The gift of America is not a place, but a premise, that all are born equal and free. We have not always lived up to our ideals, but we should be proud of the progress we have made. The destination is important, but so is the journey. We should celebrate the milestones we have passed, […]

There is considerable debate in the public sphere about whether or not we should be wearing masks to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, and for good reason. We have no large prospective trials that have clearly demonstrated the efficacy of mask use in slowing a pandemic spread. The scientific literature that does exist reveals […]

We need to find a way to move forward. We can’t stay in this place forever. Where we end up won’t be what we remember as normal, at least not at first. And, it may end up being very different. We also have an opportunity to end up somewhere better than where we started. Still, […]

It’s more difficult than it may appear. There’s tremendous pressure to get it right. And, it’s nearly impossible to predict whether it will be successful. I’m not actually writing about fashion modeling, but scientific modeling. If your social media feed is at all like mine, many of your friends who were recently experts on impeachment […]

I underestimated the seriousness of this pandemic when I first wrote about it just over two weeks ago in a newsletter and blog post. Two days later, I had already grown more concerned, and updated my Coronavirus blog post, but did not send out a second newsletter until now. I don’t have any good excuses […]

I’ve updated this entry from a couple of days ago, with some additional resources, and a few new personal refections:I made a rather flippant post about the current coronavirus pandemic on Facebook last week, which some people appreciated for my attempt at humor, but others thought was being too dismissive of a potentially serious situation. […]

“And, another one gone, and another one gone. Another one bites the dust.”Queen In my last post, One Republican’s Take on the Democratic Candidates, written just prior to the Iowa caucus, I focused upon nine of the eleven candidates then still running. A month later, and we’re down to five, the evening prior to Super […]

To state the obvious, this is shaping up to be another contentious election. President Trump has low approval and high disapproval ratings among the general population, but these have remained remarkably stable over time. And, his approval among Republican voters remains very high. Thus far, the impeachment proceedings seem to be pretty much a wash; […]

Julie prepared a delicious New Year’s Eve dinner for our family prior to working a 12 hour overnight shift at the University of Iowa Hospital. 2019 Recap I’ve been so busy with on-the-ground Better Angels activities that I haven’t had time to update this blog in over two months. I apologize for that, and thought […]

I wasn’t going to write about the whole Carson King / Anheuser-Busch / Des Moines Register fiasco, but given the aftershocks that are still reverberating here in Iowa, I feel I must. I have readers from outside Iowa who may have no idea what I’m talking about, so a brief recap is in order. Way […]

This is nearly old news by now, but Ellen DeGeneres attended a Cowboys football game the weekend before last (she was rooting for the Packers), and had to defend her friendship with President George W. Bush, who was sitting next to her. If you were living under a rock in the past week, you can catch […]

Since our Iowa Outreach Project launched a month ago, we’ve held six public viewings of the Better Angels: Reuniting America documentary. The first one was at Graceland University in Lamoni, and we’ve since held screenings at public libraries in Polk City, Newton, Dubuque, Eldridge, and Burlington.The viewing in Newton was jointly cosponsored by the Jasper County Republicans and the Jasper County Democrats. […]

After all the rather depressing news I’ve shared recently about political polarization and corruption, I’m eager to begin writing about some positive subjects! Today, I’m going to be sharing some of my recent experiences, and after a short vacation, I’ll be introducing new ways of looking at politics and public policy, and then begin diving […]

I want to add a few comments and links regarding my recent several posts on political polarization and corruption. Some of these came to my attention after my posts, others were actually released after my posts, and a few I just couldn’t find a good place for at the time, so I am adding this […]

As I hope I’ve successfully laid out in the past few posts, I think we face some serious threats to the future of our Republic. These include polarization and disengagement by a large section of voters at the grassroots level, and systemic corruption of our politics, particularly at the federal level. These are much more […]

I received a lot of feedback on my last post about political corruption, most of it positive and encouraging. But, based upon a few of the comments, I think I need to better clarify what I mean by political corruption in the broadest sense, which is corruption of our political system. Hence, this particular series […]

In my last post, on political polarization, I claimed that while polarization is harmful in and of itself, it is not a primary problem. Rather, it is a symptom of an underlying disease; namely, political corruption. Again, not so much of individual politicians, but corruption of our system. This is not in dispute by those […]

Probably like everyone else, I have a diverse group of acquaintances. Family, friends, neighbors, colleagues, patients, and a load of people I’ve met during my forays into politics. Not everyone agrees entirely with my political views; in fact, only a minority even come close. That doesn’t mean that they’re wrong and I’m right, just that […]

We made it through an enjoyable holidays, and then I became very ill for a couple of weeks. I’m well on the mend now, but behind in what I’d hoped to accomplish by now. We’re in the process of revamping my old campaign website, so pardon the dust, as the saying goes. The new website […]

Twenty-five years ago, I was a chief general surgery resident at Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu. Early on Christmas Eve morning in 1993, I was called to the Emergency Room to see a young soldier who had fallen several stories from a hotel balcony in Waikiki. Lee had multiple injuries, to include a closed […]

Last night, I attended the 2nd Annual Jasper County Bipartisan Community Feed, sponsored by the Jasper County Republican and Democratic parties. In the photo above is a representative from the Salvation Army and the chairs of the two parties. As it was last year, the attendees tended to segregate based upon party, which always reminds me […]

The photo above is from 24 years ago, when Julie and I celebrated our first Thanksgiving as a couple. We had gotten married only a few months earlier, I had completed my general surgery residency and was now a staff surgeon at Fort Stewart, and we had purchased our first home together. Thanksgiving is my […]