Column: No, Rubio, Rights are Man-Made

The Iowa caucus brings out the evangelical in all Republican candidates. After all, previous winners include Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum, two candidates who exclusively appealed to evangelical voters (and pretty much no one else). In Iowa, the most devout and outwardly preachy Republicans get the nod. Donald Trump mistakenly thought making up bible verses… Continue reading

Column on Hiatus

Dear Readers, I’m taking a hiatus from my syndicated column until January 2016 so I can work on a book and my new investigative podcast, Cultish. Thanks everyone for your devotion and generosity . Be well and stay in touch, TD

Column: Bush Kept Us Safe*

Try to contain your excitement, America! The younger brother of President George W. Bush wants to be president too. Well, he tells us he wants to be president. Jeb’s running as a legacy admission while saying he’s his own man. It’s like a 30-year-old living “alone” in his parents’ basement. The people advising and donating… Continue reading

Column: The Kim Davis Lesson: Religious Bigotry is Still Bigotry

If you believe in inalienable rights, they apply to all people””even those you don’t like or agree with. So stop pretending wanting to deny other people their rights is god’s glory. There’s no honor in refusing fellow Americans their Constitutional right to personal freedoms. Bigot isn’t spelled “martyr.” Last week, scofflaw Kim Davis, Rowen County… Continue reading

Column: Pro-Life is Anti-Gun

First let me get this out of the way: I don’t agree with the pro-life position on abortion for two reasons. One: If abortion is criminalized, all women of child-bearing years legally become public incubators. The ability to bear children will mean being subjected to special scrutiny by the government. If you believe women are… Continue reading

Column: Governor Jindal’s Stand Against Religious Freedom

I’m a free speech extremist. I believe the government has absolutely no business regulating or censoring speech. Of course, commercially popular speech doesn’t need protection. It’s only unpopular””racist, sexist and vulgar””speech that requires it. So as a free speech extremist, ironically, I often find myself on the same side as those I believe to be… Continue reading

Column: Trump: Rising From the GOP’s Ashes

There’s no shortage of publicity maestro, name-emblazer Donald Trump think pieces on the Internet these days. Most will attribute his straight talk to his more-than-likely-fleeting frontrunner status. Others point to some anger or racism the Trump Brand Name has tapped into. The rest? Apologists or denouncers. But all seem to agree that Trump is bad… Continue reading

Column: Peace is Boring

In all of America’s 239 years of existence, only roughly 20 of them have been without warfare of some kind. And no, those are not in a row. We’ve had one or two years, here and there, where we haven’t spent our time bombing foreign countries, bayoneting our brothers in hopes of keeping our slaves… Continue reading

Column: Republicans Are at Odds with Corporate America

The Republican brand is that they’re on the side of business. “Corporations are people, my friends,” uttered doomed 2012 presidential candidate, CEO-turned-Massachusetts-Governor Mitt Romney. At the time I assumed what he actually meant was, “Corporations are my friends, people.” This has been the bottom line for the GOP: Business is their business. Even South Carolina… Continue reading