Columnist.
Using Medicare as the template for the nation's health care system is a little like using the production model for the Lada, the "people's car" of the former Soviet Union, as the blueprint for the U.S. auto industry.
Do you remember the band Chicago's 1970 single, "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?" I thought of it the other day in connection with the U.S. debt problem.
I recently had the privilege of sharing two meals with Marlon "Big Dog" Brown and hearing him tell his life story and describe his work in Memphis, Tennessee.
Churches are havens and shelters for needy humans. They contain no perfect specimens. Nevertheless, they are held to high standards and are embarrassed when their building doors are locked during a local crisis.
Are Western intelligence services — primarily America's — stupid or is North Korea a convenient toreador's cape for problems so enormous the Trump administration and the Congress cannot begin to handle them?
In 1992, presidential candidate Bill Clinton argued that abortion should be "safe, legal and rare." By contrast, a March 27, 2017, article in The Washington Times was entitled, "Safe, Legal and Not So Rare," and argued that abortion has instead become "a young woman's rite of passage."
A move toward a more socialized healthcare system is not the answer.
I maintain a "Top 20" list of my favorite novels. According to my own rules, a book is not eligible for the list until I have reread it. Without comparison, my favorite is Dostoyevsky's *The Possessed*.
The public square is a hostile environment of competing identity politics. However, not all identities are treated equally. Those adhering to Christian orthodoxy do not enjoy the same respect, dignity, tolerance, or acceptance as other identities, despite the constitutional guarantee of religious liberty.
For the Baby Boomer generation (or at least the counterculture segment within it) the summer of 1967 became known as The Summer of Love. Actually, most of us boomers never experienced it. Certainly, 1967 wasn't a blissful, carefree summer of love for the hundreds of thousands of Americans serving in Vietnam.
While Illinois, Connecticut, and New Jersey have been making national headlines for their respective budget fiascos, Pennsylvania has been under the radar with its own problems.
In a tale of questionable historical validity, the British colonial government in early 20th century India found itself confronting a fearsome pest: cobras.
It's every parent's nightmare. Your child is suffering and you are powerless to do anything about it. In most cases you would exhaust all treatment options, consult leading specialists, and even travel the globe to find a hospital for your child. Ultimately you, the parent, would make treatment decisions you believe are in the best interests of your child. That is unless you are Connie Yates and Chris Gard — parents of baby Charlie Gard.
Adolescence was tough on me. I was a total geek, in an era before that was cool. I was a social misfit, totally uncomfortable in my high school setting. I worked out a deal with my parents and the school authorities that allowed me to graduate a year early, simply because I hated school life as I knew it. I was immature, and I did not fit in.
Many years ago, I overheard a coworker reflecting on parenting. She had 13 children — an astonishing 10 of them adopted. She said that the parent-child relationship was "everything." She said that if all else failed, parents should focus on maintaining a relationship with their children. As a young mother, I recall thinking that this sounded way too abstract, not like the concrete parenting tips I craved at the time. But years later, as a person who cares deeply about human development, her words feel deeply wise and, frankly, downright prophetic.
This past summer I was invited to teach literary interpretation and academic writing at a small Reformed-Christian seminary outside of Seoul, South Korea. At the close of two intense weeks of instruction, which consisted of six hours of lectures and discussion each day, I was ready to decompress.
The story of Charlie Gard is sparking outrage throughout the world. As the Wall Street Journal put it, the doctors who are caring for 11-month-old Charlie Gard "have won judges' permission to discontinue life support despite his parents' objections, saying his rare genetic disorder can't be effectively treated and that keeping him on a ventilator could be causing him pain."
Trinity Lutheran Church is a church in Columbia, Missouri that operates a Christian preschool and daycare center offering students a playground for recess and exercise during the school day. It recently found itself in a major case before the U.S. Supreme Court.
There is nothing new or untoward in American and Russian leaders talking. President Franklin Roosevelt met Joseph Stalin at Yalta and referred to him as "Uncle Joe."
It's time to watch fireworks displays, sing patriotic songs, and ruminate about our country's rich heritage and history. It's time to celebrate America's national birthday.
