Americans enjoy debates. The first debate of consequence was whether the thirteen colonies, after the Revolutionary War, should come together as a whole or remain divided into 13 separate nations. The “ism” under debate was federalism, defined as a system based on democratic rules and institutions in which the power to govern[Read More…]

One of the earliest life lessons I learned was that, if fear and self-loathing were to be avoided, it was best to tell the truth the first time any delicate subject was broached. The matter of not telling the truth, however, seems to be frequent in far too many human exchanges[Read More…]