I oversaw the care of an elderly friend in his last years. Up until age 86, Frank was pretty much in control. But then he was diagnosed with cancer. The disease and the drugs greatly sapped powers that old age had already altered. The telephone became his conduit to the outside world. Scammers love people […]

This is what happens in academia when the donors are calling the shots. Heads roll, all right. Big-time. The dean of the faculty supervising arts and sciences went first. Then came the resignation letter from the president of the university. The system falls right apart. Watch it happen in real time at Texas A&M. See […]

Sen. Tom Cotton, a far-out right-winger, is to good public policy what a boll weevil is to a good cotton crop: totally destructive. But he is politically candid: Rather than disguising his racial bigotry, for example, Tom flaunts it, as he did last month in an open letter to the retail giant Target. While the […]

The Italian poet Dante mapped out nine circles of hell, each circle representing a sin. As the circles went deeper into the inferno, the sins attached to them grew more horrible. Without much reflection, MAGA world has engaged in Dante’s three lowest sins. From less terrible to most terrible, they are violence, fraud and treachery. […]

Ron DeSantis began the pre-primary season in about as commanding a position as a challenger could be. He was the guy to watch, the frontrunner among the crowd of challengers. He had the momentum of a big win as governor in a big state, and all the positive media attention, not to mention the money […]