Is it OK to ignore the law and take matters into your own hands by committing or threatening acts of violence to right a perceived wrong?Absent certain very narrow exceptions in Western legal history, most notably self-defense, or defense of others (and...

What we wish for the year 2016 is more than 140 characters.The craving to say things fast and first — enabled by Twitter’s harsh limit on posting lengths — has in this day and age often taken over the need to process complicated things in a thoughtful...

Public policy that ignores data and research is bad. Public policy that deliberately prevents the accumulation of data through research is worse.Missouri public policy discussion on guns right now is bad. Very bad. It comes down to rabid zealots in the...

Climate change naysayers in this country are too busy figuring out how to derail this week’s Paris accord than to recognize the astounding, impressive result of nearly 200 nations signing on to set common goals for reducing carbon emissions. Goals that,...

“That’s what careless words do. They make people love you a little less.”— Arundhati Roy, “The God of Small Things” What’s the difference between Donald Trump using words to castigate a world community of a billion people, and Hands Up...

While the soft purr of the backchannel diplomatic engine rarely gets the media treatment of the alarming terror on Jerusalem streets, Israeli governmental officials continue working to build bridges in the region. Given the awful treatment accorded Israel...

Who are we as a nation? Current events are begging us to answer that question.Are we a nation that can embrace our traditional insistence on freedom of speech and expression, or are we going to succumb to those who would suppress it?Are we a nation that...

Many people in Paris are dead at the hands of inhuman terrorists.Let’s get some things straight.This is not the same as the events at Mizzou.This is not the same as Yale Halloween costumes.This is not the same as debating who’s responsible for the...

At the General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America on Monday, Jewish philanthropist Les Wexner, CEO of L Brands Inc. and founder of the Limited clothing chain, talked about the responsibility of leadership and how it applies to us not...

President Barack Obama’s decision to send “fewer than 50” U.S. Special Operations Forces into Syria was both surprising and perplexing. For the past five years President Obama has adamantly insisted that the U.S. military involvement in the four-year...

Violence against the peaceful practice of religion harms us all.The desecration via arson of seven places of Christian worship in St. Louis and Jennings over a two-week period in October is not only a crime against the direct victims — members of the...

“I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest.” — Winston Churchill, radio broadcast, Oct. 1, 1939Despite the beginning of...