Essays


  • Morris: ‘Leftover’ Memories

    by Leo Morris I’m sitting here still eating turkey three days after Thanksgiving and thinking: Leftovers are food nostalgia. By enjoying the dishes again, we can trigger memories of the holiday just experienced, savoring the good moments and ignoring the bad. We can focus on recalling the easy companionship of friends and family without reliving the anxiety of complicated preparations, the worry over who might be tardy or absent, the horror of being lectured about…

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  • Franke: Thanks for the Irritants

    by Mark Franke I became discouraged last week about all the aspects of my life which seemed to be out of control, my control. I felt that I was never allowed to choose how to spend my time. Others were in charge, like puppet masters. Just call me Pinocchio. My solution was to make a list of the things which were getting under my skin. The list did not turn out quite as long as…

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  • Morris: The Rittenhouse Trial

    by Leo Morris Now that the Kyle Rittenhouse trial has gone into the left-right proxy war history books, a couple of points to reflect on that might have gotten lost in the shuffle: The first point is that this was about one young man citing self-defense as justification for killing two people and wounding another. Period. His acquittal should neither be celebrated as a great victory for the Second Amendment nor used as a rallying…

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  • Schansberg: K-12 Options

    by ERIC SCHANSBERG, Ph.D. The recent statewide elections in Virginia have brought K-12 education back to the front burner. A former Democrat governor lost — in a state handily won by President Biden a year ago. The chief causes: declining popularity of Democrats on the national stage (compared with 2020) and trouble with K-12 on the campaign trail in Virginia.  But, really, outside of a war on our soil, what public policy topic is more important…

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  • Franke

    Let iGen’ers Rewrite the Constitution? by Mark Franke A government professor at Skidmore College, a liberal arts institution in upstate New York, recently wrote an op-ed that was carried in my local newspaper. My wife, who reads this newspaper faithfully, recommended the column to me since it was about one of my favorite subjects — the United States Constitution.   This professor, Beau Breslin, argues that our Constitution is outdated and doesn’t reflect opinions prevalent…

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  • Moss

    Children in Masks: A Doctor Writes his School Board by Richard Moss, M.D. “Fifteen days to flatten the curve,” the first of many Covid lies, has become 19 months to flatten the country. Indeed, the collateral damage from the lockdowns and other devastation visited upon us by the regime have far exceeded the costs of the Covid virus itself. But in a largely secular nation, many of our countrymen have found a new religion, the religion…

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  • Half Past the Month

    Voilà! — Democrat Violence Reduction THE OBSERVATION is made that Democrats have a much better strategic approach than Republicans. For them, winning office by hook or crook and staying there no matter what is the simple goal.  Republicans — sometimes but not always — tie themselves in knots trying to define issues, encourage moral decisions and illustrate constitutional principles. Thus Democrats are more free to make promises to donors and the electorate that they know cannot be kept, that are…

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  • Morris

    In Error There Is Encouragement by Leo Morris I bow to no one in my disdain for Governor Holcomb. After all, it is my duty as a political columnist to be a government watchdog, and as the state’s chief executive, the governor should be prepared to take his share of criticism. I can’t be certain of how many negative columns I’ve written about him, but it must be north of half a dozen by now. I…

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  • The Outstater

    Article I, Section 5, Clause 2 “Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings, punish its Members for disorderly Behavior, and, with the Concurrence of two thirds, expel a Member.” —Article I, Section 5, Clause 2 of the U.S. Constitution SOMETIMES WE have to say it if only because nobody else will say it: Indiana’s Andre Carson, as a member of the House Intelligence Committee, played a miscreant role in what is becoming the largest and longest-running…

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  • Half Past the Month

    A Self-Destructive Representation “Wrath is cruel, and anger outrageous, but who is able to stand before envy? — Proverbs 27:4. OBSERVERS OF LOCAL city councils are puzzled by the ineffectiveness of new voting blocs elected in recent years. They rode in on a clear mandate to improve the lives of constituencies in economically distressed quarters of their cities, that and ensure something they called “equity.”  The question is raised, though, whether these blocs aren’t more interested in chastising the prosperous districts than improving their own — to be…

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