In the normal course of things, I write my columns to a particular formula, that of the "op-ed." I pick a subject that's riding high in the news cycle (or, better yet, is about to be riding high in the news cycle, making me look prophetic) and make the most compelling — but concise! — argument I can come up with for my position on that subject.

JOHNSTON, IOWA (April 15, 2020) — Many Iowans have spent 2020 reflecting on the centennial anniversary of the 19th amendment, but may not know that a key player in the fight for women's suffrage was one of our own. In honor of Iowan Carrie Chapman Catt's life and the ratification of the 19th amendment, Iowa PBS presents Carrie Chapman Catt: Warrior for Women.

On February 29, US Surgeon General Jerome Adams took to Twitter to admonish Americans:  "Seriously people — STOP BUYING MASKS! They are NOT effective in preventing general public from catching #Coronavirus ..." A little over a month later, Adams finally got around to asking the Centers for Disease Control if perhaps he'd been talking through his hat when talking through a mask might have been smarter.

At no time in the history of this nation has the government (federal or state) ever attempted to impose such onerous restrictions on the rights of religious individuals as we are seeing play out in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.  

MOLINE, ILLINOIS (April 9, 2020) - VanDerGinst Law PC is spearheading an initiative called "Masks of Love" to help address the economic and health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the community. During this crisis, a number of workers have experienced loss of employment, and as a result face an uncertain financial future.

WASHINGTON DC (April 8, 2020) — Continuing the Trump Administration’s significant efforts to increase recreational access on public lands, US Secreta

The COVID-19 outbreak isn't over yet, but we've reached a turning point: American politicians and bureaucrats are beginning the tricky process of trying to simultaneously walk back their predictions of catastrophe, while awarding themselves the credit for those predictions not coming true, and avoiding the blame they deserve for inciting headlong irrational panic.

WASHINGTON DC (April 7, 2020) — In an 8-1 ruling that empowers police to carry out dubious traffic stops and paves the way for further abuses of law enforcement’s “blank-check policing” privileges, the US Supreme Court has upheld the police practice of stopping and questioning drivers if their cars are registered to unlicensed owners, i

“The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state. It must be the guide and the critic of the state, and never its tool.

Anyone who tries to tell you that the COVID-19 pandemic, and its associated social, political, and economic panics, are good things is  an idiot, or trying to sell you some kind of snake oil, or both. Society-wide disasters are always net negatives, or we wouldn't think of them as disasters in the first place. Silver linings are never as shiny as the clouds they run through are large. That doesn't mean silver linings don't exist, though. They do, and some of them are significant.

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