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America has her swagger back

In 2020, Chinese President Xi Jinping declared, "The east is rising, and the west is declining." It certainly looked that way during former President Joe Biden's term. In August 2021, Biden surrendered Afghanistan to the Taliban. During the chaotic pullout, a suicide bomber killed 13 U.S. troops. Medieval barbarians humbled the mighty United States and took control of billions of dollars of military equipment. Russian President Vladimir Putin sure noticed. Just months later, Russia invaded Ukraine. Shortly before the attack, Biden mused that a "minor incursion" would lead to ...

Grift and graft: a White House simply for sale

In the end, it wasn't the disturbingly Gestapo-like tactics of her U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, smashing cars, pulling innocents off the streets and executing two American citizens, that did Kristi Noem in. It wasn't the sneering contempt of court orders or the incessant ...

Kristi Noem rides off into the sunset

At times, you could be forgiven for having thought that Kristi Noem wanted to be a uniformed DHS officer rather than the secretary of the department. Now, the cabinet member most inclined to glamour shots out in the field is going to have to go back to wearing civilian clothes. For all ...

ICE Barbie is gone, but will immigration policy improve?

The worst of Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem's many terrible moments in last week's congressional hearings on immigration control probably came when she admitted to being unfamiliar with the shockingly appalling case of Marimar Martinez. She is the Chicago woman who managed to survive being shot five times by Border Patrol agents in October, leaving her with nerve damage in her right hand. Yet, as Noem, dubbed "ICE Barbie" by some for her love of posturing in front of media cameras, was pushed by U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, to acknowledge that the ...

‘Mattering’: A look at the search for meaning in everyday life

"Mattering: The Secret to a Life of Deep Connection and Purpose," a New York Times bestselling book by award-winning author and journalist Jennifer Breheny Wallace, has made an instant buzz with readers this year. If you want to check "Mattering" out from your local library, you are most likely in for a long wait, as copies have flown off the shelves, and e-books are in use. "Mattering" was released in January and is getting rave reviews from users on Amazon, as well as a huge endorsement from public health leader and former U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy. Murthy, who writes about ...