I know it’s old news now, but I can’t help but go back to it. 

This is what I can’t stand. 

This is what I think is so unhelpful. 

This is why I have come to loathe political tribalism.

President Trump, as he is accustomed to doing regularly, couldn’t resist his alarming natural tendency to lash out at his enemies recently – this time, Representative Elijah Cummings of Maryland.  The President and Congressman have been embroiled in a racially charged tit for tat over the dreadful conditions of Cummings’ home district in Baltimore...

I really should just stop opening it, and yet I’m drawn to it out of morbid curiosity like when passing a train wreck.  The disgraced Southern Poverty Law Center’s regular magazine “Teaching Tolerance” that is sent out to public schools across America arrived in my inbox this last week.  And their featured “Moment?”  A piece entitled, “Let’s Talk About Baltimore.”

Of course I knew what it was going to be before I even opened it, but like I said, I couldn’t help myself.  And the author Cory Collins didn’t disappoint...

Perfect.  It was perfect.  What Don Lemon, one of the most unscrupulous actors posing as a journalist on television today, did to a black minister live on television last week stands as the perfect depiction of why people hate the media, why the president’s punches against them always land so forcefully, and why his employer CNN is cratering to what seems like unsustainably low ratings.

It was also perfect that not long before, CNN’s resident “senior media reporter” Oliver Darcy had criticized Fox News’ resident loudmouth Tomi Lahren for “reprehensible commentary.”  I’ve never been one to defend Tomi’s cartoonish performances, but to borrow from Jesus, Darcy might want to first concentrate on removing the gigantic plank in his network’s own eye before concentrating on Fox’s speck...

Two mass shootings in less than 24 hours.  Twenty-nine families irrevocably changed forever. 

One killer a white supremacist nut.  Another a left-wing Antifa nut. 

Left-wing pundits and politicians blaming Trump because the El Paso terrorist echoed his rhetoric.  Right-wing pundits and politicians pointing out the Dayton terrorist echoed the rhetoric of AOC and Sanders. 

Presidential candidates all posturing and pretending that they have the solution that would stop all this – but they never actually specify what that is.  And there’s a reason.  There is no political solution to hatred.  There’s a spiritual one, but not a political one.

So the situation seems hopeless...

Here are two positions that can be logically defended:

Human life is precious and inviolable.  Both abortion and capital punishment are immoral acts.

Human life is precious and inviolable.  Abortion is immoral while capital punishment is sometimes the only appropriate and just penalty.

Here is a position that cannot be logically defended...

It wasn’t that long ago that Donald Trump was tweeting about how former star Bette Midler was a “washed-up psycho.”  I commented at the time that such public drivel was unbecoming of the high office of President of the United States.  I wish someone could have gotten word to Bette that her efforts to prove the President right are not overly helpful.

If you’re curious what I’m talking about, you can be forgiven.  It’s hard to keep up with all the nonsense that populates our social media world these days.  But in case you missed it, Midler decided to launch another broadside at President Trump, and in the process, managed to out herself as a verifiable racist...

Gone are the days of turning to rumor-debunking web giant Snopes to get to the bottom of whether or not Steven Seagal, Ric Flair, or Sam Elliott have met an untimely demise.  Somewhere along the line the execs at Snopes decided to become a poor man’s Huffington Post, parroting Planned Parenthood’s lies, denigrating Trump at every turn, and desperately trying (though failing spectacularly) to shame Christian satire website The Babylon Bee for being good at what they do.

Months ago, Snopes got their left-wing knickers in a knot when the Bee ran a piece hilariously titled, “CNN Purchases Industrial-Sized Washing Machine to Spin News Before Publication.”  Given that no one with a brain would have taken the Bee’s story seriously, it naturally prompted questions as to why Snopes would be expending time, money, and energy to go after them...

Being a decorated war veteran doesn’t make you immune to all criticism.  Those who have served in the military are still just as likely to have bad ideas, bad thoughts, bad policy suggestions as anyone else.  And when they share them publicly or take on a role of public leadership, they have to understand rebuke and reproach are part of the deal.

Still, if there’s one area I’d say is off limits, or at least one that warrants some intense introspection before wading into, it’s attacking a decorated war veteran for not being man enough.  And I’d say that’s particularly true if you’re a struggling actor (his most recent blockbuster was “The Hunt for the Trump Tapes with Tom Arnold”) who is best known for being married to Rosanne Barr...

This may be my favorite story of the year.

It may just be my own personal observation, but for years I’ve felt that conservatives and liberals have two very different, but equally debilitating challenges.  Who wins at the ballot box almost unfailingly hinges upon which can overcome their respective dilemma.

For conservatives, it’s being able to effectively articulate the ideals of conservatism in the face of a hostile and unfairly antagonistic media climate. 

For liberals, it’s being able to effectively untether themselves from the historical calamities of left-wing policy and convince voters this time it will be different...

I want to take her seriously because she is a Congresswoman after all.  And I know that what she may lack in gravitas or actual legislative accomplishment, she makes up for as a very influential voice shaping public opinion on social media.  But Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) continues to befuddle me with some stunning displays of naiveté.

The most recent example has to be this Twitter gem that left most thinking people scratching their heads...