MINOT, N.D. — A majority of students in North Dakota, some 53%, attend a school at which there is a police presence. Far more students in our state, some 74%, attend a school that fails to achieve the student-to-counselor ratio recommended by national organizations like the American School Counselor Association. Those numbers are from a…
Print Column: We’re More Affluent and Connected Than Ever, So Why Do We Feel So Alone and Unhappy?
MINOT, N.D. — “The average person in the U.S. has only one close friend, according to a study published in the American Sociological Review.” That’s something NBC News reported earlier this year. “One in four people have no confidantes at all,” they also reported, and some 75 percent of people say they’re unsatisfied with the friendships they…
Print Column: Still Not Convinced We Should Listen to Teens on Policy
MINOT, N.D. — I’ve spent the last week getting roasted over a previous column belittling Greta Thunberg’s obnoxious political movement predicated on the policy expertise of dumb kids. You’re not supposed to call kids dumb despite our society treating them, often with force of law, as the immature and inexperienced people they are. The law…
Print Column: We’re Probably Going to See a Lot More Presidents Impeached After the Trump Era
MINOT, N.D. — Only two United States Presidents have ever been impeached. The House of Representatives impeached Democratic President Andrew Johnson in 1868 amid a squabble over the cabinet in the wake of President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. About 130 years later the House impeached Democratic President Bill Clinton for lying under oath and obstructing justice during the investigation of…
Print Column: Who Cares What Children Think About Complex Policy Questions?
MINOT, N.D. — Hey, kids. Recently a bunch of you chose to participate in a national walkout campaign inspired by Greta Thunberg, a dead-eyed Swede who arrived on our shores in a rowboat or something to show how dedicated she is to her apocalyptic faith. It wouldn’t do to have this green-tinged, modern-day Savonarola land…
Print Column: The Left’s Fixation on Identity Politics Has Been a Boon for White Supremacists
MINOT, N.D. — Hate groups are using the internet to target young white Americans. Quite successfully, it seems, according to a recent Washington Post report headlined, “How white supremacists are recruiting boys online.” The story details the efforts of various hate groups to lure white kids into their ignorant causes with memes and humor. It’s working. The infamous…
Print Column: If Democrats Want to Re-Elect Trump, They Should Impeach Kavanaugh
MINOT, N.D. — I’m not a very demonstrative person. Still, I laughed right out loud when I read the excuse House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) had for not pursuing the impeachment against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. I scared my dog, Molly, even. “We have our hands full with impeaching the president right…
Print Column: North Dakota’s New Ethics Regulations May Make Politics Less Transparent
MINOT, N.D. — Recently, a couple of dozen North Dakota lawmakers took a trip to Nashville which cost taxpayers nearly $90,000. The occasion was a summit put on by the National Conference of State Legislatures, an organization our state legislature belongs to (annual dues were $129,770 this year). The trip itself is not exactly news. These…
Print Column: We Overestimate the Government’s Ability to Solve Problems
MINOT, N.D. — Going by the promises currently being made by candidates for U.S. president, you’d think our federal government was an omnipotent machine, and politics merely the apparatus through which we aim it at problems. There seems to be no upper limit on what national candidates will promise they can accomplish. “Bernie Sanders promises…
Print Column: Life Is Worth Living
MINOT, N.D. — By the time I graduated from high school, my class had seen multiple suicides, including one of my friends. This summer we celebrated our 20-year reunion. The happiness of the occasion was tempered by a sad accounting of the half dozen or so suicides – some only suspected – among our classmates…