ST. SIMONS ISLAND — Time spent with friends is the best of times.

When an invitation comes from Jim and Anne Minter to take respite at St. Simons Island, we find ourselves resonating with the drive down Ga. Highway 15 through the sleepy towns and the changing rural scenes along the way.

The Minters often show up at their second home a couple of times a month. I’d say they have an addiction for St. Simons. Anne walks the beach. Jim reads at least a book a week, sometimes two. Read More»

Imagine that you are, in the eyes of your superiors, inadequately educated, without the necessary social skills and political graces, in the later years of your life, and you have been given an assignment that falls to you only because the boss’s first choice died unexpectedly. No one expects you to succeed but a warm body must be thrown into the breach.

In this true story, the reason that the person in question was poorly educated was, quite literally, no fault of his own. Read More»

Among the many irrational ideas about racial and ethnic groups that have polarized societies over the centuries and around the world, few have been more irrational and counterproductive than the current dogmas of multiculturalism.

Intellectuals who imagine that they are helping racial or ethnic groups that lag behind by redefining their lags out of existence with multicultural rhetoric are in fact leading them into a blind alley. Read More»

The Maryland legislature recently voted to abolish capital punishment in the state, making Maryland the sixth state in the last six years to eliminate the death penalty.

The primary argument for repealing the law is that our justice system is imperfect and it’s possible an innocent person could be condemned.

Indeed, anti-death penalty activists presented Kirk Bloodsworth, a former death-row inmate, convicted of the 1984 rape and murder of a 9-year-old girl. His conviction was overturned on appeal after the court found the prosecution had withheld exculpatory evidence from the defense. Read More»