I rarely buy into conspiracy theories, but the longer the visceral anti-Obama vitriol goes on the more I wonder. On the one hand, Republicans use every platform to keep up a relentless hour-by-hour attack on the President: He isn’t a real American; he wants to implement Sharia Law in the United States; he is the worst President in American history; he is an elitist, out of touch with every-day folks; he won’t lead… or, he acts without our permission. Congressional Republicans pour out their hate-filled [...]

The following post starts with a letter from Linda Wilson, founder and director of Caring for Kids of Kenya, a non-profit that supports the education of orphaned children at the Shelter Children Rehabilitation Center in the Rift Valley, close to Nairobi. I met Linda through a mutual friend, and she arranged for me to spend a day at the orphanage during my visit to Kenya last November. The Shelter director, Mary Muiruri, and her staff are doing the grace-filled work of offering hope to poor [...]

  On what issue do Democrats in Congress, the President, most economists, investors, and business leaders agree? They agree that the debt ceiling, which we have already crashed into, must be raised. So why hasn’t legislation been passed to increase the limit beyond the ceiling of $14.3 trillion? Because Republicans in the House and Senate are holding the nation hostage by insisting on deep deficit-reducing cuts before they will discuss the debt limit. The fact is that both of the issues, raising the debt ceiling [...]

Part of me— the reptile-brain part— rejoices over the tangle Republicans are in with Medicare. They, after all, relentlessly attacked what they call “Obamacare” with lies and distortions by stating total falsehoods as fact (such as death panels and throwing grandma out of Medicare). But my better part— my granddaddy heart— deplores this “lowest common denominator” style of politics. It has as its end goal getting the upper hand in public opinion rather than finding the best path to a healthier and economically sound America. [...]

(This was originally posted for Memorial Day 2010) Many men of my generation pause during the last weekend in May to remember our Viet Nam-era friends and colleagues who lost their lives in the war of our youth. My memory today and every Memorial Day is of my friend Jim Masters, an intelligence officer in the Navy who died when his plane was shot down near De Nang. Jim and I reported for duty at the Atsugi Naval Air Station in Japan on the same [...]