The chaplain begins the commencement by offering ambiguous praise of assorted higher powers without really endorsing any one over another. Next, the president reviews the superlatives of the graduating class. One student patented a way to make shoes out of used tea bags; another was involved in brokering a Kardashian...

The scene is after-class on any given day. The students, having paid varying degrees of attention for 60 minutes, are collecting their things. Without exception, every one of them has a smart phone in-hand and every one of them is giving that device the undivided attention the professor would be...

A spectre is haunting America -- the spectre of common sense.

All the powers of old America have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this spectre: Religious fundamentalists and Tea Partiers, Roves and Kochs, FOX News and those who actually believe its coverage is "fair and balanced."

Where...

Now that Paul Ryan has been pegged as the vice presidential nominee for the GOP, all that remains for the "also-rans" is to fill out the 2012 GOP Convention lineup. You thought you said goodbye to Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich and the rest, didn't you? Never!

Sure, candidates may...

I can't compete with their gadgets. I can't beat out even the most mundane email coming in from an ambiguously named university office the students haven't even heard of. I can't top the text message from the girl they met last night but whose name they cannot remember. (And of...

I can't compete with their gadgets. I can't beat out even the most mundane email coming in from an ambiguously-named university office the students haven't even heard of. I can't top the text message from the girl they met last night but whose name they cannot remember. (And of course...