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Pope Leo needs Trump to tame AI

Pope Leo is right about the need to make artificial intelligence answer to the human good. AI has to be subject to human moral responsibility. But whose? The pope warns against power accumulating in private hands: A few companies, led by a handful of executives and board members, control AI development. The hard question Leo's first encyclical, "Magnifica Humanitas," tries to answer is how to make AI accountable to public authority and the common good, not just the interests of its creators. This is where Leo runs into trouble. The encyclical is written in the ...

Hey, America: Stop complaining

Whatever the outcome of the "deal, or no deal" scenario with Iran, the public attitude toward the war has been disturbing. Despite President Trump's constant admonition that Iran must never have a nuclear weapon, a majority of those polled oppose the intervention. A side effect of the war has been complaints about higher gas prices. That grumbling caused me to do some reminiscing about a different America and different Americans. Over Memorial Day weekend we again heard about "The Greatest Generation," but do we take the time to consider what made them great? While political divisions ...

Democrats release 2024 election overview

Under pressure, the DNC finally released its autopsy of the 2024 election, after rampant speculation about what it contained and why it hadn't yet been made public. The DNC Chairman Ken Martin maintains that he delayed so long because he didn't want to create a distraction by releasing a poorly done report. At the start, the autopsy contains a disclaimer that "the DNC was not provided with the underlying sourcing, interviews or supporting data for many of the assertions contained herein and therefore cannot independently verify the claims presented." Then, throughout the document, ...

Why anti-Trump Republicans keep losing

President Donald Trump isn't manipulating Republican voters. He's empowering them to do something they've long wanted – elect strong conservatives, not fake ones. Last Tuesday, Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., lost his primary to a Trump-endorsed candidate, Ed Gallrein. In recent years, Massie morphed from a principled, limited-government advocate to an anti-Trump gadfly. He was one of only two House Republicans to vote against the One Big Beautiful Bill, which funded U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and cut taxes, among other provisions. He started spouting nonsense about ...

Yesterday’s Question

What is your favorite landscape? Mountains 35.83% Prairies 20.83% Ocean beach 19.17% Southwestern desert 1.67% River valleys 8.33% Badlands 14.17%

Bison are America’s national mammal

My sister Erica and I returned to Montana just a few days after the Bureau of Land Management revoked grazing permits for bison. American Prairie, a nonprofit working to create one of the largest nature reserves in the United States, was the target of that decision. Erica and I bounced along two-track roads in our Toyota RAV4 rental, hoping to get close to the American Prairie bison herd. It wasn't as easy as one might think. When I said as much on social media, someone commented: "Visit Land Between the Lakes in Kentucky. They surround your car." As wonderful as that might sound, the ...