Edwin Benson 
The closing days of the 2024 election focused on the titanic battle for the presidency. However, a set of developments, primarily on the West Coast, may be nearly as important. I am referring to elections for District Attorney in Los Angeles and Alameda Counties in California and Multnomah County, Oregon. In each, … Read more
Only a half-dozen years ago, many so-called experts saw China as the up-and-coming economic superpower and Xi Jinping as its indispensable man. American and European political and business leaders hailed China’s role in the global economy. Today, the vulnerability of China’s intertwined social, industrial and monetary systems is clearly visible. Xi’s failure … Read more
On the day after the 2024 election, the ‘center-left” media outlet CNN headlined, “What Just Happened? It was the Economy, Stupid.” ABC echoed, “Deep Economic Discontent with Biden Drove Voters to Trump.” Economic hardship may have convinced many “undecided” voters to overlook their qualms about Mr. Trump and vote for him. However, … Read more
Some think Western Culture is in its last days, not unlike the crises suffered by ancient Babylonia or Persia. The West is beset by wolves from without—notably China, Russia and Islam. More dangerous are the legions of internal termites undermining the institutions that should buttress the West. Even Holy Mother Church suffers … Read more
The Eucharist is the centerpiece of Catholic worship since it is the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, it should be an essential belief among Catholics. However, Catholics, in general, are often ignorant of the full significance of the Eucharist. A 2019 Pew Research Center survey found … Read more
In Question 137 of his Summa Theologiae, Saint Thomas Aquinas discusses perseverance. There, the Angelic Doctor quotes Saint Augustine, “We hold that perseverance is a gift of God, whereby we persevere unto the end, in Christ.” A Paragon of Perseverance Perseverance is difficult. No matter how eagerly sought at its inception, any noble goal eventually involves … Read more
Consider this all-too-likely scenario. Parents discover that their daughter is “transitioning,” a term describing the process of assuming an “identity” opposite to one’s natural sex. They ask their child about it. A conflict erupts. The following day, the girl’s school counselor calls the parents, inviting them to discuss the situation in the … Read more
“We want to continue a major trade and investment relationship with China, just not…in the realm that might help them to leapfrog over us sometime in the next ten years in military technology.” The speaker was Nicholas Burns, the U.S. Ambassador to China in December 2023. His remarks pointed to the great … Read more
The dangers of childhood cell phone use are becoming evident to the vast majority of American parents. The Commonwealth of Virginia is taking a leading role in dealing with that problem. As someone who has followed this issue for years, first as a teacher in a Maryland public high school and then … Read more
Shortly after noon on December 10, 1949, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek boarded an airplane in Chengdu. Mao Zedong and his Red Army were rapidly advancing on the few positions on the Chinese mainland still held by Chiang’s Nationalists. Chiang and his son made the short trip to the island of Taiwan, 110 miles … Read more