On Monday I talked about the Freedom Caucus – a group of about 40 unyielding House Republicans whom Republican strategist Frank Luntz says “…believes that it is better to blow-up the process than it is to fix it.” But there is another group in the House. The Liberty Caucus, a group of about 36 members, was founded in 2011 by...

When a gay couple asked Rowan Country Clerk Kim Davis on who’s authority she was acting when she declined to issue the couple a marriage certificate, she responded “under God’s Authority.” As a consequence, Federal Judge David L. Bunning jailed Davis after refusing to follow the orders of the court and her duty as an elected county official. According to...

Last Wednesday, I wrote about the “sweet deals” of perks and privileges accorded the U.S. Supreme Court Justices. While I believe they do an incredibly difficult job for little compensation, nonetheless, I believed that, ethically, they should release their expenses as well as the names of individuals or groups who pay those expenses on a variety of free trips around...

The speed at which attitudes and actions have changed, particularly in the South, about the Confederate battle flag has been staggering. Since the senseless shooting deaths of 9 individuals attending a bible study class in a Charleston, South Carolina church on June 17, we’ve gone from the state’s governor calling for the removal of the flag from the capitol grounds...

On June 24, Sotheby’s, London will be asking one exceptional buyer to spend more than $500,000 for an exceptional painting that has been hidden from the public for decades. German painter Max Liebermann’s Two Riders on a Beach is one of only two recovered works of art returned to their original heirs after it was discovered hanging in the Munich...

The style, the affairs, to be sure, but President John F. Kennedy also got much more right than some give him credit for. Looking through the lens of those who were there at the time, one inconsistency was brought to light by journalist David Talbot for a TIME magazine cover story from 2007. This remarkably perceptive story discusses Kennedy in...

In 2000, after I had received a number of responses to my “What Do You Stand For?” questionnaire, I struggled with a problem: What is the most effective way to share these stories, and talk about the individual who submitted them? At the time, I was reading journalist Tom Brokaw’s book, The Greatest Generation Speaks, subtitled, Letters and Reflections. Brokaw’s...

No sooner had FBI Director James Comey delivered comments that revealed a deeper and more vital regard for what he called “the responsible exercise of power,” than critics from Poland demanded an apology for a reference he made in a speech about the Holocaust. As reported in The New York Times (Apr. 20), “Polish political leaders have been taking turns...

Last Saturday marked the 70th anniversary of the battle for Iwo Jima. Some of the survivors, many, in their 90s were “bused to the top of Mount Suribachi,” the Associate Press reports (Mar. 22), “where an Associated Press photo of the raising of the American flag while the battle was still raging became a potent symbol of hope and valor...

What will make a difference in the years ahead? How can we overcome extremism, complacency, prejudice, arrogance, ignorance, doubt, fear and hate? How can we learn to be better citizens, not just of our own country but of the world? How can we get to a place where helping each other is more important than winning at any cost; where...