Principle. The NFL hinted it would move the Super Bowl, and Apple said it could find a new place for a planned plant if Arizona legitimized discrimination most foul, most un-American, against gays and lesbians. In a similarly principled stand, arms maker Magpul Industries has moved its plant to Wyoming. The principle…
DetailsI never thought I’d welcome black helicopters on the horizon. Black helicopters with jackbooted storm troopers in blue helmets, empowered to scan children’s tender corneas and report to the United Nations. Bring that on. That’s generally how discourse has devolved regarding the Common Core movement embraced by a host of states. Beating…
DetailsI’ve never been one to dwell on anniversaries. But what the heck. Last year's U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down the Defense of Marriage Act came in the sesquicentennial year of the Emancipation Proclamation. Lincoln wanted the latter a year earlier. He made a preliminary declaration in 1862. He said it…
DetailsWrong. Incorrect. Erroneous. Fallacious. Bogus. Choose your modifier for the headline-a-palooza the other day that alarmed (much of) a nation. Breathless were the reports: “Obamacare to cost 2.3 million jobs.” It took many variations, through the Wall Street Journal, through UPI, Politico, and of course the foamy tea partisans of Fox News. …
DetailsAt one time in my life I had no use for it. Hated it. I hated what snow did to the morning newspaper, how it crimped my driveway basketball dominance, how it curbed mobility in all forms except on skis. And now? Love it. Can’t get enough of it. Snow, snow, snow.…
DetailsThis 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…
DetailsFootball 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?…
DetailsIf 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…
DetailsFrom 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…
DetailsSixteen 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…
Details