In case you are wondering what the opportunity cost of our consumer culture is, I suggest it is 234%: the net difference between a tube of Crest or Colgate toothpaste and their lowly competitor: AIM. There are over 330 million people in the United States; almost all of us use…

Tyranny in Fact and Fiction My summer reading developed a prescient theme: tyranny. Every day, we hear terms like fascist, oligarch, autocrat, even democracy, tossed around the media with little or no consensus meaning. …

The last in a series of five essays about Mental Health to celebrate the dog days of August. Mental Health I: Why Do I Write? Mental Health II: Suicide is Painless Mental Health III: You Were Never Sick; Get Yourself Better Mental Health IV: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy The United States…

The fourth in a series of five essays about Mental Health to celebrate the dog days of August. Mental Health I: Why Do I Write? Mental Health II: Suicide is Painless Mental Health III: You Were Never Sick; Get Yourself Better Mental health is a different animal than physical health…

The third in a series of five essays about Mental Health to celebrate the dog days of August. Mental Health I: Why I Write Mental Health II: Suicide is Painless When you have a substitute school bus driver, it doesn’t much affect your life. When you have a substitute teacher…

The second in a series of five essays about Mental Health to celebrate the dog days of August. Mental Health I: Why I Write On Friday March 28, 1975 I tried to kill myself. I failed. I hadn’t failed at much in life, at least not on paper. I was…

The first in a series of five essays about Mental Health to celebrate the dog days of August. I’d been writing words and sentences since the first grade. As a person of engineering temperament, I expressed myself with logic and clarity (my specifications for concrete were top-notch). But I can…

We are stuck. On one hand liberals, or progressives, or left-wing, or Democrats, or whatever you want to call them; are hell-bent on subdividing our nation into ever tightly defined ‘identities.’ …

My God, Paul, how many times have you seen this show? The thought synapsed through my brain as the lights dimmed on a covey of actors in revolutionary era brocade and buckles belting, “For God Sake, John, Sit Down!” My quick recall: five times. The original Broadway production, in 1969…