Columns

Is it normal to be thankful for these things?

I would love to revolutionize your Thanksgiving Day speeches, but I must admit that the blessings I feel gratitude for are embarrassingly mundane.

Strangers took me around the world

Strangers often sat at our Thanksgiving dinner when I was a boy, and I learned a lot from most of them. In fact, those strangers nearly changed the course of my life.

Advise and consent as important as ever

There is a great old movie, a black and white classic called “Advise and Consent.

Is Trump an aberration or is America changing?

Listen. Put your hand to your ear. Can you hear it? (Silence). That’s the sound of the Trumpites hollering about all the election fraud. Oh, that’s alright. You see, the Republicans won. There’s only election fraud when Trump and Republicans lose.

Celebrating our great Americans

Celebrating our great Americans (November 11) When he was told he had only weeks to live, his response was telling. He was calm and at peace. At 82, he told his children, he had lived much longer than he expected. He had fought in World War II, after all — the “big one” as he called it.

‘Progressive education’ brought open warfare

The Opelousas Daily World described it as “open warfare” in 1954 after Robert Olivier, assistant principal at Washington High School, took on the education establishment over so-called “progressive education.

Have you fought for a lost cause?

I probably hadn’t seen Frank Capra’s “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” before launching my crusade 50 years ago, but the idea “lost causes are the only causes that are worth fighting for” would’ve certainly resonated with me.

Trump’s victory, seen through the lens of cable news

On election night, I was switching between CNN and MSNBC for election coverage, because my motto is the same as Ghenghis Khan (or was it Sun Tzu?) “Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.

Trump has made the GOP great again

For Democrats and their weeping soulmates in liberal media, it’s “Mourning in America.” Not morning – M-O-U-R-N-I-N-G. But for those of us who voted for Donald Trump, today feels like the opening line of my father’s famous TV campaign commercial – “It’s morning again in America.

Dying makes life worth living!

Get this: life expectancy has apparently hit its peak. According to msn.com, a recent study published in the journal Nature Aging finds that, barring any major medical breakthroughs, “people will top out at a maximum average age of around 87 — 90 for women, 84 for men.