A weekend visit to the Neshoba County Fairgrounds demonstrates that for the politicians and their supporters, the buildup to “Mississippi’s Giant Houseparty” is long since underway. Political signs and placards already dot trees, fence posts and power poles along the seven-mile stretch of Hi…
It is a prudential axiom: If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it. This reflects the awareness that things can always be made worse, and the law of unintended consequences, which is that they often are larger than and contrary to intended ones. As baseball reaches the all-star break amid lamentatio…
There are many definitions of patriotism. Mark Twain said patriotism means supporting your country all the time and your government when it deserves it.
When governor, Haley Barbour dominated the Legislature. He defied observers (me) who pointed out that when members of the 1890 House and Senate wrote the state 1890 Constitution, they assured themselves the power to slap silly any governor silly who tried to thwart their wishes.
Do you ever feel like you’re struggling to take your career to the next level? If so, you’re not alone. Many of the job seekers I speak to each day are struggling with similar feelings. They have not received the achievements they expected to get by now. Perhaps they’re coming up on an impor…
America has military forces committed to locations around the world. About 15 percent of our million man armed forces are so deployed. There are about 800 installations and bases in 70 countries across the globe, with the largest numbers in Asia and Europe but many in the Middle East and Africa.
During an impromptu press conference at last weekend’s G7 summit in rural Quebec, U.S. President Donald Trump described America as “the piggy bank that everybody’s robbing.” It was actually a perfect metaphor for taxpayers in G7 countries.
For 17 days straight, the whole world has held its collective breath as search and rescue experts from around the world converged on a remote, humid jungle cave complex in Thailand to rescue 12 little boys and their soccer coach.
After much prime time buildup, Trump announced Monday night his nomination of U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the nation’s highest court to succeed the retiring Presiding Justice Anthony Kennedy.
The escalating trade war between the United States and China poses crucial, though unanswerable, questions: Is this the beginning of the end of the post-World War II international trading system or will the present arrangements survive, as they have for 70 years?
Close your eyes. Imagine being a politician in a cash-strapped state. Imagine your people — those who voted for you based on your firm stance against tax increases — are going to be hit up for another $100 million every year. Imagine you get the money to spend as you wish, but your purity is…
It’s often said that employees don’t quit jobs. They quit bosses. Can you relate? If you’ve ever left a job, there’s a good chance you might agree with this idea.
Is there a link between this summer’s historic extreme weather events and the political power of radical-right-wing billionaires and corporate plutocrats? Yes.
From time to time, I take stock of progress made on all fronts in my beloved State of Mississippi.
Driving back from a weekend in Lower Alabama, my friend Lee Weiskopf sent a text just as we were leaving Orange Beach telling me that former Lt. Gov. Brad Dye had died. Before we made it past the Mobile Bay Bridge, Lee texted again: “Now, we’ve lost Paul Ott, too.”
Every so often, I jot down a list of the things that discourage me about our country. There’s the widespread disregard for our core values of tolerance and mutual respect, for instance. Our declining national optimism. Our relaxed attitude toward fixing our election machinery, overseeing fin…
Judges are supposed to be unleashed to wield the First Amendment as a weapon.
Did a teacher make you memorize the Declaration of Independence, or at least the first few paragraphs? With apologies, here’s an update … if written by today’s political leaders:
Sure, you’re long-accustomed to schlepping through crowded lines at fast-food chains (a.k.a. “your friendly neighborhood hospice care center for condiment dispensers”) and have grudgingly accepted self-check-out lanes in major retailers (“from the Nobel Prize-worthy humanitarians who convinc…
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the beginning of the “global warming” (now known as “climate change”) panic.
In a 5-4 decision that strangely crossed traditional judicial ideological lines, the Supreme Court last week brought online sales and use tax law fairness to mom-and-pop merchants on Main Street who had long been at a seven percent price disadvantage in Mississippi in competition with out-of…
Amid the carnage of Republican misrule in Washington, there is this glimmer of good news: The family-shredding policy along the southern border, which was merely the most telegenic recent example of misrule, clarified something. Occurring less than 140 days before elections that can reshape …
What do Oxford and Starkville have in common? Both were — or almost were — players in determining the future of the European Union, thereby exerting influence over some of the largest and oldest economies in the world.
My column a fortnight ago, titled “Diversity and Inclusion Harm,” focused on the dumbing down of science, technology, engineering and mathematics curricula to achieve a more pleasing mixture of participants in terms of race and sex. Heather Mac Donald, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Instit…
Have you ever been asked, “How much do you make?” in a job interview? This question usually shows up during the first phone call.
Have you ever been asked, “How much do you make?” in a job interview? This question usually shows up during the first phone call.
There aren’t many people who would argue Congress is working well these days. It’s been 24 years since it passed a comprehensive budget without resorting to omnibus bills. It can’t pass health-care legislation. Its members talk about the desperate need for a new infrastructure bill, but can’…
Need proof that the current controversy over children of undocumented immigrants is more political than humanitarian? Hillary Clinton said she was “adamantly against illegal immigrants” and supported a border wall until she ran for president in 2016.
For voters, the June 26 primary runoff elections are unfortunately looking like low turnout, low interest affairs that don’t promise much to voters in terms of the opportunity to substantially change their ballot choices in the Nov. 6 general election.
Some protesting the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Masterpiece Cakeshop vs. Colorado Civil Rights Commission contend the 7-2 decision proved the justices hate gays.
On Sunday, a day we as a nation set aside to honor fathers and the bonds of family, I was among the millions of Americans who watched images of children who have been torn from their parents. In the six weeks between April 19 and May 31, the Department of Homeland Security has sent nearly 2,…
For several decades, a few black scholars have been suggesting that the vision held by many black Americans is entirely wrong. Dr. Shelby Steele, a scholar at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, said: “Instead of admitting that racism has declined, we (blacks) argue all the harder that…
The summer is an exciting time for young job seekers. A new group of graduates has just been minted and are searching for their first full-time job. But, there are many pitfalls you may encounter along the way. Here are a few suggestions to help you in your search.
Karl Marx was no more mistaken than usual when he said that historic people and events appear twice, first as tragedy, then as farce. Today’s advocates of a musty fragment of the 1970s, the Equal Rights Amendment, are demonstrating that something that begins as farce can reappear as tragedy,…
I have often thought that tributes to those we love are best made when the object of our affection is still with us, rather than at their funerals.
Every so often, I jot down a list of the things that discourage me about our country. There’s the widespread disregard for our core values of tolerance and mutual respect, for instance. Our declining national optimism. Our relaxed attitude toward fixing our election machinery, overseeing fin…
Both here in Mississippi and nationally, congressional candidates are making no mention of the serious challenges faced by the present iterations of the Social Security and Medicare programs. Baby Boomers poised to collect the entitlements are decidedly not ignoring the issues, but are nervo…
The longer it’s around, the more it appears social media has the wrong name. It’s really antisocial media.
In conversations with most college officials, many CEOs, many politicians and race hustlers, it’s not long before the magical words “diversity” and “inclusiveness” drop from their lips. Racial minorities are the intended targets of this sociological largesse, but women are included, as well.…
Nothing appears beyond the reach of the social engineers, not even cake.
Before my son became a Marine, I never thought much about who was defending me. Now when I read of the war on terrorism or the coming conflict in Iraq, it cuts to my heart. When I see a picture of a member of our military who has been killed, I read his or her name very carefully.
Within 17 days in the autumn of 1975 — first in Sacramento, then in San Francisco — two separate handgun-wielding women attempted to assassinate the president. Had either succeeded, and each was close enough to have done so, the nation would have had a third president in 14 months, and a sec…
Mississippi Democrats showed signs of political life in recent months after years of fielding candidates in congressional elections who could fairly be described as either noble ideologues or political sacrificial lambs.
Will Morgan Freeman be the person who brings perspective to the conversation? If so, that would be a good thing.
Having enjoyed my 82nd birthday, I am part of a group of about 50 million Americans who are 65 years of age or older. Those who are 90 or older were in school during the 1930s. My age cohort was in school during the 1940s. Baby boomers approaching their 70s were in school during the 1950s an…
I recently had the opportunity to attend Indeed Interactive, in Austin, Texas. Indeed.com is the world’s largest job website. It’s like the Google of job searches. Indeed Interactive is the annual conference where thousands of human resources professionals come together to learn about the la…
The scientific, moral and theological battle between life as an “endowed unalienable” right and the evolutionary view that we are just material and energy shaped by pure chance in a random universe with no author of life, no purpose for living and no destination after we die has been won in …
Franklin Roosevelt, afflicted by the disease at age 39, died in April 1945 at the polio recuperation facility he had created in Warm Springs, Ga. Before then, Mitch McConnell living in Five Points, Ala., began going there for treatment for the polio that struck him at age two, in 1944.
With Mississippi’s two 2018 U.S. Senate races predicated on brawling attacks, counterattacks and philosophical contrasts in party primaries and in the special election, one might expect a similar Pier 6 political donnybrook in Mississippi’s Third Congressional District race to succeed the r…
For the most part, we Americans value expertise. We want our physicians to possess knowledge and experience. We want our lawyers to know the law inside out. We want our clergymen, our engineers, our farmers to bring the kind of proficiency and skill to their work that comes only with familia…
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