS: What is 'normal' weight?

January 14, 2009

What is Oprah Winfrey's "normal" weight? This question springs to mind in the wake of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's announcement that only about 30 percent of the nation's adult population is currently at what the CDC defines as a normal weight (according to these definitions, 34 percent of Americans are "obese," and 33 percent are "overweight. Three percent of us are supposedly underweight).

CAMPOS: Defining 'terrorism'

January 7, 2009

Rocky Mountain News editorial pages editor and columnist Vincent Carroll has taken exception to my observation last week that - especially in the context of contemporary Middle East politics - the word "terrorism" is gradually being drained of meaning.

CAMPOS: The dynamic in Israel-Gaza

December 31, 2008

Over the last decade I've written more than 500 opinion articles, but, to the best of my recollection, I've never written a column on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.