In the contentious debate surrounding gay marriage, a couple of conservative talking points stand out for their irrationality. One of those is the notion that allowing same-sex couples to marry would represent a gross usurpation of religious freedom. Like the equally ridiculous idea that homosexual marriage would somehow undermine heterosexual marriage, the notion of infringing [...]

Poor people are useful during a political season. Political candidates position them as distractions from the myriad problems for which they propose no workable solutions: Is the federal treasury awash in red ink? Are there too many demands on a shrinking government purse? Then, let’s tighten up on largess for the very poor. Never mind [...]

I came to this motherhood business late, after my friends’  children were all off to college. My energy, heaven knows, is limited but my resources more plentiful than they would have been had I adopted a child twenty years ago rather than three years ago. After a long career in the newspaper business — and [...]

It has been 46 years — nearly a half century —  since Charles Whitman, a troubled ex-Marine, climbed atop the iconic University of Texas Tower to use it as a staging zone for a shooting spree. He killed 16 people on and around the campus, including his wife and mother. The nation, while sobered by [...]

For a brief and wondrous moment, America engaged in something akin to a lucid and thoughtful conversation on race, a dialogue sparked by the tragic and unjust killing of Trayvon Martin. Across lines of color, class and political ideology, commentators and ordinary citizens weighed in on the stereotypes and prejudices that may have prompted so-called [...]