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Columns/Opinion

Expect mass shootings to only get worse

As bad as the pace and scope of the nation’s mass shootings have become, with death tallies sometimes counted in the dozens, chances are good that they are only going to get worse. And you can blame gun manufacturers and firearms enthusiasts who are driving a market for ever-larger high-capacity gun magazines. The Trace reports that firearms accessory manufacturers are “have developed a new generation of high-capacity magazines,” some holding 100 or more cartridges, meaning a gunman can more easily fire that many bullets before having to switch magazines. With an average ...

Hatch Act to never be the same again?

On Thursday, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel — a watchdog agency with no connection to Robert S. Mueller III — recommended that Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway be fired for multiple violations of the Hatch Act. That’s the federal law that limits political activities by government employees. The White House rejected the report’s “overbroad” interpretation of the law, so it doesn’t look as if Conway will be spending more time with her family (including her husband, George Conway, a caustic critic of the president). In his letter to President Donald ...

Big business has gone too far

In early 2017, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick opened the legislative session by prioritizing a measure that would have required people in Texas to use the bathroom of their biological sex in public schools and state and local government facilities. The bill was controversial. It enjoyed a surprising amount of public support. And it failed, as I believe it should have. I wrote at the time that it was unnecessary and antagonistic. The Obama administration, which had made pushing controversial progressive social policies a mission during its waning years, was on its way out, and ...

A celebration of gifts and of giving back

Integrity. Encouragement. Confidence. Accountability. These are some of the words I’ve been hearing from millennials involved in a relatively new effort called GIVEN. It’s a leadership network for Catholic women, with the goal of helping them “Discover the gift that only you can give because of the gift that you are.” The idea is that God created people in love and has a specific mission for us in life that becomes clear with the right tools — chief among them prayer. As I write, the second national GIVEN forum (international, really, with a participant from Ireland ...

Hypocrisy has lost all meaning in the age of Trump

There was a time when calling someone a hypocrite could stain their reputation. No more. Like the overused and often misapplied word “racism,” hypocrisy has lost the power to cause harm. The media and Democrats are agog over President Trump’s comment to former Bill Clinton adviser and current “Good Morning America” host, George Stephanopoulos. Trump said if a foreign power had “dirt” on one of his political opponents he’d “listen” and would not necessarily inform the FBI. On Friday, he backtracked somewhat, telling “Fox and Friends” he might tell the FBI ...

Honest Ads Act still in time

Our country is facing a national emergency. Not a single credible person in the federal government disputes the fact that foreign actors will continue to attack the infrastructure of our elections and interfere with how we choose our leaders. The president even told ABC News last week that he would consider listening to foreign governments with opposition research on his opponents in 2020. Regardless of our party or view about the 2020 elections, the facts of the matter are this: Russia, China, Iran and other enemies of democracy want us to lose faith in our political institutions. ...