Posted March 14, 2024in Morain
Two events within a few months of each other 75 years ago forever altered the political and military landscape of the world. Their combined effects play an all-powerful role in today’s diplomatic chess game. On April 4, 1949, in Washington, DC, 12 Western nations signed the North Atlantic Treaty to
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Posted March 07, 2024in Morain
I had a heart attack Tuesday evening of last week. All is well. Tuesday about 7 p.m. I was sitting at the press table at the Jefferson City Council meeting, taking notes, when my chest started to hurt. I figured it was probably acid reflux, which I have from time
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Posted February 22, 2024in Morain
House File 2544 survived last week’s funnel deadline in the Iowa Legislature. It now awaits consideration in the state House of Representatives. If I were a public school social studies teacher in Iowa and the bill were to become law here, I would begin to figure out how I could
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Posted February 08, 2024in Morain
I don’t remember when or where I learned The National Anthem, or the other American patriotic songs, or The Pledge of Allegiance. I know I was pretty young when I committed them to memory, but I don’t remember the occasions or the process. Nor do I remember whether I learned
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Posted February 01, 2024in Morain
Congressional leaders for more than four months have been negotiating a major agreement to fund military aid for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan; provide humanitarian aid to people in a number of nations and regions that desperately need it right now; and tighten security at the U.S.-Mexican border. Sounds like a
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Posted January 23, 2024in Morain
The election of 1824 tested the Constitution as never before or since. The presidential election of 2024 will in all probability be decided in the usual fashion, with a candidate receiving a majority of the electoral votes declared the winner. That’s the way it’s been done in almost all 109
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Posted January 11, 2024in Morain
Before I get into the theme of this column, a few words about last Thursday morning’s mass school shooting in Perry would be appropriate. If I could find some. I can’t. There are no words. Many, many Iowans and others from outside the state have expressed their sympathy to Perry
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Posted January 04, 2024in Morain
More and more, the holiday season has morphed into a movie season as well. That probably results from a combination of viewers’ free time with family, high-profile studio marketing at this time of year, the multiplication of movie channels on television and electronic devices, and who knows what else? Whatever
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Posted December 28, 2023in Morain
The year 2023 is almost over, and millions of people around the world are glad of that. Life today is challenging in the extreme for the population of Gaza, and millions of residents of Sudan and South Sudan, and Ukrainians under Russian siege, and Uighurs in far western China, and
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Posted December 21, 2023in Morain
If you are a Palestinian in Gaza, what are your options? If you lived in north Gaza, you no longer do. You had to leave your home and most of your belongings, take your family and whatever you could carry, and head to south Gaza. Because if you stayed home,
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