Agrees many religious leaders are too quiet regarding hatred and violence

Time for everyone’s favorite topic: tax-increment financing. Cut this column out, and keep it beside the bed, available in case of insomnia. Or use it to induce paralysis and stupor in case of zombie attack.

The United States is under a severe, ongoing terrorist attack. You probably think I’m going to talk about the white-nationalist scourge we are currently suffering, but, while that is a factor in it, that’s not the offensive I am going to describe.

Where are our churches and religious leaders?

Last weekend saw a confluence of three of the most pressing problems facing this nation: guns, immigration and hate. As typical, our president played golf during the tragedies, and then offered a tepid, at best, response that addressed none of them with any degree of adequacy whatsoever.

Editor, The Beacon:

Where’s the outrage over this administration’s offenses?

Growing up, I played just about every sport that included a ball of some sort. The single rule in all of them is “Keep your eye on the ball.”

What did I tell you about Congressmen Jerrold Nadler and Adam Schiff? I told you they’re unwittingly on my team.

There are two types of invention recognized in the patent office. There are useful things, and decoration. A clever person can invent a new bulb for lamps, or some new ornament for a lamp, and have patents issued.

We need someone like Theodore Roosevelt today

I believe those residing on the right side of the fence are better politically educated and less polluted by a biased and calculated media. And I’m surprised that “The Squad” matters much at all to anyone, with two dozen contenders vying to face President Donald Trump.

With the death last week of former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, America lost one of its giants of jurisprudence. Serving from 1975 to 2010, Stevens was the third-longest-serving justice in the history of the Supreme Court.

Congratulations to the Deltona City Commission. They are learning what people think of them, hearing about it in great detail. There are still towns in which the ancestry of the commissioners is uncertain, but Deltona is no longer among their number.

In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards.

My two wonderful granddaughters are biracial. When my older granddaughter, Maysen, was almost 3, we were reading “The Ugly Duckling.” I didn’t remember that the ugly duckling was black, and the other ducklings were yellow.

Last week, I wrote about a Gallup Poll showing how Americans’ pride in our country has been diminishing in the Drumpf era. Sunday, we were provided with the first event since the 2016 election worthy of pride in what our country has produced on the international stage.

Editor, The Beacon:

Just a couple of months ago, County Council Chair Ed Kelley was going around the county telling people that he was not bright enough to come up with a Plan B in case the sales-tax increase failed. Well, this is a rare occasion, but I have to accuse him of honesty.

We’re becoming a nation of hate

Happy birthday, America. I hope this next year is your best one yet.

So, we won’t have a question on the census form asking if the respondent is an American citizen.

As we celebrate American democracy on the Fourth of July, we should celebrate and reinforce our support for freedom of the press.

Two issues stand out for their idiocy and depravity this week, so I will focus on them: Iran, and the children at the border.

Gated communities don’t belong in DeLand

It’s 40 feet tall, and the people who wanted to see it torn down can sit and play shut-mouth tonight.

As one of the protesters near the Orlando Trump rally, I felt very uncomfortable. My discomfort was due in part to my fear of violence. In greater part, however, it had a deeper cause.

If you are a loyal MSNBC/CNN viewer or if you subscribe to The New York Times and/or lesser liberal rags, you’re certain that the top five or six Democrats vying for the nomination can defeat President Donald Trump in the popular vote and, most importantly, in the Electoral College in 2020. …

Foul language should not be tolerated

A couple of stories in the news this week were even more concerning than the usual, ongoing train wreck of this administration. Neither had to do with the issues taking place in the Persian Gulf.

It’s like reading the funny pages

When my son was a little guy, Ron Howard made a film that was the definitive movie on firefighting. The Backdraft poster was on my son’s wall as long as he had a room in our home.

Learning something in Deltona

Devoted readers of this column (all five of you) will know I have long held the belief it will be women and kids who will save this country. A Pew Research Center poll prior to the 2018 midterm elections shows Democrats had better have the right answers and policies to do so, because they ar…

Mueller, Mueller, Mueller. He spoke. Some heard something very different from what I heard.

He’s now in full denial mode — it was only some “well-meaning” staffer who did it. But his chief of staff is now on record saying it was OK by him, and it would be “silly” to fire anyone over it.

Fight continues for women to have control of their bodies

I attended the joint special meeting of the DeLand City Commission and the Downtown Community Redevelopment Agency May 28.

For die-hard traditionalists May 30 was, is, and always will be, the real Memorial Day.

Every once in a while an email hits my inbox turning the tables on me. I’m talking about a reader who makes me sit back and think.

Game of Thrones has captured the fancy of the American viewing public as nothing has in a generation. The novels that spawned the series have now sold more than 90 million copies worldwide.

Today, I have some good news. It turns out that some criminals do change their ways. Departing from their evil habits, they reform themselves.