The post-9/11 mantra "If you see something, say something" appears to have taken an ugly turn these days. It used to relate to concerns about terrorism. If you saw an abandoned backpack or van, or if you discovered evidence that could be construed as bomb-related, the instruction was to ...
In Marine Corps jargon, a "duty station" is the military base or camp where a Marine is assigned to live. Reflecting our national inclination both to romanticize what is past and to criticize what is current, Marines will regularly gripe that there is no duty station better than the one they ...
Today, we will discuss one of the most pressing threats to American Christianity. Meaning, of course, American Christians. Yes, that's an overly broad statement. All those Christians whose faith requires them to live the Good News, to feed the hungry, to house the homeless, speak ...
WASHINGTON -- On election night 2016, Mark Schlissel, the University of Michigan's president, addressed more than 1,000 students, declaring that the 90 percent of them who had favored the losing candidate had rejected "hate." He thereby effectively made those who disagreed with him and with the ...
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, the Democrat from Minnesota, uttered a forlorn sentiment at a Center faro American Progress conference. She said Democrats can't spend all their time bemoaning President Donald Trump's existence, and that her voters care more about soybean exports than Russian bots. She's ...
Justice has been called the most important virtue for a society to have. And, since before my age broke double digits, I’ve had a passion for justice. Which makes it distressing for me to have discovered, many decades into my life, that so many of my countrymen do not seem to care much about ...
Last December, the midterm outlook looked bleak for Republicans. With the Democrats enjoying a 13-point lead on the Generic Ballot, pundits talked of a "big blue wave." The question was not whether the Democrats would win the two dozen seats needed to gain control of the House, but whether they ...
For Donald Trump's critics, it's tempting to jump on every juicy reveal regarding the president's sex romps. The swirl of accusations, denials, contradictions, backstabbing and confusion does keep us entertained. Today's story revolves around the hush money sent to porn actress Stormy Daniels. ...
In the aftermath of the Kanye West dust-up, my heart goes out to the white people who control the Democratic Party. My pity stems from the hip-hop megastar's November announcement to his packed concert audience that he did not vote in the presidential election but if he had, he ...
The conventional image of baby boomer political rebellion features a young left-wing activist organizing, protesting or otherwise agitating, ideally with Buffalo Springfield's "For What It's Worth" playing in the background: "There's something happening here / What it is ain't ...
It's the craziest thing. Factory towns that bled both jobs and people still have a fine housing stock, cheap for lack of demand. Booming tech centers, meanwhile, attract battalions of newcomers despite their soaring housing costs and growing congestion. Can't something be worked out ...
WASHINGTON -- Repeal of Prohibition in 1933 instantly reduced crime by reducing the number of criminalized activities, including some that millions of Americans considered victimless activities and none of the government's business. Now, America is going to become more law abiding, the Supreme ...
WASHINGTON -- Just when you might have thought moral depravity could not have sunk deeper in the era of Donald Trump, along came a Trump White House underling dismissing the views of iconic Republican Sen. John McCain as irrelevant because "he's dying anyway." Even worse than that ...
What does the word "asylum" conjure up in your mind? An overpopulated mental ward with screaming patients frothing at the mouth? A snake pit, as depicted in the 1948 movie of the same name in which actress Olivia de Havilland's character battles schizophrenia, shock treatments and a sadistic ...
“A great day for Israel!,” proclaimed president Trump in celebrating the opening of the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem while Israeli armed forces slaughtered dozens of Palestinians. The demonstrators were trying to dismantle the borderline that cages them in the Gaza strip. They had been warned ...
Donald Trump promised to rein in drug prices. It was his only sensible campaign promise. But the plan he announced Friday does little but add another battering ram to his ongoing economic war against America's allies. He calls it "American patients first" and takes aim at what he ...
WASHINGTON -- When Donald Trump said, "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose voters," it's a good thing he didn't say horses. The stampede would have been swift and ugly. I should know. In a previous column published on the hooves of the Kentucky ...
The instant analysis on cable TV of President Donald Trump's decision to dump the Iran deal had a weary resignation to it: He said he would do this. Indeed, he had. Trump repeatedly promised on the campaign trail to pull out of the deal and had made it a target from the time that President ...
It's like listening to a song you used to know. It's an old sweet song, a hymn of hope and possibility. It's a tune you haven't heard in far too long. That's how it is when Rev. Dr. William Barber speaks morality. It's not just that Barber, pastor of Greenleaf Christian Church in ...
In the final days before the West Virginia primary, breathless media coverage suggested that businessman Don Blankenship was gaining ground rapidly and had a real shot at winning the Republican Senate nomination. ABC News quoted a "national Republican operative" who said it's "down ...