PALO ALTO, Calif. – Shelby Steele, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford, recalls his childhood epiphany, the exhilarating and terrifying moment when he first recognized himself as “a separate self,” with independent thoughts. It was his first sense of personal responsibility.His telling of it, in an essay in Harper’s magazine titled “The […]

Call it serendipity.On Monday, our president gravely intoned that inspections for weapons in Iraq aren’t going so well, and that same day, our transatlantic brethren, the British, released a report detailing the many evil deeds of Saddam Hussein.It might be coincidence, but who would believe that? It isn’t too far-fetched to say the timing of […]

Necessity, as they say, is the mother of invention. Look at Chester Greenwood, the man credited with inventing earmuffs when he was a lad of just 15 years.He built a contraption out of beaver fur, cloth and wire to keep his ears warm. The concept was immediately embraced because no one likes the discomfort of […]

Unfunded mandates.We hear the term and immediately cringe. We don’t like the federal government imposing policies and programs without a plan to pay for them, because the assumption has always been that state and local governments then must raise the revenue and foot the bill.Unfunded mandates are most commonly connected with public education, with federal […]

There are days I think religion is the best advertisement for atheism. This, unfortunately, is one of them.If you’re wondering where the pessimism’s coming from, look to Nigeria, which has been recently rocked by street fighting between Muslims and Christians.As you may be aware, the trouble grows out of a beauty pageant. Nigerian business and […]

In the new James Bond superspy flick, the villains use hovercraft to evade deadly land mines and a high-tech satellite weapon to blast them to bits. The bad guys aboard the hovercraft actually laugh about their ability to glide over these mines in Korea without fear.On celluloid, that’s a clever plot.In reality, though, there is […]

Raise your right hand if you believe the official Saudi Arabian explanation for how money supposedly sent to an Islamic charity in this country by the wife of Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States “unwittingly ” wound up in the hands of two of the 9/11 terrorists. The explanation is that she was surprised […]

Auburn Mayor Lee Young is serving her last week in office. She has been, without a doubt, the driving force behind the recent downtown revitalization and business development projects across the city.An energetic woman with a ready smile and stern resolve, she has served the city well. But, after three terms, she’s ready to hand […]

PALO ALTO, Calif. – Diversity, as usual, is in the eyes of the beholder.Stanford University, for example, regards itself as the birthplace of campus multiculturalism, midwifed by the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who led a pack of students in 1987 chanting “Hey, hey, ho, ho, Western Culture’s got to go.”Diversity was limited then to the usual […]

As diverse as Americans are, we all can be divided among just two distinct groups: shoppers and non-shoppers.Shopping is a very individual character trait. You either are a shopper or you aren’t. At no time is that more evident than during the rush of the holiday shopping season.If ever there was an occasion for a […]