During my early December trip to Washington DC and New York the streets were crowded and restaurants were packed with Holiday Celebrants. San Bernardino dominated the news but none of the travelers or "locals" I met seemed overly concerned. None where concerned enough to change their plans. My random sampling of opinions found no widespread fear -- just a desire for smarter government security rather than just more government security.
Congress should pass legislation to make parents "mandatory reporters" in any situation where an adolescent or adult child is suffering some level of mental instability and has access to guns.
The shooting of Congresswoman Gabby Gifford even elicited a brief debate among her Congressional colleagues over the conflicting priorities of the Constitutional "right to own and bear firearms" and the Declaration of Independence's assertion of the "right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness". But even then Congress failed to act.
If I had left 5 minutes earlier last Saturday, I still would not know -- and it wouldn't have occurred to me -- the Post Office was holding my mail or considered my mail box somehow illegitimate.
The more goods and services Americans buy from fellow Americans the faster the economy grows. This domestically fueled growth makes our economy less vulnerable to international economic pressures.
True, earthquake is an ever present risk in California. But the odds of a veteran being hurt by falling debris in pending seismic retrofit VA housing are infinitesimal compared to odds of his being injured, murdered, contracting a serious illness or starving while spending another year or two sleeping on the streets.
It is farcical to believe that it is possible to secure any of the nation's borders as long as the rewards of illegal entry – the "anchor baby" at the end of the rainbow -- outweigh the risks posed by the US Border Patrol, TSA, or Customs and Enforcement.
I can't remember whether I saw the Statue of Liberty before or after I had to memorize and recite the Emma Lazarus poem it inspired. "Give me your tired, your poor" – "send these the wretched refuse of your teeming shore" – "I lift my lamp beside the golden door". Stirring words for a 19th