Here's a proposal, offered only partly in jest: no resident of the United States, whether born here or abroad, should get to be a citizen until age 18, at which time each such resident has to take a test.

To be sure, the United States has profound problems, not least our faltering educational and physical infrastructure.

Atheism is having a heyday in the born-again United States.

By what right do you refuse to accept the vote of a citizen of the United States?

To own the dominant, or only, newspaper in a mid-sized American city was, for many decades, a kind of license to print money. In the Internet age, however, no one has figured out how to rescue the newspaper in the United States or abroad.

If you are running for the presidency of the United States, you better have a strong opinion.