How big a mess? No one really knows, because those running the bureaucracy—and those supposed to cover it in the press—have shown remarkably little curiosity about what is happening inside our state government. The LUMA accounting system, for example, has been associated with serious implementation problems, including duplicated payments and delays in reconciling transactions across […]
My Quaker grandmother told me a story early in my life about “The Seed of Hate.” The theme is deeply biblical, but it appears in other religious traditions and cultures as well. For Christians, the story centers on the idea that hatred begins as a small seed in the heart and, if allowed to grow, […]
In a recent Wall Street Journal review, University of Virginia sociology professor Scott Galloway’s book Notes of Being a Man confronts a crisis that has become impossible to ignore. He writes that his female students—bright, capable, and ambitious—express growing concern about the state of young men. They describe brothers living in parents’ basements, boyfriends addicted to online pornography, and […]
Sharing and Giving: The Moral Weight of Ownership There is a subtle but profound difference between sharing and giving. Modern ears often treat the words as interchangeable, but they represent opposing moral postures toward the world. G. K. Chesterton once described this difference vividly: sharing is a collectivist act, a gesture without full participation of the heart, while […]
When I was in high school, my father gave me several books to read over a summer written by Admiral Daniel V. Gallery. Admiral Gallery was a famously combative Navy officer who, twice in his career, found himself on the edge of a court‑martial. In his book Eight Bells and All Is Well; he meticulously described […]
Football in Ohio meets the Webster definition of religion: the belief in and reverence for a supernatural power or powers, regarded as creating and governing the universe. Football there is not just a game; it is a cosmos with its own gods, saints, and commandments. There is an old story about a Michigan man who […]
Why It’s Time to Make Corruption a Campaign Issue Adam Smith, in “The Wealth of Nations” (1776), described “economic rent” as income derived from the ownership or control of scarce resources (especially land) rather than from productive labor or innovation. David Ricardo refined this idea with his Law of Rent, showing how landowners profit simply […]
Abraham Lincoln, often regarded as America’s greatest president, and F. A. Hayek, the Nobel laureate economist, lived nearly a century apart but were united by their championing of liberty. Both recognized the progression of Western Civilization—from Ancient Greece and Rome, through Jerusalem, the Magna Carta, the Enlightenment, and the Declaration of Independence. Each deployed language […]
“The Great Reckoning” is a phrase that conjures a decisive moment—a juncture when accountability can no longer be deferred, and the record of promise and performance stands exposed. In literature and in life, this reckoning often signifies the moment when justice, clarity, and consequence converge, forcing institutions and individuals alike to confront the uncomfortable truth. […]
Popes, political pundits, politicians—and most importantly, WE THE PEOPLE—have railed against institutional corruption since the beginning of time. A brief survey of my Concordance will serve the purpose: The Bible addresses political and institutional corruption in many passages, warning of the dangers when leaders and systems become unjust, exploitative, or self-serving. While it does not use […]
What Unites Great American Presidents? Roosevelt, Trump, and the Triumph of Principle As I revisit Bret Baier’s To Rescue the American Spirit for a second time, the lessons of American leadership—and the parallels between Donald Trump and Theodore Roosevelt—resonate more strongly than ever. In our age of uncertainty and polarization, the nation’s course depends on leaders willing […]
Though I was never a professional fisherman, I have spent thousands of hours at sea. It began with a year on the USS Virginia, where I completed my qualifications as Officer of the Day Underway. Although I never formally received my S.W.O.S. badge after passing the written and oral exams, the skipper honored me with […]