HANOI, Vietnam — It has been 50 years since President John F. Kennedy ordered U.S. “advisers” to South Vietnam to help battle the communist North and 37 years since the end of that divisive war and the country’s unification under Communism.

Today, Vietnam is fighting a war with itself. Read More»

If you’ve been reading this space in this paper or the one that preceded it, I hope you have picked up on the character trait I find most attractive in others and most obligatory in myself: gratitude.

When I gripe, it’s often about arrogance, the antithesis of gratitude. And I praise those who respond to their good fortune by contributing above and beyond what is expected of them.

I’ve said before, and will inevitably say again, that I have been blessed in this life all out of proportion to what I merit, and it worries me sometimes that I don’t express appreciation properly. Read More»

Another Christmas has come and gone and with it, at least for another year, the so-called controversy of the greeting, “Merry Christmas.”

Some are apparently uncomfortable with the phrase being used as a common exchange of pleasantries, preferring instead, the generic, “Happy Holidays.” I realize that the season contains other significant events both religious and secular. However, let’s get real.

This past week, on Dec. 25, I would imagine that 90 percent of all businesses were closed. I would also surmise that 90 percent of all employed people had the day off. Read More»

Must every tragic mass shooting bring out the shrill ignorance of “gun control” advocates?

The key fallacy of so-called gun control laws is that such laws do not in fact control guns. They simply disarm law-abiding citizens, while people bent on violence find firearms readily available.

If gun control zealots had any respect for facts, they would have discovered this long ago, because there have been too many factual studies over the years to leave any serious doubt about gun control laws being not merely futile but counterproductive. Read More»