Syndicated Columns
The Trend Toward Distrusting Police Could Hurt Us All
All democrats want to take your guns. All republicans are racist. So is law enforcement, and police brutality is commonplace. Of course, none of those statements is true but they highlight the groupthink that has infected the national conversation. When a police-involved death occurs it seems there are no shades of grey anymore, no need…
Read MoreWanted: Leaders to Tackle Mass Shooting Epidemic
(Photo: Vigil for Victims in Dayton, Ohio – courtesy Wiki Commons) After the recent horror of multiple mass shootings – at a garlic festival in California, at a Wal-Mart in El Paso, and, finally, at a popular nightlife neighborhood of Dayton – I went to social media and posed two questions: “What is wrong with…
Read MoreAmerica’s Drug Crisis Happened Because We Let It Happen
Here’s some good news. Last year, for the first time since 1990, deaths from drug overdoses actually dropped in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control reports it wasn’t a big drop – about 5% fewer deaths – but might this indicate a trend? Let’s hope so, because even with that decline a staggering…
Read MoreDo Sex Registries Really Protect the Public?
Sex registries are in the news again thanks to a couple of high-profile child sex abuse cases. (Think multimillionaire Jeffrey Epstein and singer R. Kelly) Keeping track of ex-cons who have sexually preyed on others sounds like a good idea. But do these registries of convicted sex criminals really help keep us safe? Under a…
Read MoreAmerica’s Mindset This Independence Day
Did you enjoy the 243rd birthday of our country over this long weekend? 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.…
Read MoreOur Modern-Day Debtor’s Prisons
See if you can find the logic in this. A local government issues traffic fines to residents for infractions like not wearing a seat belt, expired registration tags or a broken taillight. If the fine isn’t promptly paid then interest and penalties pile up and soon a $50 or $100 ticket can quickly balloon to…
Read MoreD-Day’s Youth vs Today’s Youth
Seventy-five years ago, tens of thousands of brave and selfless young men from the United States, Canada and Great Britain took part in the largest seaborne invasion history has ever seen. It was carried out on the beaches of Normandy, France and propelled by the ideal that no one man should dominate others, no foreign…
Read MoreHorrible Harvey – No Way to Run a Justice System
How is it that someone accused of dozens of criminal acts can throw millions of dollars at a problem and pay his way out of trouble? That is what’s happening with Horrible Harvey Weinstein, except if all goes as planned he won’t be paying out anything. His insurance companies will handle the payoffs to the…
Read MoreThe Staggering Costs of Imprisonment in the U.S.
Guess how much our nation’s system of mass incarceration costs each year? I’m talking about the taxpayer funded budgets of prisons, jails, probation departments and the public employees who staff them. Add in the cost of running the criminal justice system; the amount spent on health care, food and incidentals for inmates and the financial…
Read MoreAllowing Prisoners to Vote – Let’s Think This Through
So democratic presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders wants to give all prisoners the right to vote. He said so during a recent campaign speech, much to the surprise of many. I was among them. Sanders believes “the right to vote is inherent to our democracy” and even “terrible people” like the Boston Marathon bomber should…
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