You have to wonder what John Allen would think. Allen, the first president of the University of South Florida, was determined to create a different state university; one that focused on academics. To that end he argued against big-time sports programs, especially football. Of course that was so long ago the Bulls weren't even the Golden Brahmans yet. Now they are a big-time program with a football team that went 7-5 this season and still is going to play in a post-season bowl game. ...more

December 14, 2009

Imagine for a moment President Harry Truman addressing cadets at West Point on his strategy for finishing World War II: ...more

December 9, 2009

The talk these days is about the endgame in Afghanistan as in, "Is there one?" ...more

December 7, 2009

I don't have a story about where I was or what I was doing on Dec. 7, 1941, but I remember Pearl Harbor ... even though I wasn't even born yet. ...more

December 6, 2009

I wonder how many people in this country, or the world for that matter, really think we will make any kind of a strong financial recovery without coal and oil? Our manufacturing plants and all of our industries, as well as our small businesses need an ample, dependable and reasonably priced supply of coal and oil, as clean as possible, preferably from the U.S. Wind, sun and battery needs to continue to be developed. I wonder, though, how many windmills, solar panels and batteries would be required to run a car manufacturing plant, along with the tires, glass and steel necessary - once, all very successful; once all very successful in this country. Pollution you say? Are you saying China, North Korea, South Korea, India and Iran, etc. are running their manufacturing plants without coal and oil? Our coal and oil would be used much cleaner in this country. Pollution you say? Ours would be cleaner and doesn't all pollution go into the same sky? ...more

November 22, 2009

I was only half-listening as my wife rambled on about her day in the classroom. She's a good teacher - a very good teacher - but she cares too much about her third-grade students. At night it makes it difficult to get in a few words about my job. ...more

November 15, 2009

Flying high above a treacherous stretch of the Himalayan Mountains during World War II, Ken Prescher remembers cockpit temperatures dipping to minus 30 degrees - or worse. ...more

November 11, 2009

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett had some sage advice for Washington the other day. ...more

March 15, 2009

It's always great to see the stock market come back from the dead. But I am deeply worried that our political system doesn't grasp how much our financial crisis can still undermine everything we want to be as a country. ...more

March 13, 2009

the day after Morrison would have turned 65 - he appeared in The New York Times in two obituaries: his father's and that of the owner of the Los Angeles club, Whisky A Go Go, where Morrison's band, the Doors, got its big break. ...more

December 13, 2008