When Dewey and Emily walked into the Mule Barn the other day, they were greeted with applause and whistles. Emily blushed and Dewey took a bow, almost hitting the coffee pot Loretta was carrying. “I hear you too really fell for each other,” Doc said. “And the way I hear it, many times.” “That’s right, […]

When leading conservatives and liberals agree on what’s wrong in the country, it’s worth paying attention. The American Enterprise Institute, which produces conservative policy proposals, and the Center for American Progress, which plays the same role for liberals, announce they “disagree vigorously” on policy, but have agreed on a jointly published report on American society. […]

In electoral contests today almost everyone, in both major political parties, advocate democracy but our Founding Fathers ran from the word as fast as they could advocating instead a republic. We need to do the same if we really understand liberty. Those using the term “democracy” either intentionally use the term to undermine individual liberty […]

There have been some ugly comments recently about Sen. John McCain. With the senator at home in Arizona fighting brain cancer, a young White House aide reportedly told colleagues they need not worry about his objections to CIA nominee Gina Haspel because, “It doesn’t matter, he’s dying anyway.” At the same time, a retired three-star […]

“All theory is gray. But forever green is the tree of life.” —Johann Wolfgang von Goethe  I have enjoyed every season of the TV series “Homeland.” Writers and producers surely anticipated Hillary Clinton winning the 2016 election because season six featured the election of President Elizabeth Keane. The problem for the show’s writers became transforming […]

My grandmother, whom we called “Nana,” always loved children. Many times, she asked me to give her great-grandchildren. In 2000, the moment finally arrived. But it didn’t seem to matter. Eagerly, tenderly I lay my newborn son in her arms. She sat motionless, her eyes void. No expression whatsoever. I searched her face, desperately hoping […]

May 5 marked the bicentennial of Karl Marx, who set the stage with his philosophy for the greatest ideological massacres in history. Or did he?He did, but deniers still remain. “Only a fool could hold Marx responsible for the Gulag,” writes Francis Wheen in “Karl Marx: A Life” (1999). Stalin, Mao and Kim Il Sung, […]

There’s been an endless series of articles, essays, books, and research about the 2016 election. However I felt even now there’s still been a lot of misunderstanding and omission in the discourse, particularly regarding what really fueled then-candidate Donald Trump’s rise and why his ascendance flabbergasted the chattering class at nearly every turn. Even now […]

“If the president succeeds, the nation succeeds” has long been a philosophy fervently embraced by supporters of America’s sitting commander-in-chief, particularly when he (or perhaps someday she) encounters rough political waters. Such conventional wisdom makes both logical and political sense, at least on the surface. Implicit in this philosophy is the inference anyone hoping the […]