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Just what have we traded for our bread and circuses?

Columns

My son performs magic now. He picked it up at a friend’s birthday party — a sweet, old-fashioned affair with a magician and a goodie bag that instead of cheap plastic trinkets had the materials for three tricks basic enough that even a second-grader could master them. First, he showed me a spinning stick that mysteriously stopped the second he waved his hands over the top. He also had a card trick, one where he’d put one of two cards behind his back and no matter which one I chose, he always revealed the other. He stumped me at first with both, amazingly adept (for a ...

Standards? Just what are the standards?

Columns

In 2015, the Supreme Court overlooked its prior decision and by a 5-4 vote declared the 14th Amendment requires every state to grant same-sex marriages identical recognition to those of opposite sex couples. At the time I asked if the court believed two people of the same sex could marry each other, would the same amendment allow for any or all other relationships according to how people viewed themselves? Are there no limits and if there are, according to what standard? A relationship that has existed since biblical times (“A man shall leave his mother and father and hold fast to ...

2026 revolution could erase the debacle of 1979

Columns

The 1979 Iranian Revolution was one of the most stinging U.S. setbacks of the Cold War era. A longtime ally that the U.S. depended on as a pillar of regional security, the shah, gave way to a theocratic regime based on hostility to America. The revolutionaries stormed the U.S. embassy and seized our diplomatic personnel in November 1979. If that wasn’t enough of a national embarrassment, a dramatic rescue attempt by the U.S. military in April 1980 ended in abject failure at a staging area in Iran dubbed Desert One. As the Islamic Republic totters on the precipice, struggling to ...

Teaching service to youth

Editorials

The celebration in the Ohio Valley of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King through this past weekend and into Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday was inspiring, especially in the way that so many celebrations invited our community’s youth to participate. The Belmont County NAACP honored middle schoolers within its county at a Saturday luncheon, choosing students who their teachers and counselors believed best exemplified the leadership qualities King espoused. In Ohio County on Monday, students were honored for their winning work in West Virginia’s Martin Luther King Jr. State ...

It can be difficult to understand just what’s going on in Minnesota

Columns

Minnesota? Somalis? Nine billion dollars in alleged welfare fraud? To understand what’s going on from a distance, it helps to understand basic culture. Minnesota was settled largely by people of Scandinavian and German ancestry. In survey after survey, Minnesota has ranked No. 1 or No. 2 among states, often just behind neighboring and much smaller North Dakota, in social connectedness, civic participation, workforce participation and voter turnout. It has traditionally led the nation in levels of trust and conscientiousness. This has been coupled with political behavior that ...

McLaughlin Defends Public Presence Of ICE

Columns

There is still chaos surrounding Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations, and nowhere is the anger more palpable than in cities like Minneapolis. Protesters insist they are exercising their rights, even as some cross legal lines. The distinction matters. Observing ICE is lawful. Obstructing ICE is not. And when citizens interfere with a federal operation, they risk serious consequences under federal law. According to The Washington Post, “The fatal shooting of Renee Good last week, as ICE officers and residents faced off on a residential street here, has brought new attention ...