Why is it that it is easier to take the country into war without justification than it is to ensure that every American is entitled to health care? Progressives are being cautioned not to squeal too loud over the admittedly watered-down health care proposals inching their way through Congress because...

Since he left office, former Vice-President Dick Cheney has exhibited a non-stop barrage of baseless, classless, and utterly indefensible insults to this nation and its Commander-In-Chief. Not since Spiro T. Agnew have we been so publicly assaulted by an individual so bereft of integrity and decorum. But what makes these...

Last week the nation sat captivated by the apparent news of a wayward helium balloon squiring a six-year-old boy towards the heavens while a helpless nation watched and officials furiously (I assume) attempted to solve this unconventional problem in a way which would ensure the safety of the young aviator....

As a baby-boomer, born a year before the landmark Brown v. Board of Education
Supreme Court decision, it seems like a very short time ago when overt racial segregation, and both de jure and de facto racism were accepted forms of behavior in our society. In my lifetime...

This past weekend I had the honor of participating in a series of lectures and discussions surrounding a celebration of the 50th anniversary of Premier Khrushchev's visit to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, to meet with President Eisenhower. Of course any visit to Gettysburg is a sobering experience, its rolling hills steeped...

Trust is defined as "assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something; one in which confidence is placed." Unfortunately, it appears to me as though the root cause of conservative opposition to virtually any progressive policy proposal is distrust. It is reflected not only on...

It is often difficult when one is close to a problem to step back and envision how that problem looks to those who do not perceive to be ensnared in the problem. It is similarly difficult to realize the complexity of large issues when there are competing issues that seem...

In the early 1980's Tom Cochrane, the Canadian singer/songwriter wrote "Lunatic Fringe" in which he penned lyrics I believe to be relevant today:

Lunatic Fringe In the twilight's last gleaming This is open season But you won't get too far Cause you gotta blame someone For your own confusion...

I just cannot remember it always being this way. Since when did the idea of taxes become ipso facto a bad idea, no way, no how, under no circumstances. In my 33 years of public service I can remember a time when balancing the fiscal equation meant negotiating a taxing...

Someone once told me you can tell a man's priorities by looking at his checkbook. Sound counsel for sure. But in the current atmosphere of budgetary chaos afflicting government at all levels -- federal, state, and local -- it is discouraging, disheartening, and distressing to watch so-called political leaders cower...

I am old enough to remember the Jackson Five, and the phenomena known as Michael Jackson. Back during the time of transistor radios and AM radio stations (growing up in Philadelphia it was WFIL 56 AM, or WIBG 99 AM, or at night we could reach Cousin Brucie on AM...

The nagging criticisms leveled at the President's overtures to the Muslim world this week prove once and for all that the historical maxim that "politics stops at the water's edge" is as quaint and irrelevant as the Victrola. Politics, and political considerations now knows no boundaries and it is particularly...

There is an enormous value to the art of questioning. For instance, public opinion as measured by polling can be construed to say one thing when in actuality it is really expressing something totally different, depending on what and how questions are posed. To ask people whether or not they...

Two and a half years ago I had the distinct honor of being invited, along with 200 other individuals, to Nashville, Tennessee to participate in a three-day exercise with Al Gore and The Climate Project, aimed at arming us with the facts about global warming. Since that time over 2,500...

This past weekend nearly 500 dedicated activists met in Nashville to spend two and a half days reflecting on the current science and direction of the Earth's changing climate. There were truly inspiring presentations by Nobel Laureate Al Gore and an array of scientists intended to inform and educate an...

The true definition of torture is having to listen to Dick Cheney spew ad hominem about why it was proper, even necessary to circumvent any commonly accepted interpretation civilized society has to offer of what in fact constitutes torture. By relying on the absurd argument that he was guided by...

I have been struggling hard in the post-partisan world to figure out just exactly what the opposition's rationale or foundation is on any number of issues: stimulus, budget, taxes, torture, and now the Supreme Court nomination. As best as I can tell the overriding nugget of justification seems to be...

Ohio Representative John Boehner this past weekend did his best to resuscitate the early 19th century British social movement , known as the Luddites, who were steadfastly opposed to technological progress and change in the textile industry, only the modern day iteration seems to be refusal to even attempt to...

Have we all lost our minds? Collectively, as a society, we have perverted the whole system of incentives and performance-based rewards to the point where it is not wholly unreasonable to question what constitutes good and bad. Today it is reported that the individual in charge of General Motors' phenomenal...

In the political world, hypocrisy knows no bounds. As I continue to listen to these self-righteous, sanctimonious, and preposterously hypocritical conservatives (and yes -- most of them are Republicans) pontificate on the horribleness, the insanity, the disastrous level of debt we are heaping upon future generations, I want to just...