While in public life, I opposed “sin taxes.” Sin taxes are the fees governments collects on alcohol sales, gambling enterprises and state lotteries. In my view, government shouldn’t be in the business of promoting addictions even if part of the pot is set aside for treatment pro

In my blog of 9/In 17/13, I wrote about the latest research on why people are drawn to conspiracy theories. Interestingly, a new book on the subject is just out, The United States of Paranoia: A Conspiracy Theory by Jesse Walker. It recounts some of the best imagined plots in the hist

When I was in elementary school, a stack of newspapers used to appear in the classroom every Thursday afternoon. The publication was called American Scholastic. I hated those Thursdays as we were required to read and discuss several of the articles it contained. At 11 years of age, I

As I read books like Lean In and contemplate what roles women should play on the world stage, I am discouraged to learn that for every step forward, women are also taking a step backward. Take, for example, the reversal of fortune for women in Australia. After ousting Julia Gillard as

When Marshall McLuhan published his best seller, The Medium is the Massage in 1964, he turned our understanding of the communications media on its head. What he wrote then seems obvious today: that each medium, telegraph, radio, television for example, produces a different effect on i

Human ingenuity never fails to amaze and amuse me. If there’s a buck to be made, someone will discover how. I’ve written many times about all the “entrepreneurs” who stand ready to help a writer part with his or her money. Most of the services offered are ineffective or writer

Today’s blog is about banking in the United States, a topic that might hold little interest for readers who live outside the country, but we all know that when our financial system hiccups, there are reverberations around the globe. Today, our guide through the wonderland of high fi

Politicians love to tug at our hearts with their concern for children’s welfare and the country applauds. But the end result is much ado about nothing. 1 in 5 children in the United States lives below the poverty line. What’s more, when compared to other industrialized nations, we

I’ve been thinking a lot about higher education, of late. One fact is clear. The enormous debt students incur upon graduation makes getting a well-paid job a necessity and that necessity has called into question the value of liberal art studies. As Governor Rick Scott of Florida rec

At lunch, a friend volunteered that writing emails and texting seemed to have reduced her attention span. I knew what she meant. I, too, grow impatient with suspense novels that exceed the point of reasonable tension, or folks who tell a story but have trouble getting to the point. Bu