An honest man surveys “the wasteland”: “You know the difference between we who work in television and they who work in Hollywood? We’re willing to admit that 90 percent of what shows up on television isn’t worth looking at. They think everything they do is a masterpiece. That’s the main difference.”— Don Hewitt, Executive Producer […]
Archives for May 2000
No Excuses
The Heritage Foundation has recently published a report entitled No Excuses: Lessons From 21 High-Performing High-Poverty Schools, based on research conducted by Samuel Casey Carter, a Bradley Fellow at the Foundation. I strongly recommend it to anyone remotely concerned with the state of public education in this country. Carter’s research comprised a nationwide survey of […]
Faith, Reason, and Wisdom
One of my heroes of the 20th century is Pope John Paul II. He has not only been a great leader for his church and his faith, but a significant statesman and one who provided critical political (yes, political in the philosophical sense) and moral conviction during the momentous final years of Soviet and Eastern […]
China Watch
According to Dan Rather, appearing on Larry King Live last month, the “biggest, most important story unfolding now is the transformation of China into a world power on two fronts—economic and military.” This may seem obvious, and it is also clear that, beneath the surface, there is a huge revolution brewing in that country over […]
Elian
This tragedy and all of its underlying conflicts of values has something to say to everyone, but I touch on it here only because of what it says to me about America at large. It is one of those cases that provides an opportunity to reflect on American priorities. For me (at this writing the […]