Opinion

I have returned with some regularity over the years to compare what is going on in our country today to what was going on in the 1850s, the years preceding the Civil War. America has always been about freedom of expression.

President Donald Trump isn’t the first incumbent president to run for reelection facing a deficit in the late summer polls. At this stage of the election cycle in 1948, no one thought Democrat Harry Truman had a prayer of winning as he sank in the polls.

Dear Annie: I’m having some issues with a friend. We are polar opposites politically, and it is now causing problems.

The Kenosha, Wisconsin, police department immediately took the officer who shot Jacob Blake seven times off the streets, as city, state and federal officials investigate what happened. They also made a speedy arrest of the 17-year-old who is charged with shooting two demonstrators dead.

In northeast Syria last week, a U.S. military vehicle collided with a Russian armored vehicle, injuring four American soldiers.

Dear Annie: I have been struggling with an issue for a while and need some perspective. My son married a truly wonderful woman, and they now have two sons under the age of 6, whom my husband and I adore. They live in another state, about a 12-hour drive or an onehour flight from us, and we try to see them every two months or so.

A federal health panel now recommends that men consume no more than one alcoholic drink a day. For 30 years, the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee set the limit at two drinks a day. (Women have long been urged to limit consumption to one drink a day.)

Intellectuals are supposed to speak truth to power. Unfortunately, some seem to be more interested in saying what everyone expects them to say, which only reinforces the status quo. Thankfully, a few scholars are resisting this trend, fighting for what is true rather than what is popular.

Dear Annie: Since you wrote “Ask Me Anything,” I’m taking you up on it. I had known a lady for about a year when I finally asked her out.

Washington -- Norman Mailer used to say, when he was upright, that Americans tend to admire their politicians, if for nothing else, for getting older. That, I think, explains the nomination for president of the United States of former Vice President Joe Biden. He did not only get older; he got ancient. He is almost an antique.