Trump isn’t behind Iran’s belligerence

June 19, 2019

As President Trump mulls a comprehensive response to what he says was an Iranian attack on oil tankers in the Persian Gulf last week, his smarter critics are not questioning Iran’s likely culpability. Instead, they are asking, “What did you expect?” So Rep. Adam Schiff, the Democratic chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, agreed that evidence of Iran’s responsibility for the attacks is “very strong and compelling.” But he also lamented that Trump had isolated the U.S. from its allies, and how those allies and U.S. intelligence analysts warned “that this kind ...

Why should I still support Catholic Church?

June 19, 2019

By John A. Ralph The Baltimore Sun I have become an angry Catholic. While I have been a faithful, life-long member of my church, and a long-time parishioner within the Archdiocese of Baltimore, I don’t think I could get any more cynical about my church’s leadership. Like a lot of Catholics, I’ve been waiting for church leaders to do something meaningful in response to the sexual abuse crisis. I had high hopes for the Vatican summit earlier this year, which I thought might result in real reforms to address the culture of abuse that has infected the priesthood over the past ...

Not all budget deficits created equal

June 19, 2019

The U.S. budget deficit is now almost $740 billion, the Treasury Department reported last week, prompting a new round of familiar criticism of 2017’s Tax Cut and Jobs Act: The law’s huge tax cuts were irresponsible, as were Republicans’ sloppy and at times deliberately misleading assertions that the law would pay for itself. That criticism is understandable, but it elides an important distinction. Deficits that arise from tax cuts aren’t as bad as those from spending increases. First, it’s nearly impossible for a tax cut to result in increased revenues the year after ...

Children’s books offer life lessons

June 19, 2019

James Holzhauer recently took “Jeopardy” by storm, setting a single-game record of more than $131,000 won and taking home more than $2.4 million in total. Holzhauer shared his strategy to prep for the show: He read children’s books he got from the public library. His 32-game winning streak ended June 3. Perhaps fittingly, he lost to librarian Emma Boettcher, of Chicago. As a children’s book author and children’s literature professor, I know that kids’ books engagingly cover a variety of topics (though, perhaps not the former mayor’s “Healthy Holly” series), ...

Many Democrats glad to see Sanders on down slope

June 19, 2019

History will best remember Bernie Sanders for his role in helping elect Donald Trump. Happily for many (if not most) Democrats, Sanders is now fading big time. The earlier assumption was that the 2020 Democratic race would boil down to a brawl between Sanders and Joe Biden. Now we see Elizabeth Warren edging Sanders out for second place in a few polls. Biden, meanwhile, remains comfortably ahead of both of them. What did Sanders do wrong in 2016? It wasn’t challenging Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination. That was fair. Rather, it was his savaging her long after she had ...

Zero-waste artist uses found canvases, leftover paint to create original pieces

June 18, 2019

OK, by now you probably know some of my likes and dislikes. But if this is the first time you’re reading my column, I’ll fill you in really fast. Likes: Local art, local food, zero waste, gardening, community. Dislikes: Waste, thoughtlessness, pollution (physical and chemical), box stores. Recently I had the pleasure of chatting with a West Virginia artist whose work particularly interested me. Quincy Gray McMichael’s Instagram page (artyqueue), and her description of her zero-waste art excited me because I loved her style, and previously had not considered the waste ...