Politics, Moderate
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A call to donate blood amid a critical shortage
His neck and underarms were swollen. His skin itched, particularly on his arms. Sleeping at night was impossible.
His symptoms started when he was 50. Though he had been fit and healthy all his life, he had contracted chronic lymphocytic leukemia, or CLL, a cancer of the blood and bone marrow — the spongy tissue inside bones where blood cells...Read more
When my trad dad discovered what his idiot son flushed down the toilet
Editor's note: A version of this column was distributed in 2024.
In 1974, when I was 11, I flushed an apple core down the toilet.
My father had remodeled our basement into a wood-paneled family room with a powder room.
Always looking to save a buck — he had six kids to feed on one income — he bought the cheapest toilet he could find.
It ...Read more
World Cup fever stirs high school soccer memories
There was no way I was going to let a breakaway soccer opponent score on me while my dad was in the stands.
Memories of my experience as my high school’s starting goalie are coming back to me this week as the United States hosts the 2026 FIFA World Cup — something we have not done since 1994.
Back then, Americans had little interest in ...Read more
America’s love affair with the drive-in theater
Long live one of America’s finest creations: the drive-in theater.
One of my great drive-in memories dates to 1969, when my parents took my five sisters and me to see “Herbie the Love Bug” in our Plymouth Fury III station wagon.
As the blue sky fell dark and the film projector began rattling behind the concession stand, black-and-white ...Read more
Why conservatives give better graduation speeches
Conservative graduation speakers still give better advice than speakers on the left.
In 2015, after reviewing two commencement-speech anthologies featuring 18 liberal speeches and 30 conservative speeches, New York Times columnist Carlos Lozada — then a Washington Post blogger — gave five reasons why conservatives do a better job.
First, ...Read more
Beware distracted drivers this summer
As millions of Americans hit the roadways this summer, it’s time to be especially aware of distracted drivers.
According to Distraction.gov, distracted driving involves “any activity that could divert a person's attention away from the primary task of driving” — everything from eating and drinking to using a navigation system to ...Read more
Memorial Day stories of sacrifice and courage
As we head into Memorial Day weekend, it’s a great time to read “Chicken Soup for the Veteran’s Soul.”
One powerful story tells about Mike, shot down in 1967 and captured by the Vietnamese. He grew up poor in Alabama — he didn’t wear shoes until he was 13.
Mike made a needle out of a piece of bamboo and gradually sewed scraps of ...Read more
Why more modern parents prefer goofy baby names
The Social Security Administration just released the most popular baby names for 2025, and they reveal an unfortunate trend.
Girls’ names lean toward elegance and tradition — names our grandmothers and great-grandmothers had. Olivia remained No. 1 for the seventh year, followed by Charlotte, Emma, Amelia, Sophia, Mia, Isabella, Evelyn, ...Read more
All that I am, I owe to my angel mother
I wish every child could be blessed to have a mother like mine.
When my five sisters and I were babies in her womb, she never took so much as an aspirin for a headache — never ingested anything but the nutrients we needed to grow healthy and strong.
As a child, my world was rock-solid because of her. She put our needs so far before her own ...Read more
Americans rediscover self-reliance
Survivalism and self-sufficiency are exploding across America.
According to TruePrepper, a preparedness research group, nearly 23 million Americans now call themselves preppers — many fleeing big-city metros for rural areas where they can be self-reliant if calamity strikes.
I offer some insight into this trend. A decade ago, I left the ...Read more
Take your child to Retirement Day — before it’s too late
Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day should be expanded.
Every April, parents bring their kids to work to envision their future — but why stop at 18?
Middle-aged kids should spend a day with their parents to envision their retirement — as I did a few years ago.
Early in the morning, my dad and I made coffee and toast, then worked on ...Read more
Zoomers put their own stamp on tech-enabled rudeness
Technology continues to make us ruder.
According to a Uswitch survey, Zoomers prefer texting over answering live phone calls from strangers and unsolicited numbers. They also refuse to listen to traditional voicemail messages from people they don’t know.
Instead of answering or listening, many Zoomers simply text: “What do you want?”
I ...Read more
From Plato to the IRS: The tax joke is on us
I love April, but as a self-employed writer, I’m knee-deep in tax receipts and spreadsheet misery.
I love to hear what our great minds have said about their own tax miseries:
“We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.” — Winston ...Read more
Kimmel gets it backward on blue-collar America
Jimmy Kimmel is a fool.
Last week, Kimmel mocked DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin for beginning his career as a plumber, rather than being, say, a lawyer, like most of the double-talking charlatans holding political posts.
Kimmel’s logic is backward. Blue-collar sensibility is the key to our country’s success.
Benjamin Franklin left school ...Read more
What Trump might have done to the Tidal Basin beaver vandals
Note to editors: A version of this column was last distributed by Cagle in 2025.
I can only imagine how President Trump would have handled three mischievous beavers that attacked Washington, D.C.’s beloved cherry trees in 1999.
The National Cherry Blossom Festival is underway in Washington. Some 3,700 cherry trees — a gift from Japan in ...Read more
Gen Z and the case for fixer uppers
Generation Z should consider buying a fixer upper.
Houses are expensive these days and mortgage rates are high. It’s no wonder that only 27% of Zoomers, 28 or younger, own homes, whereas nearly 45% of baby boomers did at the same age.
Zoomers should consider following my path.
Thirty years ago, when I quit corporate America to become a ...Read more
Red pens did me good
My second-grade teacher, Sister Mary, would be shocked that I turned out to be a writer.
Please allow me to explain.
In recent years, many schools within the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia have barred teachers from marking student papers in red.
Their thinking is that correcting young students with red pens is too ...Read more
The day Ronald Reagan walked into an Irish pub
Note to editors: A version of this column was last distributed by Cagle in 2017.
On St. Patrick’s Day, 1988, an unexpected visitor arrived at Pat Troy’s Irish pub, Ireland’s Own, in Alexandria, Va. — President Ronald Reagan.
The pub, now closed, had been a favorite watering hole for Washington insiders for more than 30 years. Reagan’...Read more
Reviving America’s dying sense of humor
Ah, St. Patrick's Day is upon us — a fine time to restore our sense of humor.
More than 20 years ago, British sociologist Christie Davies wrote in “The Mirth of Nations” that Americans were becoming as nervous about swapping jokes as people once were in communist Eastern Europe — a warning he issued well before cancel culture.
Which ...Read more
Accelerating the fentanyl fight
A few years ago, I hired a young man who lived nearby to chainsaw some trees on my property.
He used the money I paid him to buy drugs — and died from a bad batch of fentanyl-laced heroin.
Statistics will tell you he was one of the tens of thousands who have died from opioid addiction — a crisis that has devastated communities for years ...Read more
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