Bribe verb 1. persuade (someone) to act in one’s favor, typically illegally or dishonestly, by a gift of money or other inducement.

In one of my favorite movies The Untouchables, character Jimmy Malone (played by actor extraordinaire Sean Connery), dying on the floor, asks Eliot Ness (played by some guy named Costner), “What are you prepared to do?”

On Oct. 26, U.S. Army Delta Force carried out a successful raid that ended the life of one of the world’s truly bad actors, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Not since the Navy SEALs took out Osama bin Laden has the hard work by the patriots in the deep state of the U.S. intelligence community (you know…

I agree with my Democrat friends and their undeniably willful accomplices in the media. President Donald Trump is the single most dangerous threat to the Democrat Party in history.

I recently heard a woman claim on one of the 24-hour news networks that there is a “civil war” currently going on in our government pitting the forces of democracy and the rule of law against those of autocratic, unitary executive power. I don’t know who she was, but she spoke truth.

Ninety years ago this week, Americans witnessed the end of an era of prosperity and optimism known as the Roaring ’20s. Pride goeth before destruction, and there was plenty of pride in the land of opportunity.

A few weeks ago, there was a bad storm out over the Atlantic. Dorian was expected to visit West Volusia, tearing things up. Fortunately, we got some warning.

Who is Dmitry Firtash, and why should you care?

For the past three years, we’ve been hearing right-wing media and this president lamenting the “deep state.” Well, it does exist. It is the roots and the trunk of the tree of liberty planted by our Founders and grown with 230 years of American values and respect for the rule of law. It’s goi…

So, while Democrats have entirely invested their future in U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff and his merry band of Democrat whistleblowers, I thought I’d deal with some local issues. As I stated last week, I don’t have a care in the world when it comes to those who would disenfranchise those who elected…

The president’s extortion of the president of Ukraine launched an impeachment inquiry that is gaining steam on a daily basis. Republicans are, for the most part, still in apologist mode over it.

People ask me why I’m so calm about President Donald Trump’s impeachment. First of all, he’s not being impeached. The Democrats don’t have the guts.

The hatred and vitriol are reaching a fever pitch for those afflicted with Trump Derangement Syndrome. I’ve called them cats suffering from President Donald Trump’s wielding of the laser pointer. Now, they believe the man with the laser pointer is the one in the corner.

Texodus. It’s a term Democrats have coined to describe the mass retirements of Republican members of Congress before the blue tsunami of the upcoming election.

I know the old stereotype: Public-works crews lean on shovels and occasionally move. I remember where on Plymouth the county crews used to park to nap in the afternoons, but I have not been out there in years. They may have found a new spot.

Let me get this straight. We have former Vice President Joe Biden on tape stating that he told the Ukrainians they had six hours to fire a prosecutor investigating a company owned by a Russian oligarch. It’s not disputed that Joe Biden’s son, kicked out of the U.S. military for testing posit…

“How dare you.”

This is going to be a curmudgeonly rant, no way around it. So fans of shopping early and often for plastic trees and blowup reindeer might sidestep this mini-rant.

I have been diligent in pointing out the criminality and corruption that are core elements of Drumpf and his administration. As abhorrently pervasive as the criminality and corruption are, they pale when compared to the inhumanity that is the overriding face of what they are doing to the mos…

Many in The Beacon audience were less than sympathetic with my column supporting our Second Amendment rights. Their righteous anger should trump my right to keep and bear arms. “[S]hall not be infringed” is ignored by my Democratic friends.

The third Democrat debate is this week. Thank God, there’s just 10 candidates left. That’s what you’d think, but there are really nearly 20 still in the mix.

The past week or so saw the president engage in virtually all the traits making him unfit for office. Maybe the only one we didn’t see was his predatory sexual nature. All the rest, narcissism, corruption, racism, treason, etc., were on full display.

Once, there was a poet. I think the name was Joyce Kilmer. The poem started something like this:

Oh, unpredictable nature. Haven’t we come far enough that we can predict with accuracy what these giant 300-mile-in-diameter weather systems will do?

Sen. Elizabeth Warren isn’t directly responsible for the deaths of nine in Dayton, Ohio. The shooter was a fan of “Liz.”

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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