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This should be season of peace

Historians considering the state of American depravity will doubtless pause to reflect on the remarkable support in certain quarters for accused killer Luigi Mangione, charged with murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a Manhattan sidewalk last year. Mangione was caught on video pumping bullets into Thompson, a father of two, as he entered a hotel. There were times when cold-blooded murder would inspire universal revulsion; however, we do not seem to be living in those times. It isn’t that anyone doubts Mangione committed the murder, but rather that many Americans praise ...

This Christmas, revive lost art of matchmaking

Forget Christmas socks, board games or even cash. The gift many single young adults want most is a spouse. Put on your Santa hat and keep your eyes out for potential matches. Marriage is a bedrock societal institution. It’s beneficial for those who tie the knot, too. “Today, married women live longer, earn more and report more meaning in their lives, compared to single women,” Sophie Anderson and Brad Wilcox wrote recently for the Institute for Family Studies. “They are also markedly happier than their single peers.” Married men are better off, too. The truth about ...

Trump’s national security strategy is on target

When former President George W. Bush stood on the West Front of the Capitol for his second inauguration in 2005, he gave a speech that called for a utopian foreign policy that aimed at spreading democracy all across the globe. “We are led, by events and common sense, to one conclusion: The survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands,” he said. “The best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world.” “So it is the policy of the United States,” Bush declared, “to seek and support the growth of ...

Hotel delights with Christmas charm

A highly anticipated Christmas display in Pennsylvania that is both delicious and whimsical is when the Omni Bedford Springs Hotel in Bedford County transforms one of its main entrances into a culinary delight whose aroma hits your sensory palate long before you walk through the nearly 200-year-old front door. What began as a small decorative house has become a full-scale work of culinary art under executive pastry chef Harshal Naik. Known for his appearance on Food Network’s “Holiday Baking Championship,” he has taken it to the next level over the past five years. Guests and day ...

‘Iryna’s Law’ good start to get crime under control

What will it take to get crime under control in our subways and public transit systems? Recently news broke of another passenger set on fire in New York City’s subway — though this story wasn’t all it seemed. The homeless man who at first said he was the victim of an attack turned tight-lipped when police pressed him about what happened. Had he set his own clothes ablaze to attract attention? In the wild environment our subways have become, a malicious attack or a madman’s self-inflicted injury are both all too believable. Most trips on the New York subway or ...

Trump’s immigration policy beyond inhumane

Absorbing the news about the brutal treatment of detainees, to say nothing of the outright murder of “suspected” drug runners in the Caribbean, I think back to a conversation I had in February of this year. My interlocutor was a Trump voter who had just had a friendly encounter with an African immigrant striver – the kind who came from poverty and had started a successful business here. I recall saying, “I hope he has his documents in order.” The Trump voter scoffed: “They’re not going after people like him. They’re only going after the criminals.” Eleven months ...