I’m sorry, but to the extent Joe Biden actually meant to blame indigenous middle eastern cultures for ISIS, he’s just flat wrong. As I’ve been providing the markers for, in this series, there is only one progenitor for this terrorist cult, and it is The West. It is these savage […]

The gay rights movement reached new heights this week with a cascade of new states offering marriage equality to same-sex couples.

Each October we celebrate as National Arts and Humanities Month, building on decades of support to encourage a lifelong love of arts and humanities for all Americans. When I chaired the Interior and Environment Appropriations Subcommittee four years ago, increasing federal funding for the arts and the humanities was one […]

All year long we have seen poll after poll saying the Virginia people want Medicaid expansion. And more importantly, many of them need the Medicaid expansion offered by the ACA. But where are we now? Governor McAuliffe has done all he could with a recalcitrant legislature. This past month, he […]

Let’s make one thing clear: A major outbreak of the ebola virus has been the number one public health fear since the bug was first discovered in the mid-1970s. Therefore, we are now well into the worst nightmare of epidemiologists with tens of thousands dying or dead in West Africa […]

For two decades I’ve told people my job is to fight for their rights – and never was this truer than on Saturday. I had come from Chicago to defend free speech and oppose an archaic, unconstitutional blasphemy law that was being enforced by a rogue District Attorney in Bedford, […]

Last week, House Republicans scheduled the final votes before Election Day and then sent everyone home. Sadly, under their leadership, Congress never considered badly needed legislation at any point this session that would extend long term unemployment benefits, simplify the tax code, reform our immigration system, or raise the minimum […]

It is encouraging that the Obama administration this week concurred with the lines in this series to identify ISIS and related outfits in the region as a “cult,” rather than a religion or a political movement. This will prove to be enormously helpful in devising strategies to defeat it. As […]

Last week, National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell had a disastrous press conference where he said “nothing.” It was full of pandering and platitudes, with little substance. Given his lack of instinct for crisis management – it is difficult to believe he is worth $44.2 million a year. You could […]

Ken Burns’ latest formidable television documentary series, “The Roosevelts: An Intimate History,” premiering this week on PBS is entertaining and educational, at least so far for me. Being only three two-hour episodes in, I am taking the word of friends who’ve seen it all who say it stays good to […]