Columns

Inhumanity in immigration courts

Whenever I post something about a person who has been granted asylum, or who has obtained their green card, or who has become a U.S. citizen, people congratulate that person, and say “welcome to the country.

Shutting down the shutdown

So big whoop. The federal government shutdown that never should have happened is over. One cheer for the Senate. It only took 44 days for Democrats to do what everyone knew last month they would have to do — cave.

Birds, beasts, fish decided. Bugs? Not yet

Bears and blackbirds and big-mouth bass are Louisiana citizens of a sort, and that is why the state can make you get licenses to fish and hunt, and can tell you what you can and cannot catch. That’s also why the birds and the beasts may have better protection than we do.

Bill Belichick needs an intervention

In our hopelessly polarized world, surely we can agree on this: Bill Belichick needs an intervention. If you haven’t yet heard, Bill, 73, is engaged to 24-year-old former cheerleader, beauty queen and philosophy major, Jordon Hudson.

The judicial insurrection hits Louisiana

President Trump appointed enough Supreme Court judges with “originalist” beliefs that we now have an originalist majority for the first time in many years.

Do AI boyfriends indicate bots in the belfry?

Will “put a ring on it” be replaced with “put a surge protector on it”? According to the New York Post, a growing number of affection-starved young women are dating and “marrying” chatbots in place of flesh-and-blood boyfriends.

Jimmy Kimmel is not a victim

Jimmy Kimmel is not a very funny man. He reminds me of the prep school boys I used to teach back in the 1990s. They had a snotty kind of humor, an ironic “I’m so smart, ha ha” type of affect that stops being cute when you are an adult making millions of dollars mocking people you don’t like.

Walker Percy’s impact on Louisiana

Many readers who love Louisiana literature will gather this weekend in St. Francisville to celebrate the life and works of novelist Walker Percy. He was, to me, a literary icon who spent most of his life in Louisiana. Many consider him to be America’s most significant Catholic writer.

The death of the university

Too many modern universities — for centuries hallowed halls that encouraged passionate debate — have lost their way. The first universities, Plato’s Academy (387 B.C.) and Aristotle’s Lyceum (335 B.C.), were built on Socrates’ conviction that truth emerges from passionate, open debate.

‘Lived experience’: Is it right for you?

“I’ve looked at life from MY side now…” I can imagine Joni Mitchell singing those modified lyrics every time I encounter one of today’s most grating phrases. The phrase: “my lived experience.