I live to write. I write to live.
The close of 2019 marks two full decades since I entered national newspaper syndication. You are reading the 1,571st column I've filed with Creators Syndicate. The years have flown and so have the words: More than one million of them carefully marshaled each week for the past 1,043 weeks to enlighten, entertain and enrage.
These days, when you listen to the gloom of the media and many of the presidential candidates, you have to wonder what country these Debbie Downers are talking about.
"It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future," Yogi Berra reminded us.
The best of times, the worst of times. Your instinct on which one we're living through is affected by your basic temperament, but it also depends on how well you're observing -- and quantifying -- things in the world around you.
As of Dec. 26, Kim Jong Un's "Christmas gift" to President Donald Trump had not arrived. Most foreign policy analysts predict it will be a missile test more impressive than any Pyongyang has yet carried off.
The last time I checked, Joe Biden was running for president of the United States. But his wife, Jill Biden, demonstrated where the beltway Democratic couple's allegiance and compassion are rooted this Christmas season: Mexico.
This week, children may learn about that greedy man, Ebenezer Scrooge. Scrooge is selfish until ghosts scare him into thinking about others' well-being, not just his own.
Good for the ghosts.
If there is any lesson we have learned about the Federal Reserve system in the last few years, it is that the supposed oracles who run our central bank are anything but infallible.
As that rail and subway strike continued to paralyze travel in Paris and across France into the third week, President Emmanuel Macron made a Christmas appeal to his dissatisfied countrymen:
"Strike action is justifiable and protected by the constitution, but I think there are moments in a nation's life when it is good to observe a truce out of respect for families and family life."
How you respond to an attack defines you. Keep your cool, remain civil, and others will respect the way you handle yourself, even if they disagree with you. Lower yourself to your assailant's level and -- at best -- spectators will dismiss your dispute as a he-said-she-said between two jerks.
Last week the world's second-oldest political party showed, and not for the first time, its capacity to regenerate itself and win an impressive majority in difficult circumstances.
"We're gonna impeach the (expletive deleted)."
Thus did the member from Michigan, Rashida Tlaib, declare last January to be the goal of the 2019 House Democratic Caucus.
Christmas is rapidly approaching. Traditional Christmas carols have been replaced by insipid pop ballads played incessantly on “holiday” radio stations. As “Deck the Halls” is now politically incorrect with its reference to donning one’s gay apparel, I took some liberty with the song title to review recent opinion polls.
Big events of the year, including impeachment, don’t materially change the odds in races for president, Congress.
— Impeachment is an unusual occurrence marked by usual partisanship. It is hard to argue that it has dramatically altered perceptions of the president.
— Overall, our outlook for the races for president and for Congress are pretty similar to what they were at the start of the year.
My teenage son is a law-abiding American citizen. To obtain his driver's permit this year, he brought his birth certificate, Social Security card, passport and verification that he completed an approved driver's school course. It took a half-dozen trips back and forth between various government agencies to clear all the paperwork hurdles.
Sen. Rand Paul just wrote a book, "The Case Against Socialism."
Our sources are telling us that President Trump is nearing a decision on how to revive the all-but-dormant American uranium industry. This proposed plan would create a reserve of domestically mined uranium stored in a "Federal Uranium Security Stockpile." One option on the table is for the Department of Defense to purchase uranium through the 1950 Defense Production Act.
Fresh from his triumphal "Get Brexit Done!" campaign, Prime Minister Boris Johnson anticipates a swift secession from the European Union.
"In ten years or so, we'll leak the truth," the Dead Kennedys sang. "But by then it's only so much paper."
"Quid pro quo" was the accusatory Latin phrase most often used to describe President Donald Trump's July 25 phone call asking for a "favor" from the president of Ukraine.
