Syndicated Columnists | The Kansas City Star

Syndicated Columnists

Too many of America’s smartest waste their talents

The upshot is that many of the country’s best and brightest are either exerting their talents trying to beat each other out in a zero-sum trading game, or exploiting legal and behavioral loopholes to part investors from their money.

Syndicated Columnists

The anti-liberal trolls have crowded out conservatives

People such as Trump senior adviser Stephen Miller are not steeped in conservative thinking and do not operate with a conservative disposition. Their primary orientation is not to conservative governance but to owning the libs.

Syndicated Columnists

Trump is unquestionably winning at home, winning on the road

How did we become the country that thinks that everyone else is out to get us? Even though we’re clearly the strongest country in the world and among the most prosperous, somehow everybody else has been taking advantage of us for decades.

Syndicated Columnists

Trump’s pardons really aren’t out of the ordinary

His most recent pardon, to Alice Marie Johnson, a woman serving a life sentence for involvement in drug trafficking, carries on President Barack Obama’s program of commutations. He granted it after being urged by Kim Kardashian.

Syndicated Columnists

Separating children from their parents at the border 'breaks my heart'

Syndicated Columnists

The ERA began as a farce but has ended instead as a tragedy

The purpose of the Equal Rights Amendment was to arm liberal judges with language into which they could pour whatever content they wanted. So, it would be either a constitutional nullity or license for unconstrained judicial improvising.

Syndicated Columnists

No God to see in us with this immigration policy

On the same day the study was reported, CNN.com ran a story about an undocumented immigrant from Honduras who says federal authorities grabbed her infant daughter from her as the baby was being breastfed.

Syndicated Columnists

To oppose right-wing populism, conservatives need alternative fighting faith

Dresden is at the center of controversy. Chancellor Angela Merkel — in an act of exemplary moral leadership and tremendous political risk — opened the German border to about a million migrants, most fleeing from the Syrian conflict.

Syndicated Columnists

How to re-elect Trump: Let your anger take over

When you find yourself spewing four-letter words, you’ve fallen into a trap. You’ve chosen cheap theatrics over the long game, catharsis over cunning. You think you’re raising your fist when you’re really raising a white flag.

Syndicated Columnists

Voter purge decision ignores Americans’ fundamental rights

In the United States, if you don’t buy a gun for several years, you do not lose your Second Amendment right to bear arms. If you never write a letter to the editor or participate in a street demonstration, you retain your full First Amendment rights to free speech. If you skip church for years on end, the government cannot stop you from finally attending a service.

Syndicated Columnists

Why I let Domino’s fill Milford, Delaware’s potholes

$5,000 is not a small amount of money relative to our budget for street repairs. Our general fund budget is $9 million, more than half of which funds our police department. There’s constant competition between police and everything else.

Syndicated Columnists

Can we reduce suicides? We may need a little faith

Many people resist seeking medical treatment for depression because of the lingering stigma attached to mental illness. They may feel far more comfortable seeking understanding and compassion in a house of worship than from a doctor.

Syndicated Columnists

Art of the deal: Nukes for condos in North Korea?

Well, it happened: The president and the dictator met, shook hands, looked each other in the eye, smiled for the cameras — and lied through their teeth.

Syndicated Columnists

Trump’s West Wing enablers will get no sympathy here

Once upon a time, a John Kelly could rationalize staying. We are a moderating influence. It would be worse without us. He isn’t that bad. But they do not moderate Trump, and he is that bad — irrational, cruel and impulsive.

Syndicated Columnists

George H.W. Bush is still an example of what we should aspire to

Virtually every quality the first President Bush personifies has faded from our national life. He was astonishingly forgiving of those who defeated him. Today, it’s more common to practice “get your retaliation in first.”

Syndicated Columnists

Trendy bans on plastic straws are mostly bunk. The oceans have a much bigger problem

Activists and news media often claim that Americans use 500 million plastic straws per day, for example, which sounds awful. But the source of this figure turns out to be a survey conducted by a nine-year-old. This is dubious data.

Syndicated Columnists

We need hard numbers on Facebook’s real influence

What to do? This is a scientific issue, not an ideological one, so we need to treat it scientifically. It’s not enough to look at correlations: We need to set up randomized experiments and actually test for causation — standard practice.

Syndicated Columnists

Men triggered over Miss America’s swimsuits decision? Let them wear Speedos

Men complaining that “radical feminists” on the Miss America board are suggesting that objectifying women is bad. And that makes strong, powerful, very secure men who use words like “hot” and “slut” and “knockers” feel sad.

Syndicated Columnists

Rural America is suffering a real crisis in dental care

Providing dental benefits under Medicare — at least for preventive services such as an annual cleaning — would both benefit seniors and help dentists in rural areas survive. Also helpful to would be expanding Medicaid coverage to adults.