LONDON – To read and watch the reaction of people who have hated Fox News from its creation, one might think it resembles dancing on someone’s grave, but at 92, Rupert Murdoch remains very much alive and his influence, not only on Fox, but in much of

This week, yet another government shutdown appears inevitable because a sizable chunk of the House Freedom Caucus believes, in the words of Otter in “Animal House,” that “this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done o

I’m sure I wasn’t the only TV viewer who stuck a finger in my ear and jiggled it after I heard former President Donald Trump criticize the six-week abortion ban brought about by his Republican opponent Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Or as Trump famously

LONDON – British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, after first announcing a mandate requiring all fossil fueled vehicles sold in the UK after 2030 to be electric, succumbed to pressure from the Conservative Party and within his own government and announced

One of the best things that ever happened to me was when my parents sent me to Salesianum, a private boys’ high school in Wilmington, Delaware. It’s a great school, I got an outstanding education, and I learned a set of good, solid values that have g

It’s 10 p.m. at Montrose Harbor in Chicago. Kiko and Tamar help me step from the dock into the wobbly rowboat. Kiko rows us out to the Golden Rule and I climb aboard in wonder. Oh my God! This is it – the 30-foot, anti-nuke sailboat with a history go

The Republican Party, the party that for years has styled itself as the party of “family values” and “traditional marriage” has lost all credibility on these issues. Not only do polls show a huge majority of Republicans supporting the thrice-married,

Like numerous other folks who did not support Mitt Romney’s election when he was challenging then-President Barack Obama in 2012, I think he looks a lot better to me now than he did then — and not just because he decided to retire from the Senate. Co

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s decision to move ahead with impeachment proceedings — and the Democrats’ response — reminded me of something Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser reportedly once said, “The genius of you Americans is that you never mak

So now it’s Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates’ turn to be pilloried for sending a child to a private high school. “That story sounds familiar,” said my very astute wife, a product of Chicago public schools. It should sound familiar a

It’s hard to know what to say about House Republicans moving to impeach President Biden, except: it’s insane; it’s totally evidence-free; it’s pure revenge for two impeachments of Donald Trump; and it’s the most outrageous abuse of congressional powe

There was a time in bygone America when calling someone a “hypocrite” or claiming they were guilty of hypocrisy was equivalent to branding them with a scarlet letter or the mark of Cain. Today, in an era of opinion polls, trendsetting, and ever-shift

On a shrugged-off afternoon of YouTube wandering, I came upon this: “Is There Life After Death?” Hmm . . . well, is there? Turns out it was a presentation by five professors at the University of Virginia, moderated, good God, by John Cleese. I more o

The more than 20-year odyssey to legalize some children of immigrant parents has reached a new low. “Dreamers” do not have the right to exist without fear of being hauled off by federal officials and sent “home,” to nations where they were born, but

Mayor Eric Adams is earning praise from Republicans, which is always a danger sign for Democrats. He’s also receiving criticism from members of his own party, which is nothing out of the blue either. The reactions came after he told an audience of Up

“When people lack teachers, their tendencies are not corrected; when they do not have ritual and moral principles, then their lawlessness is not controlled.” (XunZi – ancient Chinese philosopher) Walking along a street in Madrid in the 1970s after a

Last week Mike Pence gave a speech at Saint Anselm College that, depending on your view of the man, was either courageous or desperate — or both. Titled “Populism vs. Conservatism: Republicans’ Time for Choosing,” the speech was an homage to his hero

Republicans believe they’ve found the winning argument for 2024. They can’t argue with President Biden’s record, because most of his legislative victories had the help of Republican votes. They can’t make the case that the economy’s a disaster, becau

If one is mixing chemicals, getting the formula wrong can produce disastrous results. It is the same with international diplomacy. For decades the left was wrong about the Soviet Union and China, believing that what the U.S. did or did not do would h

Republicans believe they’ve found the winning argument for 2024. They can’t argue with President Biden’s record, because most of his legislative victories had the help of Republican votes. They can’t make the case that the economy’s a disaster, becau

Freedom’s just another word for . . . blowing up your children? Giving them cancer? Militarism is obsolete, for God’s sake. Its technology is out of control. The latest shred of news that has left me stunned and terror-stricken is this, as reported b

At least most people are conscientious enough to preface an unqualified medical diagnosis with, “Well, I’m not a doctor, but…” What follows is generally their personal take on a range of ailments related to aging that have zero credibility, based on

It’s been a good summer for climate activists who are pushing the false narrative of “climate change.” We had the Canadian wildfires with smoke drifting into other parts of North America. Then there were hotter than usual temperatures in many parts o

An “active shooter” situation is a hell of a way to start a school year — and I do mean hell. That’s what it was like for students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill after associate professor Zijie Yan was fatally shot in a science bu

In December 1998, Rep. Bob Livingston, Republican of Louisiana, was set to succeed Rep. Newt Gingrich as speaker of the House. Gingrich had announced his resignation from Congress and the speakership in the wake of a disastrous midterm election for R

At last week’s Republican presidential debate, the moderators asked whether Vice President Mike Pence did the right thing in refusing Donald Trump’s demands that he try to overturn Joe Biden’s victory when Congress counted the electoral votes on Janu

It can be difficult to establish the motives of government leaders, unless they are told to us outright, or unless a pattern of behavior allows us to draw conclusions consistent with that behavior. The wave of migrants illegally crossing America’s so

As I trek toward the Great Unknown, as life’s struggles seem to intensify, some odd questions keep recurring. Art — what is it again? Why does it matter? How does it matter? What does it mean to be “good” at it? That last question, in particular, can

Americans of a certain age will remember the fun of coming up with a new oxymoron. Three of my favorites were “airline food,” “military intelligence,” and “jumbo shrimp.” The game is back! Under hapless Speaker Kevin McCarthy, House Republicans have

Sixty years after the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s historic March on Washington, much of his dream is still just a dream. I’d like to offer a more cheerful message, but that’s hard today, even for a resilient self-described optimist like me, after t