Setting: The Pandemic Museum’s Room of Masks, The Smithsonian, Washington, DC, in the Year 2051 ...

In a whispering voice you hear the words, “If you build it, they will come.” That was building a baseball field in the middle of a corn field. But in real life that seems to include homeless e…

With water levels dropping throughout the West, it is time to take stock of our own water usage. Those pictures on television of the losses to the Great Salt Lake and Lake Mead are truly alarm…

For the last year or so, Idaho’s governor wannabes and their legislative supporters have engaged in pandemic politicking to win over voters. They have railed against scientifically proven prev…

With a little effort, we can understand why millions of Americans have problems accepting mask wearing as a major weapon in the war against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Truth isn’t always stranger than fiction, but sometimes it is pretty unbelievable.

In my last four columns, I discussed Emsi’s free eBook, “The Demographic Drought” (bit.ly/3b7teIE) and the effects of the collapsing birth rate. The ebook discusses the sansdemic that is upon …

Now that the federal government has turned off the spigot of stimulus checks, colloquially known as “stay at home and smoke your bong” money, there is a newly minted executive order that aims …

We’re zooming up on the start of school. I’m super excited Washington State University is going to completely be back to normal, with no restrictions. That is the appropriate response to the e…

I have known Christians I deeply admired. Rich Wekerle, the retired Boston firefighter, crossed the line of Fort Bragg’s notorious School of the Americas knowing that his protest would land hi…

I’ve been driving hybrid vehicles for about 11 years, and my current car is a Honda Clarity plug-in hybrid. I now have 6,200 miles on the odometer, and I have burned just 17 gallons of gas. Th…

Trying to understand why people think or act the way they do has always taken up emotional energy in my life that would be better spent in service or learning. I am continually troubled by hum…

In 2014, two researchers from the University of Chicago published a paper entitled, “Conspiracy Theories and the Paranoid Style(s) of Mass Opinion” (American Journal of Political Science). Usi…

I confess that I had never heard of Oli London.

We’re prisoners of our culture. As infants, our thoughts and behavior are shaped by our environment before we’re even aware of thinking. We’re attracted to loving surroundings, repelled by str…

I would like to respond to Dale Courtney’s Daily News Opinion column, “It’s time to downsize the Moscow School District” published July 7. I found some of Courtney’s statements to be incorrect…

Whenever I visit the tribal clinic around this time of year, I’m reminded of the young guy I saw a few years ago on the Lummi rez, who injured his hand in a fireworks accident. While his injur…

“Hot enough for ya?” How many times did you hear that in the past two weeks? In addition to the extremely high temperatures, the Pacific Northwest experienced a few other things — specifically…

When Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf ran his veto pen across a Republican-authored rewrite of state election law last week that included new voter identification requirements and tighter deadlines …

When I follow the COVID-19 figures for Whitman County, I believe we are really doing pretty well. At the same time, any cases are too many and most of all, any deaths are too many.

Popular legend has it that Emperor Nero fiddled while 70 percent of Rome burned in 64 A.D. That wasn’t literally true because the fiddle (viola) wasn’t invented until the 11th century. The tru…

Every Scouting family knows that Lord Robert Baden-Powell was the founder of the world Scouting program. Included in his last message to the Scouts was this piece of wisdom: “Try and leave thi…

Two weeks ago, I mentioned the effect that the dropping birth rate is having on the Moscow School District. Emsi’s eBook, “The Demographic Drought” (bit.ly/3b7teIE) discussed the effect of few…

Just last week, a friend sold her home for $50,000 over the home’s listing price, and right on cue, I found myself chiming in with all the right responses: “Wow, what timing!” “All that hard w…

“You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”

A group of American patriots met in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776, to sign a document declaring independence from the British Crown. The signers ended the Declaration of Independence, saying “w…

Even as we return to “in-person” dealings with the world, some of the realities that emerged in the last two years may be here to stay. Not least because we may want them to, including having …

As I reflect on my latest column inquiring into the nature of fanaticism, two recent letters to the editor come to mind: the first a response to what I’d written about scriptural origins of th…

“Teaching critical race theory doesn’t mean that you are teaching students to hate. It means you are teaching students to understand.”

I grew up in a medium-sized suburb about 20 miles from Seattle. I lived there from age 5 until I left for college in Oregon, so my experiences there had a huge impact on shaping my views of the world. 

A recent letter writer dismissed my column about evolution by invoking ideas of Young Earth Creationists who believe that the Earth’s history is more accurately described by the Book of Genesi…