“The decision to have children has always struck me as an essentially selfish one: You choose, out of a desire for fulfillment or self-betterment or curiosity or boredom or baby-mania or peer pressure, to bring a new human into this world. And it has never seemed more selfish than today. From a ... Continue reading
Syria and isolationism
September 5, 2013 By 1 Comment
"At town hall meetings in their districts, the congressman reports, House Republicans are hearing 'an isolationist message.' It's not America's war. The evidence that the Assad regime used chemical weapons is ambiguous, maybe cooked. There isn't a compelling national interest to intervene. 'Let ... Continue reading
Courage of our convictions
July 4, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Elmer Charles Bigelow had the courage of his convictions. The 25-year-old from Hebron, Illinois, enlisted in the US Navy at the beginning of WWII, and after training was assigned to the USS Fletcher, a destroyer that was part of the US Pacific fleet. During fighting in the Philippines, the Fletcher ... Continue reading
Against the tide
March 23, 2013 By 1 Comment
A new survey by Pew Research shows that more American adults now favor than oppose same-sex marriage, by a margin of 49% to 43%. In 2003 the same survey showed the opposite: 58% opposed vs. 33% in favor. Pew attributes the shift primarily to the coming of age of the Millennial generation — those ... Continue reading
Second chances
November 9, 2012 By
People make bad choices. It happens to individuals, it happens to nations. For some reason, Americans have given a failed President a second term. Those who elected him, and Mr. Obama himself, are convinced that all of his past and present troubles should rightly be laid at the feet of former ... Continue reading
Another ‘Dewey Defeats Truman’ Moment?
November 5, 2012 By
In the months leading up to the 1948 US presidential elections, incumbent Harry S Truman was routinely predicted as having no chance of defeating his challenger, Thomas Dewey. On the night before election day, every single one of the political reporters who had been with Truman as he campaigned back ... Continue reading
Four More Years?
September 6, 2012 By
The President's acceptance speech tonight can be summed up very simply: "I have faith in America; if Americans put their faith in me, things will get better. Cross my heart."Left unexplained is why, if Barack Obama is re-elected, the next four years should be any different from the past four ... Continue reading
The new face of human slavery
May 26, 2012 By 1 Comment
Men want sex; some men are willing to pay for it. Recognizing a financial opportunity, some women enter into the sex trades or pornographic films hoping to make money. Hollywood has helped ease our consciences about prostitution with tales of bright and pretty entrepreneurs armed with a business ... Continue reading
