Not long ago, in Spartanburg, S.C., I visited the offices of something called the Spartanburg Academic Movement (SAM). The walls were lined with charts measuring things like kindergarten readiness, third-grade reading scores and postsecondary enrollment.
When you’re clicking along and things are working, it’s easy to take forward motion for granted. You get in your car, turn it on and drive to work, so preoccupied that once there, you can’t remember the ride in. You were driving on autopilot: Everything was working, so you did not pay attention.
As of this year, nine states and the District of Columbia – including Alaska, California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Maine, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington – have legalized the possession and recreational use of marijuana. Those same nine states plus 22 more have legalized the use of m…
Enough already.
For Mississippi’s first 155 years, the power to tax was jealously guarded by the Legislature. It still is, but there was a lapse.
Democratic socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, seeking to represent New York’s 14th Congressional District, has called for the abolition of the Electoral College. Her argument came on the heels of the Senate’s confirming Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. She was lamenting the fact that C…
Have you ever had someone tell you that it’s a good idea to get your foot in the door at a company? The theory is that if you get your foot in the door, you can work your way up over time. I understand the reasoning. It’s a career outlook that has been around for a long time. But, in today’s…
It was only a matter of time before a journalist was murdered as part of a state-sanctioned hit.
The midterm elections are less than 30 days away, but if you missed the deadline to register to vote in your state — many of which already passed this week — you’re out of luck.
Many sources of information today cater to a narrow political view, making no pretense of objectivity. Their goal is to incite, not inform. What’s needed is a common base of knowledge we can use to forge agreement
After the national fabric was almost rent in twain during the bitter fight over the confirmation of now Associate Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, what next for the U.S. Supreme Court?
The descent of American capitalism into a racket is being greased by professed capitalists in government, in collaboration with professed capitalists in what is called, with decreasing accuracy, the private sector. This is occurring under the auspices of Republicans, and while many Democrats…
Newspapers are businesses like no other. While other employers contribute to community life, newspapers, when operating at their best, are centers for community conversation and drive the quality of community life.
You know, I love tech companies. With a computer engineering undergrad, I’ve spent my entire career working in the world of technology in one way or another.
The Senate adopted the modern university’s doctrine of self-censorship, no-go zones and safe spaces.
It’s time for To Kill a Mockingbird to give up its treasured place in American culture.
A 2019 gubernatorial battle between incumbent Republican Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves of Rankin County and incumbent Democratic Attorney General Jim Hood of Chickasaw County stacks up as an instant classic old school political street brawl – the likes of which hasn’t been seen in Mississippi since R…
President Barack Obama’s first education secretary, Arne Duncan, gave a speech on the 45th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday” at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, where, in 1965, state troopers beat and tear-gassed hundreds of peaceful civil rights marchers who were demanding voting ri…
Unbeknownst to my media colleagues, the nominal Republicans on Mississippi’s Nov. 6 special election ballot have already debated. Yes, U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith and state Sen. Chris McDaniel hashed things out at the Tutwiler Civic and Social Club. No media was present, but here’s a transcript:
Dear Hiring Manager,
“Here’s my question,” tweets legal scholar Jeffrey A. Sachs, obviously in response to the controversy over Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. “what is the alternative reality where Roe was never decided, levels of partisan polarization are identical to our own, and the SCOTUS appointment…
Listening to people argue about politics these days is like overhearing people in a restaurant who are in a bad marriage. They’re always trying to use disagreements to establish superiority. It’s not merely, “We’re different.” It’s, “I’m better.”
In the old days, a long drive on a state highway through stretches of rural Mississippi were a reasonably reliable barometer of the voter support or at the very least the fiscal health of a statewide campaign. All one had to do was count the billboards and yard signs.
Police came to Kim Brooks’ parents’ door in suburban Richmond, Virginia, demanding that her mother say where her daughter was or be arrested for obstructing justice. So began a Kafkaesque two-year ordeal that plunged Brooks into reflections about current parenting practices. It also produced…
Mississippi could use more leaders like Commissioner of Public Safety Marshall Fisher. He says what he thinks, does what he says he is going to do.
Mississippi could use more leaders like Commissioner of Public Safety Marshall Fisher. He says what he thinks, does what he says he is going to do.
I’m thankful that increasing attention is being paid to the dire state of higher education in our country. Heather Mac Donald, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute, has just published “The Diversity Delusion.” Its subtitle captures much of the book’s content: “How Race and Gender Pandering Co…
It’s official. It’s less than sixty days until Thanksgiving. Although you shouldn’t stop your job search when the turkey has been served, hiring will slow down as the holidays heat up. It’s just a fact of life. If you’ve been thinking of finding a new job, this is the time.
Sadly, it’s too late for generations of American women. We blew up the culture, replaced it with a form of sexual anarchy, and are now trying to cobble together a zombified version of the old mores, a skeletal version of the traditional morality that our nation’s elites used to scorn so hear…
Last month as a nation, we lost a great public servant to brain cancer. U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., was a man of courage and conviction. As I read the tributes from members of both houses of Congress, it became apparent that while they may not have all agreed with his politics, they resp…
Nationally, the Democratic Party, which gave indispensable assistance (“Basket of deplorables”!) to the election of today’s president, seems intent (“Impeach!”; “Abolish ICE!”; “Free stuff!”, “I am Spartacus!”) on a repeat performance. Here, however, in the 7th Congressional District, in wha…
The so-called “jungle primary” to choose a successor to retired Republican Mississippi U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran took a truly strange turn in downtown Oxford last week.
It’s the season for storms to line up in the Atlantic and Pacific, seeming to take aim. TV weatherfolk become hyper-animated over how awful everything is going to be — which is too often true. What’s missing from the big picture is the small picture of individuals and small groups helping bo…
It’s decided to declare political war on Hungary. Only national rights and open debate can save it now.
The title of my column today may sound a bit confusing. It comes from one of my own mentors. Years ago, when I was finishing graduate school in California, I spent a significant amount of time searching for the right job. I would go to job fairs and networking events as if it were my full-ti…
The assault on civil rights that was mandated by the civil rights division of Barack Obama’s Education Department might soon abate. Current Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is moving to halt the life-shattering procedures that began in 2011, when the department sent to colleges and universiti…
We’ve tried liberalism and conservatism and now we’re trying populism. Maybe the next era of public life will be defined by a resurgence of localism.
Conservative newspaper columnist George Will is a magnificent political observer and a marvelous writer. Whether it’s politics or baseball, Will’s stuff is a reliably good read.
I was chatting with a group of students the other day when one of them looked me in the eye and commented, “You’re very tough on journalists.” I had to plead guilty.
Long before there was a mutiny aboard H.M.S. Bounty, it was clear Capt. Bligh was unfit. As tensions built, the choice for his officers and crew became increasingly clear: (1) tough it out or (2) risk being hanged for deciding enough was enough.
The title of this column is a reference to the big elephant in the room. It’s that thing that everybody knows, but nobody is talking about. I’d like to talk about it a little today: illegal job interview questions.
The Immigration and Nationality Act mandates that all immigrants and refugees undergo a medical screening examination to determine whether they have an inadmissible health condition. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has technical instructions for medical examination of prospect…
“To understand the world, you must understand a place like Mississippi.”
The word out of Jackson is now that Gov. Phil Bryant has signed the Alyce G. Clarke Mississippi Lottery Act into law, it will take about a year to get the lottery up and running. When that transpires, Mississippians who want to play the lottery and those non-gamblers who will merely benefit …
A national collaborative grassroots coalition to abolish nuclear weapons is rapidly emerging in this country. The effort called “Back from the Brink: A Call to Prevent Nuclear War” started last fall after the U.N. Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was adopted by 122 nations with t…
Mike Espy’s path back to Congress isn’t easy, but it isn’t impossible, either.
Robert Banks Jenkinson, aka the second Earl of Liverpool, saw, made, and went through a lot of history in his crowded time. As prime minister of Great Britain from 1812 to 1827, his tenure saw wars against Napoleon’s France, the agitation promoted by his country’s radicals, demands for the e…
If you’re looking for a new job and if you’re actively interviewing, I want to encourage you to hang in there. It’s going to work out. I’m sure of it. Job searching is like dating. It’s really tough until you find “the one.” And, it just takes one. You only need one good job to change your c…
Senate Republicans and Democrats are at daggers drawn over confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. Instead, they should unsheathe some questions designed to illuminate the excitement of constitutional reasoning.
When the North American Free Trade Agreement took effect in 1994, it was widely regarded -- by friend and foe alike -- as an ambitious experiment in economic engineering. To advocates, it promised the benefits of stronger economic growth for its three member countries: Canada, Mexico and the…
Sorry, there are no recent results for popular videos.
Commented