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US hits $40 trillion in debt

The U.S. national debt just crossed the $40 trillion threshold, doubling in less than a decade. Washington politicians have responded with their favorite fiscal game: blaming the other party. Democrats say Republican tax cuts are the culprit. Republicans say Democratic spending is the ...

Dolly was rich in all the right ways

One of the unfortunate realities of getting older is finding that the people you like begin to die. There are some, maybe, who are taken before their time and others who go at the end of a complete life, but either way the obituaries pile up. When Dolly Parton died the other day, I ...

Thank you, Dolly

Since imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, I am told, I was not surprised to hear Dolly Parton say in an interview that she once entered a "Dolly Parton lookalike" drag queen contest in Los Angeles unannounced – and lost. Parton, who died Tuesday at age 80, enjoyed telling that ...

Were atomic bombs of August 1945 'demonic'?

Did demons create the first atomic bombs? Every August, debate renews over both the wisdom and the morality of dropping the two American atomic bombs, 81 years ago, on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima (August 6, 1945) and Nagasaki (August 9, 1945). This August has been no exception. As ever, ...

Beware of moral panic over data centers

Don't look now, but we seem to have a moral panic on our hands. The term moral panic, at least as a social science concept, is relatively modern. It was coined by Stanley Cohen in the 1972 book "Folk Devils and Moral Panics." Moral panics emerge when large numbers of people start to freak out ...

Pessimism leads to defeat

If you have been paying attention to reports, many politicians, including some Republicans and those often-wrong pollsters, believe the November election is a foregone conclusion. According to reports, Democrats will win a House majority and possibly take over the Senate, too. History proves ...