Year: 2012

…Is Michael Moore going to give up his armed security guards? …Can celebrities like Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Tom Hanks and Lindsay Lohan get rid of their armed bodyguards? …When will Michael Bloomberg declare that he doesn’t want any armed protection? …Can Congress fire all its security guards and use the money to pay down […]

Is it just me, or does Kwanzaa seem to come earlier and earlier each year? And let’s face it, Kwanzaa’s gotten way too commercialized. A few years ago, I suspended my annual Kwanzaa column because my triumph over this fake holiday seemed complete. The only people still celebrating Kwanzaa were presidential-statement writers and white female […]

The year 2012 saw the triumph of cold reality over pie-in-the-sky dreams. Barack Obama in 2008 won an election on an upbeat message of change in the hope that the first black president would mark a redemptive moment in American history. Four years later, the fantasies are gone. In continuing dismal economic times, Obama ran […]

In combing through the results of the 2012 election — apparently finally complete, nearly two months after the fact — I continue to find many similarities between 2012 and 2004, and one enormous difference. Both of the elections involved incumbent presidents with approval ratings hovering around or just under 50 percent facing challengers who were […]

Abandon all hope, ye who watch the “fiscal cliff” drama. There has been serious pressure on House Republicans to buckle and pass the extension of the Bush tax cuts for 98 percent of income tax filers demanded by President Barack Obama. I would have cried, “Uncle.” Polls show that voters are predisposed to blame Republicans […]

Over at: the Corner, David French: made a brilliant point about something that has become one of the central problems of governing America in an opulent age of runaway partisanship, infinite niches and a fractured society. Over at the Daily Beast, Megan McArdle has a long, bleakly realistic piece explaining why there’s little we can do – […]

These simple common-sense steps are adapted from a post I published on my blog after the horrific Newtown, Conn., massacre. Our hearts ache, but we are not completely helpless or hopeless in the face of evil and the unknown. And we are not alone. This Christmas, cherish life, keep faith and practice self-empowerment. 7. Teach […]

Charity — helping people who have trouble helping themselves — is a good thing two times over. It’s good for the beneficiary and good for the donor, too. Stephen Post’s fine book, “The Hidden Gifts of Helping,” reveals that 76 percent of Americans say that helping others is what makes them most happy. Giving money […]

Here’s the first paragraph of my last year’s column “Democracy Is Impossible”: “After Moammar Gadhafi’s downfall as Libya’s tyrannical ruler, politicians and ‘experts’ in the U.S. and elsewhere, including French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe, are saying that his death marked the end of 42 years of tyranny and the beginning of democracy in Libya. Sen. […]

Random thoughts on the passing scene: When I was growing up, an older member of the family used to say, “What you don’t know would make a big book.” Now that I am an older member of the family, I would say to anyone, “What you don’t know would fill more books than the Encyclopedia […]

Imagine it’s Christmas Eve in your local church and the offering plate is passed to help a local orphanage build an addition because there’s “no room in the inn.” But just when you’re about to give generously to the cause, you recall that politicians in Washington recently voted to reduce tax deductions for charitable giving. […]

When I was 20, I spent my junior year in college in England. When classes let out for the last two weeks of December, I traveled to Morocco, where something life-changing occurred. What happened was that I felt a longing, even an emptiness, I had never before experienced. Something was missing from my life, but […]

Most people who haven’t finished their shopping are starting to worry about what gifts to give a friend, relative or spouse. Quick, what did you give or receive last year? How about two years ago? Most of us can’t remember, unless it was a big-ticket item. What if you could give a gift that mattered; […]