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Artificial intelligence: A modern tower of Babel?

National Columnists

On May 25, Pope Leo XIV released his first encyclical, "Magnifica Humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence." This pastoral letter has been much anticipated by the Catholic Church, and immediate news headlines expressed intrigue that the pope addressed the moral dilemma of AI and compared it to the story of the Tower of Babel in Genesis. He also discussed Nehemiah, the cupbearer to Persian King Artaxerxes I during the 5th century B.C. In a detailed breakdown of the pope's central points in "Magnifica Humanitas," Our ...

Forget the rainbow, let's taste the vinegar

National Columnists

My mind wanders, and sometimes I just follow behind it, seeing where it goes. Driving to the gym recently, I debated bringing in my water bottle before remembering there was a water fountain inside. I started thinking about the person who designed the fountain itself, about the ...

Advice for US Senate candidate

National Columnists

Now that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has roundly defeated incumbent Sen. John Cornyn in the Republican runoff primary for Cornyn's U.S. Senate seat (Paxton won by 25 percentage points), the real battle begins. Paxton's opponent on the Democrat Party ticket is James Talarico, a former teacher and member of the Texas House of Representatives who holds a master of divinity from the Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Politicians routinely ignore the extent to which their religious faith is inconsistent with their personal behavior or their policy prescriptions. But Talarico is ...

Ballot measure extends state's taxing power.

National Columnists

Californians will face two competing tax measures this November. The first is the Billionaire Tax Act, a onetime, 5% levy on the accumulated net worth of the state's richest residents. Lesser known is the Retirement and Personal Savings Protection Act, which would draw constitutional lines around what Sacramento can and cannot tax, prohibiting new levies on retirement accounts, personal savings and individually owned assets and banning retroactive taxation. Everyone with even just a little bit of money set aside – not just the California billionaires targeted by the wealth ...

Celebrating 250th birthday with some thoughts

National Columnists

This summer, the United States celebrates its 250th birthday. In 1776, few people believed this new version of self-government would last. After the Constitutional Convention, Benjamin Franklin was asked what kind of government the Founding Fathers had created. "A republic," he replied, "if you can keep it." If... It's rare that a new form of government lasts dozens of years, let alone 250. How did America do it? In my new video, people give reasons: "In the U.S. Constitution, you see a lot of phrases like 'Congress shall not ...' or 'No law shall be passed ...

Letter to the Editor: Don’t sit this one out

Letters to the Editor

Thomas Jefferson said “We do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate.” On June 9th North Dakota will conduct its statewide Primary election. If the past is any indication, “the majority who participate” as Jefferson mentions, may only be 11% of eligible North Dakota voters. Since 2000 North Dakota has averaged a disappointingly sparse 22% turnout for the June Primary Election. Said a different way, nearly 80% of eligible North Dakotans have stayed home and remained silent when it comes to electing their mayors, their city councils ...