To say something is happening in Indiana bigger than the Final Four, may sound like heresy to the faithful congregants of the Big Blue Nation in this holy week of NCAA tournaments.  But the uproar over the recently passed Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA)...

If there’s anything in store for American political discourse more absurd or uninformed than the arms race over Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act, I  cannot fathom what that might be. The entire kerfuffle is pathetic, from the blatant...

It's difficult to believe five years have passed since the Affordable Health Care Act was signed into law by President Barrack Obama. Even with the passage of time, many of the details of “Obamacare” seem to be shrouded in mystery. As if a piece of...

Last week, the Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA) officially amended its constitution to expand marriage from “a man and a woman” to “two people, traditionally a man and a woman.” The decades-long battle inside the largest Presbyterian...

For the past 23 years I have been writing about the social consequences of expanded gambling.  The “fruit” of gambling is very public: jobs and revenue.  The pain of gambling caused by the addicted and the problem gamblers is mostly private,...

Is it even possible that my generation, which sends 6 billion text messages per day and 6,000 thousand Tweets per second, is fatally lonely? Not only is that possible, it’s increasingly the consensus of social and behavioral scientists. Carolyn Gregoire at...

The line between practicing tolerance and concession is a difficult one to walk. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has attempted to extend an olive branch the LGBT community in Utah by helping to craft anti-discrimination legislation specifically...

The concept of Chinese water torture is a relatively simple one: The repetitive, slow drip, drip, drip of water onto a restrained person's forehead will allegedly drive them insane. It is a concept that can be found in nature as well, as the slow dripping of water...

Hard times hit Kansas.  Government leaders sold their soul to the casino business and lost. In March 2007 the legislature passed and Governor Kathleen Sebelius signed a bill to approve the first “government owned” casinos in the country.  Casino...

I’ve found myself thinking about one particular classmate from my undergraduate years. We entered around the same time. He was able to graduate much sooner than I, though, mostly because his Sallie Mae loan covered enough of his college bill so that he could...