Essays

Drone Safety Is Good Business
FAA internal website and Drone Book, Nov. 8, 2019
The timing of this week’s inaugural National Drone Safety Awareness Week is perfect from my perspective as a drone pilot. It comes right after my first FAA-approved flight inside what is usually a no-fly zone in controlled airspace.

Danny the Drone Dude
FAA internal website and Drone Book, June 26, 2018
Throughout childhood and into college, I pictured the adult version of myself in a whole host of careers. The ideas ranged from the predictable (doctor) and practical (electrician) to the sensible (electrical engineer) and fantastical (wildlife photographer). One future that I never could have imagined, or that any aptitude test could have predicted, was becoming a commercial drone pilot. Yet today I’m living that dream in my spare time.

The Myth of the Impala Mama
Medium, Feb. 18, 2017
Finnish photographer Alison Buttigieg loves cats. The Internet loves cats. But these days Buttigieg hates the Internet because it’s lying about one of her cat photos. An intellectual property thief stole the photo of cheetahs killing an impala, invented a feel-good back-story for it, and engineered a viral sensation — one that wasn’t exactly flattering to Buttigieg. “In the beginning I thought it was absolutely hilarious, even the trolling,” she said. “But then it was suddenly really overwhelming when I realized there wasn’t much I could do.”

A School Board President Who Homeschools? How Dare You!
PJ Media, April 6, 2016
Bonnie Henthorn and her husband spent their formative years in Tyler County public schools. Between them, their two children spent at least 15 years in that system. The family has supported the schools with taxes for decades. That makes Henthorn an ideal choice for president of the Tyler County school board. But none of that matters now because in January she committed the unpardonable sin of public education: She started homeschooling.

There’s a Cougar in Them Thar Hills
Medium, Jan. 3, 2016
There are no cougars in Wayne County, W.Va. By official accounts, there are no cougars anywhere in wild, wonderful West Virginia. In fact, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service concluded in 2011 that the eastern cougar is no longer endangered because it is extinct. But for a few days last month, a Prichard, W.Va., man named J.R. Hundley deceived a whole bunch of gullible people on Facebook into thinking he had seen one near his house.

Where Babies Come From
FAA internal website and Medium, Nov. 30, 2015
For five long years we dreamed of adoption. Then one evening, in the back of a car in Guatemala City, our dream came true. That’s where Kimberly and I met our son, Anthony. Two years later we went back to “The Land of the Eternal Spring” to add our first daughter, Elli, to the family mix. And in 2005 we made one more trip to bring home the baby of the family, Catie. This is our adoption story.

Danny’s Nightmare Aboard Betty’s Dream
FAA internal website and Medium, May 27, 2015
If one slogan could capture my thoughts at lunchtime on May 7, this would be it: “I flew in the belly of a B-25 bomber, and all I got was this lousy motion sickness bag.” That’s how I felt as I exited the floor hatch of Betty’s Dream, stepped onto the tarmac at Culpeper Regional Airport and inhaled a much-needed breath of fresh air after a rough flight.

Beltway Blogroll
While serving as the editor/managing editor of Technology Daily, I wrote a biweekly column about the impact of bloggers on public policy, politics and the media. I posted smaller but more frequent items on the companion blog of the same name.

The Impeached Former Judge
NationalJournal.com, Nov. 27, 2006
To voters in Florida’s 23rd District, Democrat Alcee Hastings is simply their representative in the House. But to those outside Florida’s 23rd who’ve heard of him, and especially to bloggers, Hastings is “the only member of Congress ever to have been impeached and removed from office as a federal judge,” to quote from the “Almanac of American Politics.”

Interior Conspiracies
NationalJournal.com, Oct. 16, 2006
There is conspiratorial talk about a blog ban at the federal level, and bloggers on the right are crying foul. The rumors surfaced thanks to a self-described Interior Department employee who clearly has too much spare time at work. Upon realizing that employee access to certain Web sites had been restricted, the employee compiled a list of inaccessible blogs. Before long, the online legend of the Interior Department blog ban had taken firm root.

The Online Curse Of Incumbency
NationalJournal.com, Aug. 14, 2006
Bloggers of all political persuasions hate “the establishment.” If that wasn’t clear before last Tuesday’s primaries, it certainly is now. Voters in Connecticut, Georgia and Michigan handed electoral pink slips to three members of Congress, and blogs were a factor in all three upsets.

Trying To Trump The Competition
NationalJournal.com, July 31, 2006
Two years ago this fall, Raj Bhakta made a splash on the reality TV show “The Apprentice,” but Donald Trump fired him in the ninth episode. Bhakta is in another competition this fall. He is trying to parlay his “Apprentice” fame and entrepreneurial experience into a lower-paying ($165,200) but higher-profile job as a congressman.

The Master Of Eminent Domain
NationalJournal.com, July 17, 2006
On June 22, the Pacific Legal Foundation entered the blogosphere. The launch of the group’s blog, PLF on Eminent Domain, was the perfect end to a year marked by keen public interest in a legal doctrine that guarantees governments the right to “take” private property for public use.

Welcome To The Mainstream, Bloggers
NationalJournal.com, June 19, 2006
When the history of the online media revolution is written, 2006 should merit special mention as a turning point for the blogosphere. This is the year, for better or for worse, when bloggers earned their first official media stripes.

The Quest For Online Integrity
NationalJournal.com, June 5, 2006
Old Mr. Webster defines integrity as “the quality or state of being of sound moral principle; uprightness, honesty, and sincerity.” That seems simple enough. But in the bitterly partisan, shoot-from-the-hip realm that is the blogosphere, defining integrity is anything but simple.

What’s A Conservative To Do?
NationalJournal.com, May 22, 2006
Some of the top bloggers on the right are debating what a true conservative is supposed to do when the “compassionate conservative” in the White House and the Republican revolutionaries in Congress lose their way on the path of rightward-ness.

Anything But Neutral On ‘Net Neutrality’
NationalJournal.com, May 8, 2006
The surest way to incite the collective hostility of bloggers is to seek limits on how they use their medium of choice: the Internet. They currently have major communications companies and their congressional allies in their sights over an obscure concept called “network neutrality.”

Milbloggers With Attitude
NationalJournal.com, April 24, 2006
Bloggers can be a critical bunch. When they don’t like what they see or hear in the world around them, they let everyone within click range of their piece of the Web know it. And when they get together at a blog conference, then the rhetoric can really get harsh. That’s what happened Saturday at the first annual Milblog Conference in Washington.

Bloggers Beat The FEC, So Now What?
NationalJournal.com, April 10, 2006
Bloggers won. That was the consensus two weeks ago, after a yearlong, off-and-on blog swarm that clearly shaped the thinking of the Federal Election Commission about campaign finance rules [PDF] for the Internet. What does it mean for the blogosphere in 2006, 2008 and beyond?

The Broken Band Of Brothers
NationalJournal.com, Feb. 27, 2006
Every campaign has its engaging story lines, and the Band of Brothers — military veterans who are Democrats — is the first prominent one of 2006. But weeks before the nation’s first primary, the band already has been broken: Three of these “fighting Dems” have laid down their arms. The only question now is how much staying power their comrades will have.

Somebody’s Got Your Number
NationalJournal.com, Feb. 13, 2006
Sometimes it takes an unrelenting blog swarm to push an issue onto the public stage; other times, it just takes a blogger with a penchant for publicity stunts. The latter approach worked brilliantly for John Aravosis of AMERICAblog in his quest to ignite a debate about cellular telephone privacy.

Bridging The Beltway Divide
NationalJournal.com, Jan. 30, 2006
The directors of RedState last week sent a simple, straightforward message about their support for Arizona Republican John Shadegg as House majority leader: “This matters.” Unfortunately for RedState’s leaders (and Shadegg), few House Republicans seem to be listening — and they are the only ones with votes in Thursday’s three-way election.

The Courtship of the Blogosphere
NationalJournal.com, Jan. 16, 2006
Conservative bloggers welcomed lavish treatment and exclusive access bestowed upon them by the Republican establishment in exchange for covering the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito from Washington. They dropped names, heaped praise on their news subjects and celebrated their chance to imbibe in the trappings of power.

A Tale Of Two Killers
NationalJournal.com, Dec. 19, 2005
Cory Maye of Mississippi and Stanley “Tookie” Williams of California had two very different pasts before they landed on death row — Williams in 1981 and Maye in 2004. But now the two have one more thing besides their criminal sentences in common: Each has become a focal point of renewed debate about capital punishment — a debate being driven in large part by bloggers.

A Blogospheric Eruption Over Hawaii’s Future
NationalJournal.com, Dec. 5, 2005
The latest fight for Hawaiian sovereignty is over “the Akaka bill” in Congress, and blogs have become a weapon in the ongoing warfare over that legislation. From Hawaii to Washington, blogs both large and small have demonstrated the power of their technology to explore a niche topic in great detail and to try to rally opposition to a relatively obscure proposal.

Blogging The Midnight Oil
NationalJournal.com, Nov. 21, 2005
As Congress finished its pre-Thanksgiving legislative dash, citizen journalists followed the action as dutifully as any credentialed reporters. Bloggers vented about budget decisions, reported on a last-minute congressional pay raise, covered the latest campaign finance news, called attention to new legislation, and even highlighted obscure provisions in large bills.

The U.N. As A Threat To Online Speech
NationalJournal.com, Nov. 7, 2005
Bloggers of all political persuasions rallied online last week to defend their right to speak freely about American political candidates. But on the global question of who should oversee the Internet, an issue with potentially far broader ramifications on free speech, they have been noticeably less vocal.

A Back Seat For Bloggers
NationalJournal.com, Oct. 23, 2005
This year, bloggers are the figurative freshmen of larger Washington. They have won enough respect in certain pockets of America to claim occasional seats at the policymaking table — but they are definitely back seats. Even as conservative bloggers have been showered with attention from the Republican powers-that-be yet have nothing substantive to show for it.

Toward Higher Wages And Bankruptcy Reform
NationalJournal.com, Oct. 10, 2005
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the mini-blogging empire of liberal Joshua Micah Marshall has focused its energy on reversing two GOP-engineered policies that could impact the storm’s victims most directly: construction wages and bankruptcy reform.

After Katrina: A Budgetary Blog Swarm
NationalJournal.com, Sept. 26, 2005
The push by President Bush for the federal government to spend $200 billion to recover from Hurricane Katrina has sparked a firestorm of criticism from bloggers on the left and right. Liberals see the plan as an opportunity to blast Republicans as budgetary hypocrites and complain about Bush’s policies, while fiscal conservatives see the plan as further evidence that Bush is not one of their own.

Post-Katrina: Pointing Fingers And Proposing Policy
NationalJournal.com, Sept. 11, 2005
Two weeks after Hurricane Katrina made landfall, the policy tornadoes that she spawned continue to churn. In the background, bloggers are working hard to see that those twisters hit the right targets and that the demolished houses of government are rebuilt the way they envision.

The Netroots Versus The Establishment
NationalJournal.com, Aug. 15, 2005
The unexpectedly strong showing of Democrat Paul Hackett in Ohio’s Aug. 2 special House election has Democratic bloggers pumped about their party’s political prospects. But an increasingly bitter battle between the Democratic “netroots” and the Washington establishment over the party’s political strategy and policy priorities could undermine such efforts.

‘Blawgmaker’ Hatches Bid For Senate Seat
NationalJournal.com, Aug. 1, 2005
Clear majorities of Utahans have sent GOP songwriter Orrin Hatch to the Senate for three decades. But another prominent Republican hopes voters will sing a new political tune in 2006 — and he is using his blog to help serenade them. The blogging lawmaker, or “blawgmaker,” is state House Majority Whip Steve Urquhart.

Advocacy Ads’ Newest Outlet
NationalJournal.com, July 18, 2005
Advocacy is a staple of the blogosphere, and advocacy advertising on blogs is quickly becoming a popular tool for groups hoping to mobilize the online masses. That is exactly why readers of some popular blogs saw two ads on the Supreme Court vacancy almost as soon as Justice Sandra Day O’Connor announced her pending departure.

The Power Of The Blog
NationalJournal.com, June 20, 2005
The blog days of Campaign 2004 are over now, but this year the technology that transformed the political scene is taking root in the wonky world of Washington. Web logs are quickly becoming a more visible and influential policy weapon. All of which explains why I am starting this column, “Beltway Blogroll.” Blogs are big newsmakers. They are transforming the political and policy worlds, and I will follow that transformation.

Congress Back Then
As the associate editor of IntellectualCapital.com, I wrote a weekly essay called “Congress Back Then” that discussed current congressional events in the context of history.

Happy Birthday, West Virginia!
IntellectualCapital.com, June 22, 2000
My home state of West Virginia became part of America in the heart of the Civil War and under constitutionally questionable circumstances. Serious talk of splitting the Old Dominion surfaced at least as early as 1830, and the war gave the people in the western part of the state an opportunity to achieve a political separation they long desired.

An Antiquated Law?
IntellectualCapital.com, April 27, 2000
Enacted after little debate during America’s most noteworthy conservation era, the 1906 American Antiquities Act periodically has sparked periodic debates about exactly how much power to protect public lands Congress intended to give the president. President Clinton reignited the debate when he created the Giant Sequoia National Monument.

The Strategy Behind Stockpiling Oil
March 23, 2000
Ever since Congress created the Strategic Petroleum Reserve as part of the broader energy policy it adopted in 1975, lawmakers, lobbyists and the oil-hungry American public have bickered about the best time to use it. Some historical perspective may shed light on exactly what strategy Congress had in mind when it created the stockpile.

America, the Debtless
IntellectualCapital.com, Feb. 24, 2000
Only once — during the second term of President Andrew Jackson in the 1830s — has America balanced its books and had to decide how to dispose of true budget surpluses. The experience provides some insight into the challenges of governing in a debt-free country.

The Great Slavery Debates
IntellectualCapital.com, Jan. 27, 2000
Are regular and frequent campaign debates a good way for voters to get to know their candidates or just another forum for candidates to vogue for the cameras, posture to the people and attack their opponents? A look at our nation’s most famous debates, the clashes over slavery just before the Civil War, may provide some answers.

Big-Stick Diplomacy in Panama
IntellectualCapital.com, Nov. 25, 1999
The year 1999 will mark the official end of American imperialism in Central America, which reached its zenith with the signing of a hastily negotiated treaty giving the United States the right to build and control the Panama Canal “in perpetuity.” How the United States managed such a one-sided treaty is a fascinating tale.

The Lost War on Poverty
IntellectualCapital.com, Nov. 4, 1999
No one in modern America ponders the state of poverty without first recalling President Lyndon B. Johnson’s “War on Poverty” in the 1960s. Whether for good or bad, it is the milestone achievement in the federal government’s quest to feed, clothe, house and employ the nation’s poor.

The FBI under Political Fire
IntellectualCapital.com, Sept. 23, 1999
The FBI’s aggressive methods have been the rallying cry of civil libertarians for decades. In the 1970s, the last years of Director J. Edgar Hoover, the man who for nearly a half-century was the FBI, Congress finally mustered the nerve to question an agency many Americans believed had overstepped its bounds in pursuit of justice.

Fantasizing about Full Employment
IntellectualCapital.com, Aug. 26, 1999
When Congress set goals of “full employment” and zero inflation in 1978, lawmakers and the president wrote so many escape hatches into the act that no one took it seriously. The law was symbolic at best, utter fantasy at worst. Few truly believed the nation could realize the dream of low employment and low inflation.

America’s Spiritual Heyday
IntellectualCapital.com, July 29, 1999
Congress added the phrase “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance and made the phrase “In God We Trust” the national motto and a mandatory slogan on all U.S. coins and currency in the 1950s. All of that religious posturing, and more, happened in the early days of the Cold War.

FDR’s Court-Packing Fiasco
IntellectualCapital.com, July 1, 1999
The few attempts to attack the U.S. Supreme Court as an institution have ended in embarrassing failure. The politically foolish mission of President Franklin D. Roosevelt to “pack” the court with justices favorable to his social policies is a perfect case study.

The Presidential Wage
IntellectualCapital.com, June 10, 1999
The lesson of history on the pay of elected officials is this: Congressional pay increases foment controversy and revolt at the polls; presidential pay boosts, no matter how large, seem to stir little public interest. The presidential pay hike of 1969, furthermore, was followed later the same year by raises in legislative and judicial pay.

Before There Were Draft Dodgers
IntellectualCapital.com, May 13, 1999
With some lawmakers contemplating a renewal of the draft, Congress may have to revisit the debate between an all-volunteer force versus an army of draftees. It’s a debate that dates back to 1917, after the United States declared war against Germany.

‘The War to End All Wars’
IntellectualCapital.com, April 8, 1999
Historians peg the genesis of World War I, once naively known as “the war to end all wars,” to the 1914 assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir apparent to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian empire. It ended in 1918, but another world war soon followed and then a Cold War that dominated world affairs nearly five more decades.

A Foretaste of Census Fights to Come
IntellectualCapital.com, March 11, 1999
The battlegrounds of census and congressional reapportionment are many — party vs. party, region vs. region, state vs. state, even friend vs. friend. On this subject little has changed since 1792, when George Washington issued his first veto on a bill to a reapportion the House.

The Rise and Fall of McCarthyism
IntellectualCapital.com, Feb. 11, 1999
The resurrection of McCarthyism as the classic slam against extremism begs the question of what exactly it is and whether its alleged practitioners have demonized President Bill Clinton unfairly. The best place to find the answers is the pages of congressional history, where the man behind the “ism” staked his claim to infamy.

Congress at the Margins
IntellectualCapital.com, Jan. 14, 1999
Political control in Washington is as marginal as it has been in decades. The legacies that await President Bill Clinton and the 106th Congress may resemble those of their predecessors, so a look at Congresses past may offer some insights to the future.

The Censure of Andrew Jackson
IntellectualCapital.com, Dec. 7, 1998
The national discourse on the merits of a congressional censure of President Bill Clinton calls to mind the similar debate that ultimately led to the censure, albeit a temporary one, of President Andrew Jackson. His alleged crime: “assum[ing] upon himself authority and power not conferred by the Constitution and the laws, but in derogation of both.”

Strom Thurmond’s Write-in Senate Campaign
IntellectualCapital.com, Nov. 12, 1998
As political gadflies go, 95-year-old Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., falls somewhere between a Jesse Ventura and a George Nethercutt. He has found his place in the establishment in four-plus decades of Senate service, but he has earned his place in history in part for his milestone 1954 electoral victory — the only senator elected via a write-in candidacy.

One ‘Species’ Not On The Endangered List
IntellectualCapital.com, Oct. 15, 1998
Upon enactment of the Endangered Species Act in 1973, the government protected only 437 threatened or endangered species. That is in sharp contrast to the 1,143 U.S. species protected by the government today.

The Mother Of All Presidential Scandals
IntellectualCapital.com, Sept. 10, 1998
With all the current chatter about the impeachment, resignation or censure of Bill Clinton, the nation’s 42nd president, this is a good time to revisit the most famous of modern-day political scandals: Watergate.

Wishing For Watergate?
IntellectualCapital.com, Aug. 13, 1998
It will take nothing short of a scandal as sordid and as undeniable as Watergate to topple a campaign-finance system that itself has existed since the Watergate era. Only 48 lawmakers dared to vote against the legislation on the very day that Richard M. Nixon announced his intention to resign the presidency.

Evolution Of The Income Tax
IntellectualCapital.com, July 16, 1998
With all the vitriol directed at the income tax today, it might be hard to imagine anyone ever having liked the idea. But history shows that a convincing majority once saw the income tax as a potential cure for the ills of a blossoming nation. Congress put the decision of whether to tax income in the hands of voters, and the masses responded by ratifying the 16th Amendment to the Constitution.

Finding Democratic Victory In A Big Labor Defeat
IntellectualCapital.com, June 18, 1998
Not until the middle of this century did Big Labor shift its loyalties to one party, and labor unions’ unyielding preference for Democrats did not begin to solidify until June 1947 — when the GOP-dominated Congress enacted the Taft-Hartley Act over the veto of Democratic President Harry S. Truman.

The ‘Yellow Peril’
IntellectualCapital.com, May 21, 1998
The latent bigotry endemic in America’s “melting pot” sometimes rears its ugly head. That is what happened in May 1924, when Congress cleared a bill banning most Japanese immigration into the United States.

Stepping Gently On Monopolistic Toes
IntellectualCapital.com, April 16, 1998
When it comes to the regulation of monopolistic industries, Congress is unpredictable at best and schizophrenic at worst. But that’s because antitrust law has existed in ambiguity since enactment of the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 precisely because a nebulous statute is what lawmakers have desired.

‘Mr. Smith’ Not Welcome In Washington
IntellectualCapital.com, March 19, 1998
In 1939, legendary director Frank Capra followed one of his more famous characters, Jefferson Smith of “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” to the nation’s capital for a high-profile welcome and glitzy premiere. The same politicians and pundits who had praised him before seeing the film vilified his artistic effort afterward and derided “Mr. Smith” as an affront to democracy and fair play.

Andrew Johnson’s Impeachment Ordeal
IntellectualCapital.com, Feb. 19, 1998
Partisan animosity reached a fever pitch in February 1868. The majority Republicans in Congress had tolerated what they believed to be an abundance of questionable behavior on the part of the Democrat in the White House. They availed themselves of their most potent constitutional prerogative: They voted to impeach Andrew Johnson.

When Congress Muted The Marlboro Man
IntellectualCapital.com, Feb. 19, 1998
The ongoing war against tobacco advertising, the latest salvo being a proposed settlement between government and the industry, has its roots in a battle that began in the mid-1960s and achieved its greatest regulatory milestone 27 years ago this month: the enactment of a law that banned the advertising of cigarettes on television and radio.

Other Essays (in IntellectualCapital.com and Policy.com)

Faith, Government And Charity
Policy.com, Aug. 4, 2000
George W. Bush and Al Gore agree on one point: When it comes to addressing problems like poverty and homelessness, government and religious charities should join forces.

God and Government
IntellectualCapital.com, July 25, 2000
The America that Alexis de Tocqueville knew may or may not have achieved a consensus on the appropriate intersection between church and state, but that understanding long ago disappeared. Today, Americans take sides on everything from religious mottos and symbols to prayer in school and holiday displays.

The Disability Divide
IntellectualCapital.com, June 15, 2000
People with disabilities are the “haves” who nonetheless have wont of technologies that meet their specific needs. They are a population for whom computers and the Internet have the potential to open new doors or to shut them out just as they have begun to gain greater access to the bricks-and-mortar world.

Coming to America
IntellectualCapital.com, May 25, 2000
Hispanics are forcing WASPy America to confront an array of new issues and to look at familiar issues like education, health care and taxes from a different perspective. They also are reshaping schools, the workplace and communities from Rome, Ga., and Perry, Iowa, to Detroit and Milwaukee, as well as in traditional border enclaves like California and Texas.

Not Your Father’s Television
IntellectualCapital.com, May 4, 2000
Television’s taboos continue to fall. Broadcasters banned the words “damn” and “hell” from television until Arthur Godfrey first used them in 1950. Last week and this week, CBS repeatedly promoted its Monday-night sitcoms — “King of Queens,” “Ladies Man,” “Everybody Loves Raymond” and “Becker” — with prime-time ads blaring “Neighbors from Hell.”

The Fate of Guns and Tobacco
IntellectualCapital.com, April 20, 2000
A gun-control deal between Smith & Wesson, the federal government and several local governments has triggered memories of two other legal settlements with the tobacco manufacturer Liggett Group Inc. The Clinton administration and gun-control activists are wondering how many concessions they can elicit from the gun industry.

Long Live the Merchants of Death
IntellectualCapital.com, April 13, 2000
If you believe the headlines about a $12.7 million jury award against cigarette makers, the once seemingly invincible tobacco industry is doomed. But like the long-ago pronouncements of Mark Twain’s death, the reports of Big Tobacco’s unavoidable collapse have been greatly exaggerated. Tobacco will be a viable industry for a long time to come.

OPEC Rising
IntellectualCapital.com, March 20, 2000
In today’s world of ever-increasing gasoline prices, hostility toward the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries is prevalent. The question is whether U.S. policymakers can do anything to prevent OPEC from flexing its oligopolistic muscles — or whether they should even try.

Immigration Inconsistency
IntellectualCapital.com, March 6, 2000
Recent news indicates a rediscovered appreciation of immigrants’ economic value. But combine them with Americans’ often apparent anti-immigrant mentality, and the clear message about U.S. immigration policy seems to be this: We will open our gates to “your tired, your poor, your huddled masses” when we need their help.

Who Needs the Media?
IntellectualCapital.com, March 2, 2000
Forget the mainstream media. In this information age, we voters can and should take the initiative to explore political candidates’ views and the issues of the day on our own. Numerous civic-minded organizations and individuals have seized the online opportunity to inform the electorate.

Alan Keyes’ Crusade against Big Media
IntellectualCapital.com, Feb. 24, 2000
Conservative talk-show host Alan Keyes is on sound footing when he argues that individual media outlets are guilty of an “egregious … sick” bias when it comes to reporting on lesser-known candidates like Keyes. Political journalists who claim the high road of objectivity too often let their personal opinions color their news judgment.

Combining Work and Family
IntellectualCapital.com, Feb. 3, 2000
President Clinton’s State of the Union address renewed a “family friendly” debate that has continued throughout Clinton’s two terms. The speech raised questions about whether employers make it easier for dual-career, single-parent and other non-traditional families to balance competing demands, or whether government should intervene.

Our Long Journey to Parenthood
IntellectualCapital.com, Dec. 16, 1999
My wife, Kimberly, and I traveled to Guatemala City last month, and I could not tell you any more about that Central American nation now than I knew before the trip. I gave all my attention instead to Anthony Lee, the precious, two-month-old Guatemalan baby Kimberly and I now call our son.

The Right to Know Who You Are
IntellectualCapital.com, Dec. 2, 1999
The debate about adoption records is an emotional one that pits the rights of birth mothers who believed their identities would remain secret against the rights of their children to know intimate details of their own lives. It also includes adoptive parents and the adoption agencies and attorneys responsible for adoptions under sealed-records laws.

The Next Chapter in the E-Book Revolution
IntellectualCapital.com, Dec. 2, 1999
True to the promise of the Internet, the e-book marketplace gives any author with an idea the ability to bypass the less-than-visionary gatekeepers of the print world and take his or her pitch straight to the people. Various websites sell e-books that might not get to market otherwise.

The Truth about Cassie Bernall
IntellectualCapital.com, Oct. 28, 1999
When tragedy strikes, the human spirit yearns for comfort, a seed of hope to soothe the shattered soul. When tragedy strikes the young, that yearning is all the more unrelenting. Such was the case after the mass shooting at Columbine High School. And in the wake of that inexplicable rampage was born the myth of Cassie Bernall.

Science and Food: a Volatile Mix
IntellectualCapital.com, Oct. 21, 1999
Agricultural biotechnology has helped make the United States the most productive agricultural system in the world, but at what cost? Caught in a food fight about the merits of downing genetically modified meals, Americans must consider just how much mixing of food and science they are willing to tolerate.

The Year the Wall Fell
IntellectualCapital.com, Oct. 7, 1999
On Nov. 9, 1989, the world changed dramatically as scores of East and West Berliners converged on the wall that had separated their lives, physically and philosophically, since August 1961. It was a symbol of the Cold War battle between freedom and repression, capitalism and communism.

The NRA and the Press: A Case Study in Media Bias
IntellectualCapital.com, Sept. 2, 1999
Readily apparent media bias is not the problem; even casual readers recognize it and filter it as they see fit. The subtle partiality that lurks beneath the journalistic surface is far more dangerous. A University of Michigan researcher made those dangers abundantly clear in a study that examined coverage of the National Rifle Association.

How Rude!
IntellectualCapital.com, Aug. 19, 1999
To a young George Washington learning the rules of civility taught him to adopt them as guiding principles of life. But to Americans today, the schoolwork of a man honored as the father of their country seems to be at best a forgotten relic stored somewhere within the Library of Congress and at worst an anachronism in an impolite age.

Time for a Constitutional Change?
IntellectualCapital.com, July 15, 1999
No fewer than 20 constitutional amendments were proposed in Congress in 1998-1999. The causes — school prayer, the federal budget, flag desecration, campaign finances and equal rights for women, to name a few — are as varied as the political philosophies of the lawmakers who advocate them.

The Future of Standardized Testing
IntellectualCapital.com, July 8, 1999
School may be out for the summer, but one never-ending education debate continues unabated — the issue of high-stakes tests that link students’ performance to grade promotion or college entrance and educators’ performance to their career futures. “No issue in U.S. education is more controversial than testing,” one education policy expert said.

The Ethics of Baby-Making
IntellectualCapital.com, June 17, 1999
Hundreds of clinics in America alone perform in vitro fertilization, resulting in the births of some 60,000 children between 1981 and 1996. Would-be parents pay tens of thousands of dollars to conceive. This technological advance raises ethical and legal questions.

The Language of Disability Rights
IntellectualCapital.com, May 27, 1999
Despite being billed as “powerful in its simplicity,” the Americans with Disabilities Act has sparked plenty of legal wrangling over its debatable language. The Supreme Court issued its first disabilities ruling in 1998, and the justices considered five more cases the next year.

When Father Doesn’t Know Best
IntellectualCapital.com, May 6, 1999
In the wake of the Columbine High School shooting, everyone has pondered the same questions: Why did it happen? Who or what is to blame? How can we prevent further episodes of school violence? But for parents, more personal questions tweak the conscience: Are we to blame? Could the same thing happen to our children?

The Right to Remain Silent
IntellectualCapital.com, April 22, 1999
The 1963 arrest and subsequent conviction of Ernest Miranda, a Phoenix resident jailed for the rape of an 18-year-old, led to the development of Miranda rights, including “the right to remain silent” and to legal counsel. Three decades after the Supreme Court’s Miranda ruling, critics have forced the issue of criminal confession back to the highest court.

The World Order after Kosovo
IntellectualCapital.com, April 1, 1999
In a world without the Cold War, the overall mission of the United Nations remains unsettled. The same can be said of NATO. With the Soviet Union gone and its communist doctrine repudiated, the United States, too, at times seems unsure of its role as world leader and of its place in organizations like NATO and the United Nations.

The Comeback Cure?
IntellectualCapital.com, March 25, 1999
The mere existence of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine is a testament to the growing American acceptance of the plethora of therapies included under the “alternative” umbrella. The decisions to elevate its status and more than double its annual budget demonstrate how conventional alternative medicine has become.

An E-Promise Unfulfilled
IntellectualCapital.com, Feb. 25, 1999
Presumptive House Speaker Newt Gingrich promised in 1994 to provide free and unfettered access to a storehouse of government information. But government watchers and technology experts give Congress an unqualified grade of “F” for its efforts to date.

The Impeachment Aftermath
IntellectualCapital.com, Feb. 18, 1999
President Bill Clinton’s transgressions and the actions of those who sought to remove him from office altered the governmental and political landscapes in Washington and beyond. This essay looked at areas where the impeachment aftermath were expected to be most visible.

The Rule of Lawsuits
IntellectualCapital.com, Jan. 28, 1999
The public tends to rank attorneys among the likes of politicians, used-car salesmen and journalists. The seemingly ceaseless outcry against attorneys has raised anew the question of what, if anything, should be done to curb the filing of civil lawsuits.

Gunfight in the Capital Corral
IntellectualCapital.com, Dec. 21, 1998
A National Rifle Association against the Justice Department is the latest salvo in a gun-control debate that stretches back to the 1981 assassination attempt on then-President Ronald Reagan and, more recently, to the enactment of the so-called Brady Bill. The acrimonious debate over the merits of the law has continued ever since.

Managing an Evolving Medium
IntellectualCapital.com, Dec. 14, 1998
As the size of the Internet community has snowballed, new voices have questioned the libertarian bent of John Perry Barlow and those of his ilk. The Internet has issues that maybe its residents alone cannot solve, the voices argue, so maybe governments should play a role after all.

Impeachment and the Internet
IntellectualCapital.com, Dec. 3, 1998
The Impeachment of Andrew Johnson is an example of what is good online. The virtual library summarizes the arguments for and against the 1868 impeachment of Johnson, the only president ever to have been impeached by the House and to have faced a Senate impeachment trial. It showcases one of the greatest assets of the Internet — scholarship at your fingertips.

Orion’s Legacy
IntellectualCapital.com, Nov. 26, 1998
Plenty of evidence suggests that hunting, represented in the sky by Orion and other constellations, has lost its luster. The hunter-gatherer of old, typified by Esau of biblical times, is but a distant memory, and although subsistence hunting continues among some native tribes, it is the exception to the rule.

Quebec’s Never-ending Separatist Story
IntellectualCapital.com, Nov. 19, 1998
Canada is in the news again — the U.S. news, that is — and for a familiar reason: rumblings of independence for Quebec. So is this truly the last hope for Quebeckers to make a clean break from Canada? Or is it just another chapter in a never-ending story?

The New Media Battleground
IntellectualCapital.com, Aug. 6, 1998
If perception is reality, then two realities exist on the media landscape of today. The first, one of concern to many practitioners within the traditional worlds of print and broadcast, is that of conglomeration. The second reality, one heralded by Internet junkies, media critics and some leading politicians, is that of the Information Age.

The Year 2000: Ready Or Not, Here It Comes
IntellectualCapital.com, June 25, 1998
For the software engineers and high-tech gurus whose lives revolve around a computer glitch known as the “millennium bug” or “Y2K problem,” the chime of the clock at midnight on Jan. 1, 2000, may bring disaster. If they have not exterminated the bug by then, many of them say its impact could change the world as we know it.

The Retirement Sales Pitch
IntellectualCapital.com, June 4, 1998
The federal numbers paint a disturbing picture for future retirees. The good news is that the average American has added 13 years to his or her lifespan, which now stands at 75.7 years, since 1940. The bad news: The national savings rate has declined by more than 5 percent since 1981. People who live longer may not be able to afford their free time for long because their proverbial nest eggs will be depleted.

The ABCs Of Student Testing
IntellectualCapital.com, May 28, 1998
The movement toward minimum-competency tests that began in the 1970s has evolved into a strident demand for results, and education leaders and elected officials have turned to high-stakes assessments that offer both rewards and penalties to gauge progress.

The State Of Term Limits
IntellectualCapital.com, May 27, 1998
Term-limits backers love to talk about Tom Bordonaro these days. He is the Republican who lost a special election two months ago to now-Rep. Lois Capps, D-Calif., and supporters of congressional term limits credit his narrow defeat to his refusal to sign a pledge limiting himself to three terms in the House. Capps signed the pledge.

‘Universal Coverage’ To ‘Incremental Reform’
IntellectualCapital.com, April 23, 1998
The weaknesses in the healthcare system have thrust the issue to the forefront of national debate, and Congress now must decide how, or whether, to act. The key question lawmakers must answer seems to be this: How broad should federal control of health care be?

The Tobacco Road Less Traveled
IntellectualCapital.com, April 2, 1998
On the surface, the 100-year war to regulate one of America’s most profitable crops appears to be nearing its completion. Just beneath the surface, the animosity between smokers and nonsmokers that has festered for decades still boils. The war may never end.

Anonymity: A Journalistic Divide
IntellectualCapital.com, March 26, 1998
In Washington, where the identity of Watergate’s “Deep Throat” remains a mystery, anonymous sources are a media mainstay. But in the rest of America, editors at newspapers large and small reject the loose standards of anonymity prevalent among publications in what they call “the Washington culture.”

Goodbye Deficit, Hello Surplus
IntellectualCapital.com, March 5, 1998
The Congressional Budget Office has predicted a surplus of $8 billion in fiscal 1998 and a budget bonus of up to $138 billion by fiscal 2008. President Clinton, meanwhile, has projected a fiscal 1999 surplus of $9.5 billion and surpluses totaling some $1 trillion over the next decade. How will the country use the windfall?

Government By The Numbers
IntellectualCapital.com, Feb. 5, 1998
Government officials can tell us how many people were born in 1980, how many were divorced in 1990 and how many died last year (and why they died). They can tell us where the jobs are, where we can buy the cheapest housing and where the crime rate is the lowest. They can even tell us how our personal incomes, expenses and debts compare with those of the nation as a whole.

A Nation Of Debtors And Tightwads
IntellectualCapital.com, Jan. 8, 1998
Americans love to spend money — and many consumers have no qualms about spending more than they earn. But The country also has witnessed the emergence of a new fad in recent years. Frugality has become fashionable, with more people paying for advice in the time-honored tradition of penny-pinching.

A Warning To Cyber Journalists
IntellectualCapital.com, Dec. 18, 1997
I learned a humbling but valuable lesson in my debut as the associate editor of IntellectualCapital.com: Verify any information you find on the Internet, and check the digital trail of the source(s) behind it. Cyber journalists who don’t want to get burned should learn from my mistakes instead of repeating them.

Newspapers In The Information Age
IntellectualCapital.com, Dec. 4, 1997
One-time loyal readers are abandoning their newspapers in droves, and young, would-be readers are flocking to the Web, the more familiar and high-tech information source of the ’90s. But doomsayers have predicted the demise of newspapers since the emergence of television as a mass medium, and their prophecies have not been fulfilled.

Inside The Box
I hate the business buzz phrase “outside the box” so much that for a few months in 1998, I wrote a column called “Inside the Box” for our local newspaper, the Prince William Journal. Below are two personal essays from that time.

Dear Dad: Let Me Walk For You
Prince William Journal, April 8, 1998
My father first experienced a mysterious form of fatigue while in high school and later during Navy boot camp, but he wasn’t diagnosed with multiple sclerosis for another 25 years. He battled it valiantly for the next 13 years but eventually had to retire at age 58 because of the symptoms. He is the reason I will walk in the annual fundraiser for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

Who Ya Gonna Call? Floodbusters!
Prince William Journal, March 25, 1998
When our basement flooded, I ran up the street in my water-soaked sweats and clodhoppers to fetch the firemen from Station 11 of the Stonewall Jackson Volunteer Fire Department, and they added our house to the growing list of homes to visit. A half-hour later, eight fantastic public servants arrived to save the day. They bailed water by hand; they rigged an old pool filter into a powerful sump pump; and they vacuumed gallons of water into a backpack-type contraption and hauled it from our basement. And they did it all with a smile — and without payment.

Other Essays
A few years after college, I wrote this essay about a boy who had a big influence on my life even though he was only part of it for an all-too-brief time.

Here’s Good News About Teens: Sean Teagarden’s Legacy
The Dominion Post, June 4, 1994
I learned from Sean Teagarden, who died of a rare form of cancer at age 16, the true meanings of strength, of love, of dignity, of hope. And I learned anew something I had known when I was Sean’s age — that in spite of what some may think, teenagers are not inherently bad. They are by nature wholesome, caring people.