Watching the political theater of the debates, the second night, I was repeatedly struck by the thought: Damn, how old is Joe Biden? He started several sentences he never finished. His favorite responses always started "There are three points I'd like to make," whereupon he would start with the first, forget numbers two and three and meander his way into "Oh, my time is up..." The problem with a lengthy career of visible public service is that, well, it's lengthy and it's vi

Freedom breeds complacency. Ignorance breeds contempt for knowledge. Opinion shaped by slogan rather than critical thinking is no substitute for fact. And right around now facts are as malleable as carnival taffy. The ringmaster of the circus that has become American politics has stoked the flames of destruction and whipped his adoring sycophants into a frenzied pitch. His attack on civility, derisively called political correctness, has made public discourse indistinguish