Politics

February 3rd, 2017
The signs of popular dissent from President Trump’s opening volley of actions have been plain to see on the nation’s streets, at airports in the aftermath of his refugee and visa ban, and in the blizzard of outrage on social media. But there’s another level of resistance to the new president that is less visible and potentially more troublesome to...
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February 3rd, 2017
Tuesday night, President Donald Trump announced his nomination for the Supreme Court vacancy left by the unexpected death of Justice Antonin Scalia last February. Trump nominated Judge Neil M. Gorsuch of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit. With this nomination, Trump held to the promise he made on the campaign trail to select a nominee from a list of...
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February 1st, 2017
One of the sharpest criticisms that comes against Bible-quoting, conservative Christians is that we are hypocrites, failing to live by the very book that we so zealously quote. Sadly, that criticism is often true. To give just one example (and as I’ve said countless times), no-fault, heterosexual divorce in the evangelical church has done more to undermine marriage than all...
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February 1st, 2017
This week, the Trump administration botched the rollout of a relatively moderate immigration and refugee executive order that would have paused immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries for a set period of time and ended Syrian-refugee immigration indefinitely. Instead of vetting the executive order or coordinating with the relevant agencies, the Trump team simply unleashed it, leading to widespread chaos at...
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February 1st, 2017
WASHINGTON — For the White House, President Trump’s first nomination to the Supreme Court is partly about getting the chance to make a second. In tapping Judge Neil M. Gorsuch for an open seat, Mr. Trump chose a candidate with the potential to reassure Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, the swing vote who holds the balance of power on the court,...
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February 1st, 2017
Donald Trump should push the nuclear button. No, not the one that launches actual nuclear weapons. I mean the one that blows up Democratic obstruction to his Supreme Court nominee and puts a reliable conservative on the court to replace justice Antonin Scalia. There is no reason for Trump and Senate Republicans not to go nuclear. Senate Democrats have already...
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February 1st, 2017
As British Prime Minister Theresa May becomes the first foreign leader to visit President Trump, it is a good time to consider that Margaret Thatcher, much more than Ronald Reagan, is the real model for the Trump presidency. Trump’s inaugural address last Friday had the directness and confrontational tone of a Thatcher speech. The president was clear that he stood...
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January 31st, 2017
President Trump’s temporary ban on entry into the U.S. by various categories of aliens has caused a firestorm. That owes in part to the rash implementation of perfectly legal restrictions, but the hysteria is out of proportion to the minimal harm actually done. One of the most dismaying parts of the debate has been the banter over whether Trump has...
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January 30th, 2017
I’m beginning to get a sense of what it was like to be alive in ancient times when a marauding warlord melted down your village’s golden calf. Weeping. Gnashing of teeth. Rending of garments. Wearing of vagina hats. Their god failed to protect the village, and now he’s a bracelet on the warlord’s wrist. It’s pathetic, really, the emotional reaction...
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January 26th, 2017
When I first took my two aged, beloved beagles to the incompetent veterinarian, I didn’t make much of the fact that his practice adjoined an ethnic butcher shop. Once he’d muddled the diagnosis of both dogs, left one untreated for a kidney infection till he lost all bladder control, and tried to pressure me into a useless, dangerous surgery on...
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