Monthly Archives: July 2015

My wife, Sally, and I recently were blessed with our twelfth grandchild. He’s so precious and we love him and the other eleven – and all the others that are sure to follow. Like our own six children, each of these twelve grandchildren is unique. Each is wonderfully different than the next. And I love them all.

But, I have to admit, contrary to common grandparent wisdom, I prefer my original six kids. Yes, the love we receive from our grandchildren is precious and heart-melting. Sally’s heart is big enough for all of them and more. Me? I like the ones I raised. I like their character. I hope our grandchildren follow in their footsteps – they likely will. But it’s not assured. read more

I’ve often wondered how freedom-loving people hold freedom-destroying ideas. Those familiar with my commentaries know I hold progressivism in disdain, both kinds of progressivism – the liberal left kind and the libertarian right kind. As long as I can remember in my profession I have tried to explain the problems with progressivism and how they get freedom all wrong. Perhaps the best explanation I’ve read in a long time comes from a new book titled, Democracy’s Discontent: America in Search of a Public Philosophy. Surprisingly, the author, Michael Sandel, is a Harvard political science professor – see, there’s hope yet. read more

When Catholic Pope Francis issued his latest encyclical titled, Praise Be, the Associated Press wrote, “Francis framed climate change as an urgent moral crisis…blaming global warming on an unfair, fossil-fuel based industrial model that harms the poor the most. The document…was a stinging indictment of big business and climate doubters.”

The encyclical, delivered June 18, contained over 37,000 words. Pope Francis allotted just over 1,300 words for a section titled “Pollution and Climate Change” – just over three percent of his remarks. If we analyzed his priorities in a word cloud, the term “climate change” is absent. That said, Pope Francis did address climate change. He condemned the modern world’s “throwaway culture,” an expression he also used to describe the modern scourge of abortion. read more