Recently, President  Obama held a press conference where only women reporters were given an opportunity to field questions.  His conduct drew much speculation in the media, and the reason may have been a response to some released studies that show women tend to remain silent in foru

When I ran for public office, I described myself as a fiscal conservative but a social liberal.  Over time, I came to see my description was facile and without meaning.  What was I saying about myself?  That I don’t want people to pay much in taxes, but I wanted day care and heal

A wonderful bakery exists two blocks from my new address so Sunday morning I walked over to buy some fresh croissants.  On the way, I stopped at a newspaper stand and bent down to read the headline.  Apparently, our city commissioners had passed an ordinance which required property

Joseph Stiglitz, American economist and winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Economics, has written a thought provoking piece in January’s Vanity Fair.  In it, he looks at America’s future now that China has overtaken it as the world’s largest economy.  Most certainly, he predict

Recently, I exchanged messages on Facebook with a young man from India.  He’d recently lost his virginity and felt guilty, but mostly his anxiety came from not knowing how the girl felt about the experience.  He didn’t love the young woman but had been carried away by his emotio

I’m sure most of us have made a computer mistake similar to the one I made recently. You punch in a password to a secure site and the computer spits it back as invalid.  You try again, thinking you’ve mistyped a letter, but the machine doesn’t budge an inch.  “Have you forgo

At the turn of the New Year, an acquaintance wrote a long piece on Facebook which expressed his disillusionment with the human race, accusing us of being liars and users in whom he had no trust.   Needless to say, I thought his judgment overly harsh and wondered that a man with so m

At one point in my political life I seriously advocated that the County Commission, of which I was a member, reserve every 3rd or 4th year to consider eliminating some of the laws on our books.  My remark always earned a laugh, but I was in dead earnest.  Unfortunately, when someone

I don’t need to explore the universe to live in a state of wonder.  Observing the human race is enough for me.  A number of articles  appeared in the December 19th issue of The Week that should convince the likes of Hawking or Einstein that there is more mystery in human behavior

After reading an excerpt from Jenny Nordberg’s book, The Underground Girls of Kabul: In Search of a Hidden Resistance in Afghanistan, I wanted to throw up my hands in despair. (“Hiding girls in plain sight,” The Week, December 5, 2014 pgs. 40-41, excerpted from The Underground G