Columns

Dying languages: Can they be saved?

“Took away our native tongue/And taught their English to our young…” — from “Indian Reservation,” by John D. Loudermilk. According to the United Nations, there are about 6,500 distinct languages (not just dialects) spoken throughout the world.

Unleashing entrepreneurs is good for all

Here’s some great news: The American entrepreneur is flourishing again. From 1980 until 2017, “the number of new startups formed each year … plummeted by half — from almost 15% of all business 35 years ago to barely 8%,” according to Forbes contributor David Pridham.

Jindal: A political punch-bag

A voter would think that former Gov. Bobby Jindal is running again in the coming fall elections. Rarely does current Gov. John Bel Edwards make a speech where he does not lay all the state’s financial woes at the feet of Jindal.

Chris Cuomo should chill out about ‘Fredo’

CNN anchor Chris Cuomo was caught in a video screaming expletives when someone made the mistake of calling him “Fredo,” referring to the fictional character Fredo Corleone from “The Godfather films.

Social media? More like anti-social media

“I can’t take it anymore! My social media friends are driving me batty!

The dive into the ‘maintenance hole’

I have a long history of dumb ideas. It was my idea buy a used, 1999 diesel Volkswagen Beetle. There’s a reason you don’t see many of them on the road today. It was my idea, as a boy, to play darts near our old gas furnace. How was I supposed to know a dart could puncture a gas line?

Earning big bucks in state government

How do you put a dollar value on the worth of a public official? Attorneys working full time for the LSU Health Sciences Center are asking to be paid more than $400,000 a year. So how do you justify such large increases? How about this idea?

The real injustice of rapper’s saga

Last week, the Superior Court of Pennsylvania (my old employer) ruled that rapper Meek Mill was entitled to a new trial on his 2008 drug conviction, the same conviction that kept him on probation for 11 years and dogged him all through his meteoric rise in the music industry.

Elderly, beware: Scams on rise

A phone scammer made a mistake when he called my mother. The young male caller pretended to be her grandson. He said he’d been arrested for fishing on an Indian reservation - unaware he was breaking the law — and needed bail money so a judge wouldn’t throw him in jail.

Planned Parenthood’s true mission

I’ve often been a critic of Planned Parenthood, because I believe that despite its arguments to the contrary, the organization is primarily a political tool for the abortion industry.