When it comes to inversions, (Blog 8/28/14) — corporate shell games to avoid U. S. taxes — some defenders of the practice tie themselves in knots to excuse unpatriotic behavior.  Diana Furchtgott-Roth of Market Watch.com, for example, insists the fault behind this behavio

The war over the price of eBooks between Amazon and the large publishing house, Hachette, still rages.  Hanchette wants more money for its books.  Amazon wants to charge the public less. Recently, a petition signed by  nearly 900 of Hanchette’s most prominent authors appeared in

Yahoo news recently carried an article about a college student who lived in his car during his Freshman year because he couldn’t afford housing.  He talked about the embarrassment he faced because of it, but his experience is far from unique.  Homelessness  is a condition too man

As time grows shorter until my move to the retirement center, I become increasingly nervous.  I worry about the ongoing costs over time and how inflation will eat into my savings.  Almost everyone shares some worry about money, given our sluggish economy.  Much of my anxiety stems

Many years ago, I recall listening to a pundit’s warning on the PBS McNeal-Lehrer Report that a time might come when the world would look back upon the simpler days of the cold war when all the United States had to worry about was Soviet containment.  Once the shadow of the Russian

In its “Spotlight” column, Vanity Fair featured two actresses of a certain age who seemed to look better over time.  Charlotte Rampling was one of them, a woman whose name has become a verb: To rample — meaning “to render a male helpless with a kind of coldly elusive sens

Many years ago, I was diagnosed with a form of lymphoma for which there was no treatment.  At best I was given 5 years to live.  To confirm the diagnosis, sample tissues removed from the lump in my body were shipped to medical facilities around the country.  The reports came back w

Only a few weeks ago, before school started, the temperature climbed above the hundred mark and turned my thoughts to ice cream.  As a child, my mind often wandered in that direction, especially on Saturdays when I’d walked with my mother to the center of town and she’d do a litt

The two years I spent in England were enriching in many ways but gastronomically they were a bust.  The English like to boil everything from their laundry to their brussel sprouts which,  like their socks, come out of the pot blanched white enough to see through.  What they don’t

What is government for?  That’s the central question co-writers Jim Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge explore in their recent article, ”The State of the State.” (Foreign Affairs, July/August, 2014 pgs. 118-132).  They begin their quest with a review of Thomas Hobbes’ Leviat