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Trump not following Polk’s example in war

A president orders the onset of hostilities without authorization of Congress and without much in the way of making a case with the public. His troops win important victories and decapitate large parts of the government of the enemy. But in the enemy capital, no one surrenders or will even negotiate seriously. That leaves the president with the unhappy choice of launching a new military attack on the central focus of the enemy, one riskier and less certain of success than those before, or of declaring an incomplete victory, well short of his essential objective, and just getting the ...

Keep loving America, even when it hurts

The approach of July 4 is making my heart hurt. Love of this country is deep-dyed in my soul, but pondering how or even whether to celebrate the semiquincentennial provokes a riot of mixed feelings. The right – and not just the MAGA right – responds to any queasiness about this particular anniversary with knee-jerk vituperation. Matthew Hennessey, writing in the Wall Street Journal, offered a typical example of this Pavlovian response this week when he accused Robert De Niro of "hating America." What had the actor done to deserve this verdict? Well, he attempted to provide ...

Peace worse than war

President Donald Trump started a war with Iran, and now he is ending it on terms worse than the status quo he inherited. That is the plain shape of what happened, however the White House dresses it up. The war came at a price -- lost lives, oil markets convulsing, allies rattled and an economic shock that rippled from Tehran to global commodity prices. Now, we are giving up. The ending arrives as a memorandum of understanding, signed on Sunday, whose full text the administration was conspicuously slow to publish. When a deal is good, you release the text. When you guard it, you are ...

What enslaved children teach us about America

An elementary school in Louisville, Kentucky, sits on land that was once the Farmington hemp plantation. That fact gutted me as I stood before "Childhood Interrupted," an art installation depicting enslaved children on the lawn of the historic home. My son attends this elementary school which is now embedded in a neighborhood just one long driveway away from the truth of its plantation past. He learns, thrives and feels like he belongs in a space where enslaved children were once forced to work. The 1816 Farmington historic home is where the John Speed family lived along with 70 ...

Give Americans choice to use Social Security

Trustees of the Social Security program just issued their annual report. Each year, the picture of the program's solvency is dismal. But this year it's even worse. Rather than falling short in 2033, as reported last year, this year the shortfall is projected to be in late 2032. That's six years from now. Without action taken, benefits, per the report, will be cut 22% late in 2032. That means that every young working person is now forced to pay, by law, 12.4% of their pay – half paid by them and half paid by their employee – into a bankrupt system. As I recall, ...

It should be my choice

People are excited about peptides. The internet is filled with claims: Peptides raise your energy, boost metabolism, clear your skin, slow down aging, build more muscle, repair injuries ... I want some! But there's a problem: The FDA bans most of them. Why? Dr. Anita Gupta, an anesthesiologist and pharmacist who was on the FDA committee that recommended the ban, explains, "There is a lot of hype. We all want to hack into our health, right? Get better really quickly. But we can't reboot our own bodies, can't undo an injection. There could be an immune ...