“It is written I should be loyal to the nightmare of my choice.” – Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness The poison that is Donald Trump has so deeply infected followers that they forcefully speak out against any unfaithful Republican who dares speak against him much less hold him accountable for the attack on the Capitol. Embed from Getty Images Here’s...

With Saturday’s verdict by the Senate to acquit former President Donald Trump of inciting the attack on the Capitol, it’s more evident than ever that the Republican Party is on a ventilator and they are — for the foreseeable future — likely to willfully remain in a Trump coma. Any additional words I might use to describe a party that...

“A nation which has forgotten the quality of courage which in the past has been brought to public life is not as likely to insist upon or reward that quality in its chosen leaders today…” – Senator John F. Kennedy, Profiles in Courage In the first chapter of Kennedy’s book he writes, “… a member of the [President’s] Cabinet had...

“…to live with integrity, it is sometimes necessary to take that difficult step – to get involved – to fight openly for what one believes to be true and right and good, even when there is risk to oneself.” – Stephen Carter, Integrity Republican Representatives Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, and Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse unquestionably meet that standard. This is...

Everything about the Super Bowl is big. From its name to the fans, and the ads, the Super Bowl has become the theatrical event of American sports. A thirty-second ad in last year’s Super Bowl cost $5.6 million, but more than 100 million viewers watched it. This year’s ads covered everything from lemons falling from the sky for Bud Light...

According to folklore, a man approached the Jewish sage Hillel the Elder with a proposal: If he could explain the principles of his faith in a single sentence the man would convert to Judaism. Hillel responded, “What is hateful to thee, do not unto thy fellow man; this is the whole Law the rest is mere commentary.” During the attack...

“It’s incredibly obvious, isn’t it? A foreign substance is introduced into our precious bodily fluids without the knowledge of the individual, certainly without any choice. That’s the way your hard-core Commie works.” – Gen. Jack D. Ripper, explaining why he ordered B-52 bombers to attack Russia in Dr. Strangelove. (Updates at bottom) When I first watched Dr. Strangelove – a...

Among the books in my library is a series from TIME/LIFE entitled, The Decades. In words and images from 1910 to the 1990s, editors have distilled each decade’s most notable events. For example, the ’60s: Vietnam, racism, assassinations, Woodstock, the space program – each volume memorializes the triumphs and tragedies of the American landscape. If the series continues, editors are...

In 16th Century Italy, Niccolò Machiavelli was a nice enough guy until he discovered something. (Don’t let that smile fool you.) Political philosophers believed the most successful government required leaders to be moral, upstanding citizens. However, based on his experience in government, Machiavelli saw things differently. After he was booted out of authority, he wrote a little book entitled The...

At the inauguration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, one moment perfectly captured the reality of the present with aspirations for our future, and that moment came from poet Amanda Gorman. The 22-year-old from Los Angeles first came to the attention of Jill Biden while attending an event at the Library of Congress where Gorman delivered an...