My brother, Kirk Randolph Elder, died suddenly and unexpectedly, 16 days before his 70th birthday. He and Tresta, his wife of 41 years, had planned a trip to Hawaii, where they were going to celebrate Kirk’s birthday. Kirk was a retired supervisor at an oil refinery, and we were extremely close. He started coming on

Warren Buffett, currently the third-richest person on Earth, has pledged to donate over 99% of his fortune to charity. The Berkshire Hathaway chairman and largest shareholder appears to be making good on that promise. As an example, last year Buffett donated $169 million to the NoVo Foundation, a charity run by his youngest son, Peter, and Peter’s

“A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, reverent” … and a relic of history. This weekend, my wife and I purchased Boy Scout popcorn outside a local Safeway. We were glad to contribute to a tradition in both our families: I had sold the popcorn, and so had

I rarely watch cable news anymore. It’s all hysteria, all the time. CNN: “We are destroying the planet.” MSNBC: “The middle class is disappearing!” President Donald Trump says drug trafficking “is worse than ever!” I’m glad my favorite magazine, Reason, cuts through the gloom and tells us the truth: There is less war and more

A heckler is commonly defined as someone who “interrupts a performer or public speaker with derisive or aggressive comments or abuse.” It’s been six months since the heckling stopped. Six months since the last White House press briefing. Six months devoid of noxious nonsense. The national media think they’re in some kind of priesthood. Their

MONACA, Pennsylvania — All Darrin Kelly wanted for the energy workers in Western Pennsylvania was that the Democratic presidential hopefuls would talk to them before going to war against shale. That opportunity slipped away last Friday when Elizabeth Warren joined Bernie Sanders in calling for a total fracking ban. “On my first day as president,

The last debate among 10 Democrats seeking their party’s nomination for president set a new low for demagoguery, contempt for America and just plain foolishness. Here are some examples: Andrew Yang: “In America today, everything revolves around the almighty dollar — our schools, our hospitals, our media, even our government.” It is difficult to imagine

One of the longstanding truisms in presidential election politics is that the state of Florida is prioritized as a must-win for both the Republican and Democratic parties. It was the setting for one of the most surreal moments in the history of America, when the highly controversial 2000 presidential election between Texas Governor George W.

Planned Parenthood is out with a new teen sex “education” book. Titled In Case You’re Curious, the book monetizes questions Planned Parenthood says teens have asked it over the years by compiling those questions, along with Planned Parenthood’s answers, in one book. A Kindle or paperback copy will cost you $16.95, perhaps an indication that

Remember when Google’s motto was, “Don’t be evil”? That single three-word phrase prefaced the company’s entire code of conduct for 17 years. It was a model for their employees’ behavior and a simple summation of the company’s philosophical outlook. But in 2018, Google surreptitiously removed the clause from all company documents. Google doesn’t use that motto anymore,

I wish I’d taken a picture. I’d turned off North Lamar and was driving north on the 183 service road. It has just rained, which makes Austin traffic even more ridiculous than usual. The rumor of rain will extend your commute by 15 minutes. An actual drop, half an hour. We’d had a quick storm,

No one saw it coming when, on July 9, 2018, President Donald J. Trump nominated Judge Brett Kavanaugh to succeed Justice Anthony Kennedy on the United States Supreme Court. The Democrats and their media and left-wing activist allies would surely oppose Kavanaugh; the question was on what grounds. He had a spotless record. Kavanaugh’s former classmates at

In all of the decades that the modern version of the contentious debate in America over guns, freedom, and the Second Amendment has been going on, the gun control advocates have repeatedly assured gun owners of one thing: they don’t want to take our guns away from us. My, what a difference one presidential primary

Perhaps Mayor Pete Buttigieg would have a better shot at appealing to Christian voters if he would not go to such extreme lengths to contort Scripture to rationalize his party’s abominable stance on abortion. The Democratic presidential candidate openly expresses his Christian faith and was the first candidate to hire a national faith outreach director.

The top ten Democrats faced off for the first time Thursday in the third Democratic debate. Frontrunner and former Vice President Joe Biden faced off with his two closest challengers, Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg fought to hold on to their second-tier

It was a real race to the bottom between CNN and The New York Times on Wednesday to see which could have the most God-awful hot take on the eighteenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. I’m going to give the edge to the Times because its awfulness was presented as journalism, while CNN at least offered its idiocy

Last week I wrote about a plan in the works in Congress that purports to take on rising pharmaceutical drug prices. Now House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s drug plan has leaked – and it’s even worse. The draft leaked this week constitutes an aggressive intrusion by the government into the private healthcare market. As written, it

As it did in 1992, the anti-Republican, anti-President Donald Trump media is covering Trump’s economy as negatively as possible while keeping a straight face. After all, unemployment is at historical lows, most Americans feel optimistic about their own economic future, and most credit Trump with the growing economy. Trump’s predecessor was the first president since

With most services, you get to shop around, but rarely can you do that with government-run schools. Philadelphia mom Elaine Wells was upset to learn that there were fights every day in the school her son attended. So she walked him over to another school. “We went to go enroll and we were told, ‘He

18 years later, are we safer? Have we defeated Radical Islamic terrorism and those who sympathize with them, encourage them, fund them and cover up for them? The short answer is NO. Not only no, but we now have two terror sympathizers serving in the U.S. Congress as elected officials, using their position to normalize

EAST LIVERPOOL, Ohio — Greg Bricker is tired of his community looking through the rearview mirror to an idyllic past, rather than looking forward and trying to plot a better course. He feels this rearview mindset dominates his town, especially the local government. So after missing the statewide deadline for getting on the Nov. 5

Our age loves scientific equations. Here’s one you weren’t taught at college but which affects you as much as the law of gravity: GI – W = E Good Intentions (GI) minus Wisdom (W) leads to Evil (E). You weren’t taught this rule at college because the modern university believes only science has rules. “Rules

Recently we’ve been hearing politicians such as Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) chomping at the bit to put price controls on pharmaceutical drugs, with almost no sense of economics or history about how prices change over time. In 1926, a nice radio cost $7,175 (in 2019 dollars), and it took up more space than the giant flat screen you probably have in

If you’re a political conservative, don’t feel so picked on by the Stalinist Democratic Party. It doesn’t allow dissent among its own ranks either, being the party of the ideological straitjacket. In watching some of the clips from the Democratic climate change marathon, I was struck by how willing each candidate was to grovel and

Gentle readers, in our previous visit we discussed a police chase in Baltimore, one that was, in my view, imprudently and prematurely called off by a police commander who was worried about the potential for a traffic collision. The suspect being pursued had committed two acts of attempted murder on police officers, the first by

Of the reasons critics offered for President Donald Trump’s impeachment, the one suggested by Rep. Al Green, D-N.Y., is among the most ridiculous. Green argues that Trump’s alleged racism serves as a legitimate basis for impeachment. In July, Green announced plans to introduce articles of impeachment: “The Mueller hearing has nothing to do with what

On Tuesday, Walmart made a grandstanding announcement signaling a change in its policy on the sales of certain ammunition and legal open carry in it stores. This was a change the company originally said it was not going to make. On Monday night, my Managing Editor made an excellent point in response to Townhall’s Guy

CLEAR SPRING, Maryland — It’s 7 a.m. at the McDonald’s drive-thru just off U.S. 40, and a cheery freckle-faced server emerges from the side door to deliver an order to a car parked in a waiting area. “Heeeere’s your Egg McMuffin, young lady,” she announces with a broad smile. For the next half-hour, a flurry

On Labor Day, did you celebrate workers? More likely, you made it a day of rest. Fine. It’s good to have a choice. I didn’t have a choice about joining a union when I was hired by CBS and then ABC. They told me that if I wanted to work, I had to pay dues

California Gov. Gavin Newsom authored a Labor Day op-ed that let Big Labor know he has their backs and made it clear to businesses that he has little to no concern for their sustainability in the Golden State. The Huffington Post: California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has come out in support of AB-5, legislation that