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The old saying goes that if you put a million chimpanzees into a room with a million typewriters for enough time, one of them will eventually write Shakespeare. Unfortunately, we do not have a room full of chimpanzees, but we have the next best thing — politicians — and so far the...
Sadly, while we Americans rail against big government's intrusion into our personal lives, our unwillingness to stop certain reckless behaviors often invites governmental involvement. Simply put, sometimes we need to have laws passed to protect us from ourselves. If common sense doesn't do it,...
As an adjunct instructor at the U.S. Naval Academy, I take the oath at the beginning of each academic year to support and defend the Constitution of the United States, as I did at the beginning of my naval career at the academy. Yet the Naval Academy is defying the Constitution —...
The Department of Justice's antitrust case against Microsoft was one of the largest and most carefully watched in history. The courts ruled that Microsoft illegally maintained its monopoly of personal computer operating systems (OS). After years of oversight of a "behavioral remedy," the department'...
What's in a name? Shakespeare had a point when he had Juliet telling Romeo that "a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." But don't tell that to the many Native Americans furious at the Pentagon for code-naming Osama bid Laden "Geronimo" in the raid that found and killed him.
For nearly a century, oysters have been pummeled from two sides: us and nature. Our appetite for oysters has spurred overharvesting; at the same time, pollution has made oysters more vulnerable to disease, and sediment has smothered oyster beds. Conservationists, lawmakers and natural resource...
We are on the 2011 Student Freedom Riders bus rolling toward Augusta, Ga., watching "The Murder of Emmett Till," a PBS documentary on the savage 1955 lynching of a black boy in the nothing town of Money, Miss. On the old newsreel footage, white person after white person spews the grotesque bigotry...
Today in Boca Raton, a South Florida woman named Ann Van Wagner pays a debt to an illegal immigrant who saved her life. Ms. Van Wagner has organized a fundraiser at a Boca bowling alley — "Bowling For Brains" — to support the Johns Hopkins Brain Tumor Stem Cell Laboratory headed by Dr....
Memorial Day is fast approaching, and for thousands of Baltimoreans, that day marks the beginning of the summer sojourns in Ocean City. The famous boardwalk will be reconstructed come fall, and the town council considered using a variety of materials, finally deciding to continue using wood.
Last week, longtime University of Maryland basketball coach Gary Williams announced his retirement, and very quickly Maryland announced that Texas A&M; Coach Mark Turgeon will replace him. No one doubts that during contract negotiations, Turgeon had lawyers advising and representing him.
Imagine being told your employer is closing its doors for good in two days, but you'll get paid for the next 60 days. Then imagine discovering that your paycheck for those 60 days is cut nearly in half.
Congress' recent efforts to balance the federal budget give new meaning to "women and children first." The $500 million cut to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) that President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans agreed to as part of last month'...
The search for Osama bin Laden lasted more than 10 years, through three U.S. presidencies. Under President Bill Clinton in the mid-1990s, our intelligence agencies began their relentless pursuit of bin Laden. The death of almost 3,000 innocent men, women and children on Sept. 11, 2001, intensified...
The life I experience as a 30-year resident and homeowner in Northeast Baltimore is quite different from the picture painted recently in The Sun. I've worked in community development for 16 years and know the Northeast Baltimore neighborhoods well. I have seen them evolve from quasi-suburban...
The way Maurice McClain tells it, he was driving to his ex-wife's house in the Gwynn Oak area of Baltimore County on Friday afternoon and, approaching that destination, noticed a boy who appeared to be walking home from school. The boy appeared to be about 10 years old, alone and upset. He looked...
As the wave of revolution continues to sweep through the Arab world, the Syrian regime of Bashar Assad could be its next victim. While many in the United States and Israel appear hesitant to support Syria's anti-regime forces — basing their thinking on the old maxim that the devil you know...
Whether it's the U.S. president ordering the killing of an Islamist extremist in Pakistan, a Long Island congressman scheduling hearings on the radicalization of Islam in America, or mullahs in Afghanistan exhorting mobs to violence in response to a Florida preacher burning a copy of the Quran, it's...
Osama Bin Laden's death reminds me of a middle school essay competition I participated in last fall. It was titled: If you could choose to go back in time and witness any historic event, which event would it be and why?
A growing coalition of environmentalists, public health advocates and sustainable businesses including renewable energy companies and composters are urging Gov. Martin O'Malley to veto legislation that would qualify trash incineration as a "Tier 1" renewable energy source on par with solar and...
I live about three-quarters of a mile from the Inner Harbor and have for close to seven years now, but I would not say it's one of my favorite places to frequent on a Friday night — or any other night. Sure, the harbor offers great waterfront views and a number of upscale restaurants, but most...
Fourteen thousand eight hundred and eighty-seven.
Thor, the Marvel Comics superhero, hammered his way into movie theaters over the weekend, saving the world, winning Natalie Portman and grossing about $66 million. Kenneth Branagh's "Thor" is based on Stan Lee's Thor, which is based on the Thor of Norse mythology — god of thunder and protector...
Maryland now has a hard-fought "Dream Act" that offers undocumented-immigrant young people in-state tuition for post-high school education — but with many limitations, including that these "dreamers" must enroll first in Maryland community colleges.
Like many Americans, I stayed up most of Sunday night watching the story of the longed-for end of Osama bin Laden unfold on television and on the Internet.
Osama bin Laden once argued that the U.S., in its "Global War on Terror," was "like the one who plows and sows the sea: he harvests nothing but failure." Bin Laden made this assertion in his video titled "The Solution," which was released Sept. 7, 2007, in advance of the sixth anniversary of Sept....