This just in: John McCain — too liberal for the Republican Party. Guilty as charged, and as pronounced last week by state committee members of the Arizona Republican Party. They voted to censure the state’s senior senator, and is anyone surprised? McCain’s crimes: insufficiently pure thought, and collaboration with the enemy. Firing squad to be…
Football being the fixation of the nation right now, let's employ a gridiron analogy to understand what's become of society's most important pursuit. The issue: helmets and brain injury. Ostensibly built to protect the brain, impervious to destruction, helmets allow players to use their heads as weapons. Elsewhere, what are we doing with our heads?…
If Stephen Colbert and Fox News can have a nation, so can we. When johnyoungcolumn.com was launched about five years ago, I didn’t even know an email list function was possible. Fortunately, web designer Josiah Spence did, so we have can have weekly interaction by email. From the start, I’ve never known how many people…
From the moment Lloyd Bentsen uttered it, none could disagree with his televised jab that Dan Quayle was “no Jack Kennedy.” Few remember, however, that in ascending to the presidency, Jack Kennedy had his own damning comparison. He was no Dwight Eisenhower. It took a disaster at the Bay of Pigs, and then resolve in…
Sixteen years on, I can’t forget the joint Will Foster showed me. You wouldn’t, either. That joint — the jumble of tissue at the midpoint of his index finger — was so bulbous and discolored as to be screaming to exit his skin. Foster has severe arthritis afflicting his extremities. But…