December 12, 2016

Nearing the Falls in America’s Drug Crisis

Never before in American history has our country faced a drug abuse, drug crime, and drug overdose crisis of the magnitude now confronting our society. Last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), within the Department of Health and Human Servic...

December 5, 2016

Trump’s artful call

Artful, slightly risky, clearly strategic, arguably clever, maybe brilliant.  Trump just took – and publicly acknowledged – a telephone call with Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen.  We now know, if we did not before, that Preside...

December 4, 2016

Buzz Aldrin, Apollo, and America’s Spirit

America’s Apollo astronauts -- 24 of whom travelled to the moon, 16 of whom walked on the moon, all of whom made mankind’s moon steps possible -- are a sobering lesson in patriotism and risk-taking, not to mention lifetime stamina. T...

November 24, 2016

Hey, Neighbor!

Sometimes, you just have to stop and go talk with your neighbor. No way around it. Garbage can blew sideways, kids selling cookies, misidentified mail, delivering some seasonal gift. Or maybe just because the world has gotten too crazy. Big questions...

February 24, 2016

A Grudging Admirer of Ted Cruz

Many moons ago, I clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. I worked for a wonderful man, a former U.S. Marine with a 1950s sense of humor, a Reagan appointee. While he has since died, I recently thought again… about one d...

February 21, 2016

Tax Reform and the Economy: Who is Best?

Tax policy is an interesting lens through which to assess the present fracas we are all calling a presidential primary. On the plus side, while tax policy can be complex, detailed, and boring, some accurate and interesting elements pop off ...

April 28, 2015

Invidious Discrimination in America?

Legal treatises define “invidious discrimination” as “treating a class of persons unequally in a matter that is malicious, hostile or damaging,” a definition that encompasses traditional religious beliefs, including moral stan...

November 17, 2014

Ten Arguments against Obama's Executive Action

Understanding why pending executive action by President Obama on immigration, residency, and citizenship are objectionable, imprudent, and unconstitutional – and what can be done legally and politically about them, if he proceeds – requir...

November 15, 2014

Courage, Leadership, and Heart Needed in Ferguson

Here is the question of the hour: knowing that violence looms in Ferguson, as an unknown Grand Jury ruling hangs in the offing; that racial tensions are high; that sides are even now being taken; that both the citizenry and others are armed to the te...

November 12, 2014

American Leadership in Space -- Now or Never

Where is America’s space program going? After a bold promise of American leadership in space in 2010, as well as plans for a manned Mars mission by the mid-2030s, President Obama has dropped space like a lead balloon. With a new Congressio...

November 12, 2014

Welcome Back to America, Mr. President

So, the Republicans win big across the United States – regaining control of the U.S. Senate, adding seats in the U.S. House, capturing new governorships, preserving old ones, and winning countless (or at least uncounted) dog-catcher posts. Why?...

July 19, 2014

Of Horses, Politicians, and Fences

Unbridled horses tend to think they are wild. For that reason, fences were made. Politicians unbounded by law -- or who think themselves unbounded by law -- tend toward running wild, toward the commission of deeper and wider intrusions on personal li...

June 14, 2014

Elephants and Tea Parties

Life is a matter of perspective, as much as recognition of longstanding truths. Today, the Tea Party is a force in American politics, in the same way that discovering an elephant in your living room would be a newly discovered force in your life....

June 8, 2014

Unlikely Articles of Impeachment

Thomas Jefferson, drafter of the Declaration of Independence, was -- perhaps surprisingly -- no fan of the U.S. Constitution’s impeachment provision. Initially an enthusiast, he found it personally frustrating. Having identified a miscarri...

April 17, 2014

The New Iron Triangle

Today, we face a strange, new “iron triangle,” one that our Founders may not have foreseen -- but one that we must understand -- and break by voting in November.  The carefully designed “checks and balances” bequeathed to...