Free Republic

FIVE years ago, rumours spread around the globe that — according to an ancient Mayan calendar — the world would come to an end in December 2012. Over the past 2000 years, there have been hundreds of confident predictions of the same kind, all of which have, to date, come to nothing. One of the most famous was in 1844, when the Millerites (followers of the American prophet William Miller) prepared confidently for Judgement Day. In 2011, a radio evangelist, Harold Camping, used the supposed date of Noah’s flood to predict that Judgement Day would be 21 May. Like Miller,...

Trib Total Media will stop publishing the print edition of its Pittsburgh Tribune-Review newspaper after Nov. 30 and will lay off about 20 percent of its workforce as it downsizes its print operations and beefs up its digital presence. The changes and cuts announced Wednesday — including the planned layoffs of 106 employees — are the latest moves in a dramatic restructuring of Trib Total Media that began last year and has included employee buyouts, layoffs, closing some papers, selling others and cutting back delivery in Allegheny County.

One by one, Americans typically settle on a presidential candidate after weighing his, and his rival's, views on the mosaic of issues that each of us finds important. Some years, though, force vectors we didn't anticipate turn some of our usual priorities--our pet causes, our own economic interest--into narcissistic luxuries. As Election Day nears, the new force vectors drive our decision-making. This is one of those years--distinct in ways best framed by Sen. John McCain, perhaps this country's most broadly respected politician. Seven weeks ago, McCain looked with chilling calm into TV cameras and told Americans, with our rich diversity...