Carter Wrenn
Gary Pearce
60 Minutes did a story about the ‘Mysterious Russian Death Syndrome’ – it works like this: A journalist, reporting from Chechnya, Anna Politkovskaya wrote stories about torture, kidnapping, murders by Putin’s soldiers. A colonel in Chechnya had locked her in prison, tortured her, led her outside, told her, “I’m going to shoot you.” In the…
‘What did you think of those students?’ Gary asked after we spent an hour at a forum at N. C. State University. The students weren’t anything like politicians you watch on TV these days –– no one ranted, strutted; voices calm, when they disagreed, politeness held. Gary saw that as a sign of better days…
The killing of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University – and now the reaction, rhetoric and threats of retribution – make you tremble for our country. But the Q&A session that Carter and I had the afternoon before at N.C. State University gave me hope. We were at NCSU’s Society for Politics, Economics & the…
The future’s a mystery. But it’s also true history repeats itself. So when we come to a fork in the road the past – by shedding light on old mistakes – can help us choose the road to take. At the end of ‘The Roaring Twenties’ my grandmother married – as a young girl she’d…
My friend Pat is still vigorous and trail-hiking at age 83, but he’s unsparing about aging. “You may not be old when you’re in your 70s,” he said over lunch, “but when you’re in your 80s, you’re old.” Donald Trump is pushing 80, and showing it. He’s doing what he accused President Biden of doing:…
Seldom agreeing, grasping for power, our two political parties have fought for years. Back in Reagan days, Democrats said we needed more government to fix problems. Republicans, like Reagan, shot back government was the problem. Still, as Reagan and Tip O’Neill battled, they shared common values. Both respected that Americans had the right to disagree…
Hitler couldn’t destroy America. The Soviet Union couldn’t either. But Trump’s warning us one federal court has the power to destroy us. Of course, he was angry the court ruled against him. And he was posturing to get clicks on social media. But he left one question unanswered. Here’s what happened: Using what he calls…
Our young waitress at dinner had a strong accent, and my wife asked where she’s from. “Ukraine,” she said. She’s been here a year. She’d lived near Poland, away from the fighting. On my walk the next morning, I crossed paths with a grandmotherly woman who’s always pushing a small child in a stroller around…
The other day I read Big Tech Algorithms – by feeding us what we crave to see, hear, believe – are warping our character. There’s probably some truth in that but tale spinning goes all the way back to the Serpent tempting Eve in the Garden of Eden – it’s an old bone-deep sin. Parents…
A new nationwide poll shows that, if they could run against each other in 2028, Barack…
Senator Phil Berger was out of touch with voters in his district – and suffered the…
A reassuring lesson from our trip to Germany and Czechia is that dictators, despots and tyrants…