By now, most everyone has heard of the 11-hour filibuster waged on the floor of the Texas state senate in Austin by Senator Wendy Davis to prevent passage of a bill that would effectively close most of the medical facilities available for abortion in the state. What most may not know is that this wasn’t Davis’ first time at the rodeo. Anyone...

President Obama formally nominated former Justice official James Comey to succeed Robert Mueller as the next director of the F.B.I. However, it was in 2004 that Comey nearly resigned his position as acting attorney general under George W. Bush. In March 2004, a gravely ill Attorney General John Ashcroft had been taken to a Washington hospital for gallbladder surgery. At...

It was forty-five years ago, last week that we lost Robert F. Kennedy – June 6, 1968. It’s difficult to describe to a younger generation the impact the younger brother of President John F. Kennedy had on so many of us. I was in my first year of college and what captured my interest in this man was something that...

In his 1986 memoir, Confessions of a Parish Priest, Father Andrew M. Greeley wrote, “I’m a priest. Not a priest-sociologist or a priest-journalist, or a priest-novelist, or any multiple variation of those hyphenates. I’m a priest, a parish priest. The other things I do in life: sociological research, journalistic writing, storytelling, are merely my way of being a priest.” But no...

Lucky Leo’s is back! The boardwalks are back, and so are many of the beaches in Seaside Heights. After being devastated by Hurricane Sandy last October, this “Jersey shore is open for the summer and ready to receive our customers,” Governor Chris Christie said during a reopening ceremony. “This is going to be a really good week.” They’re cleaning up in Granbury,...

Last January, Megan, one of my New Hampshire students, responded to the question, “who is the most ethical person you know?” with this essay about a neighborhood mom named Pat. When most people think of an ethical person they think of Mother Teresa, Mohandas Gandhi or Jimmy Carter. They all did great things in their lifetime, which is why people...

“Hey you! “That’s right, you on the couch with the bag of potato chips. Wanna be an actor? Want to star in a hit TV series, but don’t want all the fuss and expense of enrolling in The Actor’s Studio, then spend years studying “the method” honing your craft? Well, you’ve come to the right place, because Bravo-TV has a...

Here’s Republican Senator Pat Toomey explaining why expanded background checks — an issue 90 percent of Americans support — went down to defeat. “In the end it didn’t pass because we’re so politicized. There were some on my side who did not want to be seen helping the president do something he wanted to get done, just because the president wanted to...

Last week taught us a lot. We learned that in spite of increased security measures since 9/11, we are still vulnerable to attacks from individuals bent on changing our way of life. We learned that intelligent, seemingly normal teens growing up in a country that advocates freedom and liberty for all can still be susceptible to radicalization by others. We...

Here’s the fundamental, unequivocal position by the National Rifle Association on any form of gun legislation – NO. NO – to a provision that would renew and strengthen a ban on assault weapons. NO – to limit magazines to 10 rounds. NO – to making “straw” purchasing, (where an individual buys a weapon for another), and trafficking a federal crime. NO – to require background...