The weird thing about ad hominem responses is sometimes they trigger laughter and sometimes they trigger mortal combat.
If we’re not just to throw in the towel and declare representative democracy a noble failure, then we have to restore Americans’ faith in the processes of government. To do this, we must pursue a range of reforms and goals, some of which will require years of effort to achieve.
Too many people believe that slavery is a “peculiar institution.” That’s what Kenneth Stampp called slavery in his book, “Peculiar Institution: Slavery in the Ante-Bellum South.” But slavery is by no means peculiar, odd or unusual. It was common among ancient peoples such as the Egyptians, B…
The new crop of Americans has several markers, experts say. One helps explain why fewer of them choose to live in Mississippi.
George Orwell said, “But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.” Gore Vidal elaborated on that insight, saying, “As societies grow decadent, the language grows decadent, too. Words are used to disguise, not to illuminate.” And John Milton predicted, “When language i…
A reader recently wrote to me with an interesting question. He was seeking advice on how his teenage daughter might find an after school job for her high school years. His logic makes sense. He wants her to learn discipline and to gain a work ethic. These are great qualities for a young stud…
There are political movements to push the federal minimum hourly wage to $15. Raising the minimum wage has popular support among Americans. Their reasons include fighting poverty, preventing worker exploitation and providing a living wage. For the most part, the intentions behind the support…
Charlie Faulk was patient. As the first managing editor to shepherd me, he had to be. He’s gone now — 27 years — but America and American journalism are in sore need of his gentle good humor and wisdom.
Statesmen are in short supply in this political season but Mississippi has thankfully a few prime examples of public leaders who have exemplified principles of leadership, integrity and transparency in the face of partisan arm twisting, outright bullying and strong arm tactics aimed at build…
We have gotten so used to seeing college presidents and other academic “leaders” caving in to so many outrageous demands from little gangs of bullying students that it is a long overdue surprise to see a sign that at least one major university has shown some backbone.
A lot of people want what I do from the media and feel they’re not getting it: more facts and fewer opinions; more investigative reporters and fewer pundits; more substance and less fluff; more policy exploration and less politics.
Is there no limit to the level of disgusting behavior on college campuses that parents, taxpayers, donors and legislators will accept? Colleges have become islands of intolerance, and as with fish, the rot begins at the head. Let’s examine some recent episodes representative of a general tre…
When you boil it down to the nub, every citizen of Mississippi except bona fide members of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, is an immigrant or descended from an immigrant. Even the Choctaws weren’t here when what the Weather Channel once called “the land mass between Alabama and Loui…
American immorality and contempt for liberty lie at the root of most of the political economic problems our nation faces. They explain the fiscal problems we face, such as growing national debt and budget deficits at the federal, state and local levels of government. Our immorality and conte…
A reader recently wrote to me with a unique situation. They landed an impressive contract position. Everything was going along great for eleven months until one day, they were let go. The company laid off a large number of people all at the same time. After soliciting feedback, the reader wa…
What economists call an ability to make “compensating differences” is a valuable tool in everyone’s arsenal. If people are prohibited from doing so, they are always worse off. You say, “Williams, I never heard of compensating differences. What are they?”
Lately, there has been much hue and cry about markers and memorials involving past historical figures, and the possibility of moving this marker or that one, mostly in recent columns from other pundits and journalists.
Using the debt ceiling as a means of reining in excessive spending has not worked. Our political efforts should go toward finding long-term solutions that restrain spending and boost tax revenue.
One of the painful realities of our times is how long a political lie can survive, even after having been disproved years ago, or even generations ago.
My “Rewriting American History” column of a fortnight ago, about the dismantling of Confederate monuments, generated considerable mail. Some argued there should not be statues honoring traitors such as Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson and Jefferson Davis, who fought against the Union. Victor…
The Mississippi Legislature reduced funding for community colleges, causing an upsurge in the cost of attendance. Lawmakers in Tennessee made community colleges tuition-free, likely to cause an upsurge in attendance.
Sometimes in your career, things don’t always work out the way you plan them. For me, the first time I learned this lesson, I was in college. I went to one of those fancy, private schools to study computer engineering in the late 90s. I knew that an investment in such a great degree would gu…
Here’s my question to you: If an evil person is guaranteed that he can inflict physical pain upon others and guaranteed to never suffer pain himself, what happens to his willingness to inflict pain? You say, “What do you mean, Williams?” OK, I will make my question more concrete. Suppose a y…
I recall from my childhood often times being told by my parents about why America was such a great country, such a wonderful place to grow up and live. A country that we should protect and defend with all of our might from all of those other people who wanted to take away the freedoms our U…
I’ve had a number of conversations recently that convince me our country is divided into two political camps separated by a deep and uncomfortably wide gap. No, I’m not talking about liberals and conservatives, or pro- and anti-Trump voters. I’m talking about people who believe in politics a…
I’ve had a number of conversations recently that convince me our country is divided into two political camps separated by a deep and uncomfortably wide gap. No, I’m not talking about liberals and conservatives, or pro- and anti-Trump voters. I’m talking about people who believe in politics a…
The woman’s voice on the other end of the phone line was cracking — her words trailed off in a torrent of grief.
Antony, foreseeing chaos in the aftermath of the murder of Julius Caesar, intoned, “Cry ‘Havoc!,’ and let slip the dogs of war.” In more contemporary artistry with words, the Baha Men gave us, “Who let the dogs out? Who? Who? Who? Who?”
Greg Caskey is a 27-year-old Abington, Pennsylvania, native who is a social sciences teacher at Delaware Military Academy. The academy is a thriving charter high school in Wilmington, Delaware, that was founded in 2003 by two retired military officers, Charles Baldwin and Jack Wintermantel. …
Interviewing is hard work. If you're currently looking for something new, you know that finding a job is a job. From preparing your favorite suit to revising your resume to networking and rounds of interviews – there are times it feels like it will never end. It can be tough to keep your hea…
One of the unavoidable consequences of youth is the tendency to think behavior we see today has always been. I’d like to dispute that vision, at least as it pertains to black people.
Every summer, as the Fourth of July approaches, I’m struck by how inadequate a label “Independence Day” is. This isn’t to downplay the courage of our founders in declaring independence from Great Britain, or in fighting a war to guarantee it. But if you think about it, what we’re really cele…
People like having roads and highways in good repair and troopers to patrol them. They like having forestry and mental health services, state parks and game management, fire trucks that come when called. People like having enough judges to handle caseloads. People would like nothing better t…
Compared to what it looked like a couple of decades ago, Congress today is a far more representative body. It’s true that, as Congressional Quarterly once pointed out, the House and Senate are still “populated mainly by wealthy white men with advanced degrees and backgrounds in law and busin…
George Orwell said, “The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.” In the former USSR, censorship, rewriting of history and eliminating undesirable people became part of Soviets’ effort to ensure that the correct ideological and…
People like having roads and highways in good repair and troopers to patrol them. They like having forestry and mental health services, state parks and game management, fire trucks that come when called. People like having enough judges to handle caseloads. People would like nothing better t…
I recently had the opportunity to travel to Austin, Texas to meet a number of folks who work at the job website Indeed.com. If you’ve looked for a job in the last ten years, there’s a good chance you’ve visited Indeed. In 2010, they passed Monster to become the highest trafficked job site in…
The decision to send troops overseas requires clear eyes, hard questions and specific answers.
A friend posted on my online timeline recently that upon reaching my 52nd birthday that I wasn’t old but had just been “young for a long time.”
There’s no way to know what former Mississippi Commissioner of Corrections Christopher Epps expected when he walked into court — at last — to hear his sentence, but the nearly 20-year term imposed by U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate must have come as a surprise.
The Economist magazine some time ago published “What’s gone wrong with Democracy ... and what can be done to revive it?” The suggestion is that democracy is some kind of ideal for organizing human conduct. That’s a popular misconception.
Ask any black person which political party has been black people’s political ally. With near unanimity, blacks would answer the Democratic Party. Asked which political party has been hostile to blacks, they’d say the Republican Party with similar unanimity. For better answers, check out Prag…
Sometimes, you just have to get in touch with your member of Congress. Perhaps Congress is taking up an issue — the minimum wage, say, or a bill to promote medical research — that would make a difference in your life. Maybe some matter is embroiling your community, such as growing drug probl…
Typically, this column is targeted toward the job seeker. Today, I’m going to take a slightly different approach. I’ve received the same question from multiple different employers in the past week, “How can I hire better candidates?”
Our nation’s welfare rides on how well political leaders balance the needs of the country against their partisan goals.
Solitary confinement has long been viewed by experts and human rights organizations as a form of torture. As far back as 1890, the United States Supreme Court declared the practice of solitary confinement abandoned, noting the high rates of suicide and insanity among prisoners subjected to i…
For many years, there has been a strong national movement to serve children and families in their homes and communities and not in “institutionalized care.” This is a movement Canopy Children’s Solutions has supported and advanced both nationally and in Mississippi. As the immediate past pre…
Morgan Freeman, celebrated actor and thoughtful person, says forget about it.
In 1798, Thomas Malthus wrote “An Essay on the Principle of Population.” He predicted that mankind’s birthrate would outstrip our ability to grow food and would lead to mass starvation. Malthus’ wrong predictions did not deter Stanford University professor Paul Ehrlich from making a similar …
Politics can be messy, but not because it’s tainted or morally bankrupt. It’s messy because it often reflects deep-seated disagreements that are hard to resolve, with merit on both sides.
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