Lionel Deimel’s Web Log

It has become commonplace for politicians to talk of “supporting our troops.” My own church even prays each week for “those in the armed for...

President Trump has returned the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) to the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism. (See N...

It’s convention time again for the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh. I have been attending these annual events every year since 2002. The dio...

Like many Americans, I watched all 18 hours of the Ken Burns/Lynn Novick documentary The Vietnam War . Many have commented on the PBS progra...

People seem to love to complain about their cable company. Admittedly, cable service seems universally too expensive, a fact that is causing...

Tonight, the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox play a single game to see which team will be given a chance eventually to play in Major...

I had been planning to write an essay explaining why President Trump’s approach to a nuclear-armed North Korea is flawed. But the increasing...

It is understandable that people of goodwill can differ on immigration policy. Our national immigration policy has been inconsistent over th...

I watched President Donald Trump’s speech to the United Nations General Assembly this morning. I would like to offer a few observations of h...

As the baseball season winds down, I think it a good time to offer some thoughts on aspects of the game. The basic rules of baseball have ...

I wrote the poem below on September 27, 2001. It is one of several poems I wrote in response to the attacks of September 11. This poem r...

I am continuing my postcard campaign of lobbying my senators and representative in Washington. (See “ Beginning My Postcard Campaign .”) I a...

The stamp shown above was issued in 1956. I have used it to illustrate my Labor Day poem “ A Labor Day Lament ,” which I wrote in 2011. S...

Labor Day 2017 finds most workers no better off than they were a decade ago. Wages are largely stagnant—there have been signs of a slight up...

I am here in Indiana, Pennsylvania, shortly before the much-touted eclipse of the sun will begin to be seen on the west coast. Although the ...

 The song “South of the Border” is widely known. It was written by James B. Kennedy and Michael Carr and was featured in the 1939 movie of t...

A few days ago, I was returning to my car in the Walmart parking lot and found myself walking behind a woman in jeans, flip-flops, and a top...

Fifteen years ago, a life-and-death drama was playing out in the Southwestern Pennsylvania coal fields. On Wednesday, July 24, 2002, nine co...

Like so many peopele—a majority of voters, no doubt—I was distressed by Donald Trump’s winning the presidential election. I anticipated that...

I am not in the habit of reacting to every asinine tweet made by our dumb-ass president, but I feel compelled to do so now. As President Tru...