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The Daily Litany Begins The Night Before

The sun rose yesterday in Washington, D.C., at 6:02 a.m. I made my routine morning run in the silence of dawn, passing the Lincoln Memorial and running along the still water of the Reflecting Pool. Like the giant sculpture of President Lincoln, I faced due east and watched as the sun rose over the horizon, melting the pockets of nighttime shadows, stirring the still-sleeping birds in to their morning chatter and waking the world with its advancing light. Henry Bacon and Daniel Chester French, the architects of the Lincoln Memorial, must have imagined the 16th president seated there, ...

How Long Will Vandals Run Amok?

The left’s war on America’s past crossed several new frontiers last week. Portland’s statue of George Washington, the Father of his Country and the first president of the United States, the greatest man of his age, was toppled and desecrated. While the statue stood, an American flag was draped over its head and set ablaze. After it was pulled down, a new fire was set on another American flag spread across the statue, and also burned. The vacated pedestal was painted with the words, “You’re on Native Land.” In Portland also, a statue of Thomas Jefferson that stood at the ...

Trump Threatens Civilization

This election “is no longer about Donald Trump’s tweeting,” conservative historian Victor Davis Hanson told Fox News host Tucker Carlson the other night. Nor is it about “a lockdown, the virus, the economy (or) foreign policy. It’s an existential question ... and I’m going to vote for civilization.” Ah, the conservative warning of barbarians at the gate. It’s a hardy perennial. I recognize it because, as a conservative myself, I’m in sympathy with it — to a point. In “The Righteous Mind,” Jonathan Haidt observed that both progressives and conservatives are ...

Separation Of Powers Is A Key Principle

Have you noticed that people from many states lately refer to what a governor permits? And have you noticed that many don’t even question the legality of such decrees? Let’s back up. A key principle in American constitutional law is the limited and enumerated powers of government: In this country, any government has only those powers that We the People granted to it through the constitution or analogous document establishing it. It has no other powers. As the U.S. Supreme Court held in A.L.A. Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States in 1935, “Extraordinary conditions may call ...

Baseball Is As Faded As Roy Rogers

These days, I save a quarter-hour of time by not checking the previous night’s baseball results each morning. That feels odd, vaguely like leaving the house without my car keys. In one sense, I am always troubled when I leave the house without my car keys. But in a closer-to-home sense, I usually leave my car keys on my desk when I feed the dogs, cats and chickens or to take my daily one-mile walk around our fields. I take that walk with our two dogs. Passers-by sometimes see from one to four small gray cats appearing to tag along. Cats, being cats, don’t admit to liking ...

Computer Geek Worries About Parents

Arbed and Fred are a retired couple who were both involved in the helping profession for over 40-years. I took a call from one of their children, Jules, a self-described computer geek. He explained that he worried about his parents. They were residing in their family home, which they built 50 years ago. The multi-dwelling no longer fit their needs. Fred and Arbed were struggling to maintain their home. Jules was exploring viable options that would be safe and secure. Months of investigative work were at an impasse. He labeled them “stubborn.” What to do ... what to do. His call ...