“Partisan gerrymandering is nothing new,” writes Chief Justice John Roberts near the beginning of his opinion in Rucho v. Common Cause. “Nor is frustration with it.” The question is what, if anything, federal courts ought to do about it. The answer the chief justice and the four other ...

A terrible thought, but suppose the planet were to heat up by 2 degrees Celsius — the level past which environmental damage would be catastrophic. It would also be wildly expensive. That much warming could cost the global economy $69 trillion by 2100, according to a study by Moody’s ...

Have you been enjoying the 243rd birthday of our country Wait a minute. Do I hear some grousing out there? Is that grumbling I hear about the state of the nation? Complaints that everything is not perfect in the USA? Get a grip, people. No nation can be faultless in its operation. We are, ...

Dear Readers, A few weeks ago, I printed a column on ultra-processed foods. The National Institute of Health (NIH) performed a study and found that participants on an ultra-processed foods diet consumed about 500 calories more per day than the group who consumed an unprocessed foods diet. As ...

The First Amendment to our Constitution was proposed by the 1788 Virginia ratification convention during its narrow 89 to 79 vote to ratify the Constitution. Virginia’s resolution held that the free exercise of religion, right to assembly and free speech could not be canceled, abridged or ...

It would tax even the prodigious powers of the late novelist Tom Wolfe to create a more poignant political scene than a bright, young, white mayor of a small city, who is an upstart presidential candidate and progressive darling, getting yelled at by black residents during a town hall. The ...

At least three score years ago, my savvy precinct committeewoman impressed upon me an immutable political truth: Every election is not about the candidate(s); no, every election is about the voters ... and about the future. I’m relieved that my precinct committeewoman was not around to hear ...

“The liberal idea has become obsolete. ... (Liberals) cannot simply dictate anything to anyone as they have been attempting to do over the recent decades.” Such was the confident claim of Vladimir Putin to the Financial Times on the eve of a G-20 gathering that appeared to validate his ...

“Surreal” was the word Ivanka Trump used to describe North Korea, which she briefly visited this past weekend with dear ol’ dad. It was the first time an American president had crossed the threshold into the hermit kingdom, where Trump met with his love-letter-writing bro Kim Jong Un. ...

No summer cookout is complete without coleslaw, so today I have recipes for the next time you fire up the grill. Pineapple Cole Slaw 1 head cabbage, shredded or one bag 1 8 oz. can unsweetened pineapple tidbits 1 c. mayonnaise Salt and pepper Drain juice from pineapple. Blend juice, ...

I had no intention of telling this story here. Independence Day was Thursday, and I thought I might talk about the meaning of freedom in the age of Trump. Refugees are imprisoned in squalor on our southern border, the government balking at providing them toothpaste and soap, and I thought I ...

Given the recent fight over whether U.S. refugee detention centers are in fact “concentration camps,” the Trump administration might want to borrow a page from the Chinese and simply call them “vocational skills education training centers.” That way, no one would really care at ...

Ever get the feeling that you don’t belong? You come to work and do your job, but you can’t escape the suspicion that everyone else is different from you. In a word, you’re a misfit. Now, it could be that everyone else in your office is a misfit, and you’re the only normal person. ...

In the modern world, there have been steady increases in life expectancy. It has more than doubled in the last two centuries — that is, until now. As widely reported, for the third year in a row, the U.S. death rate rose last year. Until recently, the big debate for demographers had to do ...

Ginnie calls it a “staycation.” Instead of going on a summer vacation, we stay at home and get things done—staycation. It’s fine with me. I’ve always been a home body (boy). I love our home, our two-and-a-half acres of Empty Nest Farm. Everything I could want is right here — my art, ...

On Friday, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released its monthly jobs report, which showed an economy that continues to rocket higher. 224,000 new jobs were added in June, far better than May’s dud of a report that showed only 72,000 new jobs. While this was good news, it also means that ...

During a single visit to Asia, President Trump embraced not one, not two, but three dictators. He became the first American president to set foot in North Korea, where he praised his “great friendship” with North Korea’s despotic leader, Kim Jong Un; he held another cringe-worthy press ...

On this 243rd anniversary of the beginning of the best thing that ever happened — “The Great Republic” was Winston Churchill’s tribute — many of today’s most interesting arguments about America’s nature and meaning are among conservatives. One concerns the relevance of the ...

With the first round of Democratic Party debates behind us, Americans have now heard from their candidates why they think they should run the country. One theme permeates the messages of all these Democrats. America is not fair, and they aspire to be president to make things ...

It is often said our nation’s capital is filled with wealthy college-educated elites operating in a company town where everything is transactional. They are a clubby set of folks who can “fail up” in their profession and rarely interact meaningfully with anyone who isn’t part of their ...