“The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest minds of past centuries. — Rene Descartes, 16th century French Mathematician While I talked about this earlier this month, we need reminders . . . a lot of reminders. Last week was Banned Books Week. It’s hard to imagine an America—a country that places free speech at...

Doug Mastriano, the Republican nominee for governor in Pennsylvania, The New York Times reported, told supporters at a recent rally. “My campaign has no place for hate, bigotry and intolerance. . . .” “Intolerance towards men is always reprehensible. But often times intolerance is provoked by injudicious and erroneous policies.” While the first statement was made by Mastriano, the second...

The lead story in Sunday’s New York Times sums up how far Donald Trump has usurped many Republican state legislatures, political leadership in Congress and how far the Republican party has fallen off the radar of credibility and responsibility to the country. “At least 357 sitting Republican legislators in closely contested battleground states have used the power of their office...

The leak of a US Supreme Court draft decision raised a lot of concerns about the state of confidentiality and trust of the high court. While I’m concerned about the long-term effects of overturning Roe v. Wade, a law that’s been on the books since 1973, I’m seriously concerned about the public’s trust in the Supreme Court. At a conference...

“A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way.” — John Maxwell, American clergyman Liz Cheney is smart, disciplined, honest and fearless. A rock-sold Republican from Wyoming, Cheney is one of only two House Republicans who sit on the House panel investigating the January 6 insurrection. Adam Kinzinger is the other. However, it is...

Winston Churchill famously said, “The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.” Churchill never met Alex Jones and his many acolytes. Last November, a court found the right-wing conspiracy podcaster guilty by default in the civil suit brought by parents of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. “Connecticut...

SPECIAL EDITION – HOW PRESIDENT BIDEN CAN INSPIRE ALL OF US, TONIGHT. The New York Times asked four columnists to offer their own State of the Union speech. Columnist David Brooks’s words are the most honest, credible, humble, forward-thinking, and inspiring I’ve heard in years! Here’s what Brooks believes Biden should say, tonight. My fellow Americans: “People always talk about...

Sometimes, those who have contributed mightily to their country slip below history’s radar. John Gilbert Winant was one of them. After serving two terms as the Republican Governor of New Hampshire, Democratic President Franklin Roosevelt tapped Winant to be the first head of the Social Security Board. While Republican colleagues called him “a Republican New Dealer,” Winant’s work so impressed...

“To meet the challenge of our times, so that we can later look back upon this era not as one of which we need be ashamed but as a turning point on the way to a better America, we must first defeat the enemy within.”—Robert F. Kennedy How close did we come to the end of American democracy on January...

On February 9, 1950, Senator Joseph R. McCarthy stood before the County Women’s Republican Club in West Virginia and stated, “I have here in my hand a list of 205 [State Department employees] that were known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping the policy of the...