All the talk about simplified forms is a red herring. It distracts us from the real problem, which is that the amount we’re paying comes nowhere near matching the amount Washington is spending, and neither party wants to confront this.
The way we react to dishonesty in high places says more about our own core principles than it does about those of a public official.
It doesn’t help that partisan politics precludes the nation from having a rational discussion about a propaganda campaign all U.S. intelligence agencies insist is underway.
I stop short of saying I’m grateful for the 1918 pandemic that made my life possible. If scientists believe it’s possible to eradicate the flu, creating a vaccine ought to be a national priority.
I’ve stopped taking candid shots of friends in public places because all I get are the tops of their heads, which are bowed in solemn reverence to the screens in hand.
Predicting the future is an unavoidable pastime this time of year, and we rarely understand what this says about us. Despite all the constant complaining, we are incurable optimists.
In response to an 8-year-old girl, Francis Church, as curmudgeonly as he supposedly was, managed to turn Santa Claus into a symbol of mankind’s potential for goodness, kindness and love.
Politicians are great at getting people to imagine a sunnier past when life was better. They seek votes by convincing people things are getting worse and they have solutions. Don't believe them.
In 1989, we spent 18.9 percent of our income on transportation. In 2016, it was 15.8 percent.
The story that never seems to penetrate the nation’s collective knowledge is that the world now has disease and preventable childhood deaths on the run in Third World countries.
Runaway government spending and household debt can combine to make the next crisis a truly toxic and difficult one to overcome. When that happens, we’ll wonder why we didn’t see it coming.
The heroism of regular people during Hurricane Harvey stood in stark contrast to the seemingly endless pre-Harvey news accounts of pitched battles over Civil War monuments.
If we allow nations to become obsessed with eliminating all things that make life less than perfect, a lot of wonderful things will escape our vision.
Maybe it’s a Western thing. Out here the distances still are wide and people still live mainly in suburban homes with yards. I’m more than a little skeptical about the predictions I’m reading.
What if, when that family began screaming for help off the Florida coast, the only people on the beach had been members of Congress, Republicans and Democrats on a beach excursion?
It’s not clear what level of evidence would be needed to convince those folks who can’t see a nation that exists beyond party loyalty.
It isn’t comforting to think that the same politicians who are trying to fix health care reform in Washington are the ones promising to turn their attention to the income tax soon.