By Charlie Houston This month I’m channeling Roman mythology, specifically Minerva, its goddess of wisdom, and tackling the County’s fiscal tendencies. Lord knows, wisdom is needed there. As a reminder, “fiscal” simply means governmental taxation and spending. Though fiscal applies to governments, it affects you in a sacred place – your pocketbook. Maslow and His…

By Ken Falke  I recently sat through a suicide prevention seminar designed for school children and their teachers. I expected compassion. I expected hope. What I didn’t expect was a steady drumbeat of fragility. The language was saturated with risk, warning signs, vulnerability, crisis, trauma, triggers, and pathology. Students were told to monitor themselves and…

By Charlie Houston “Houston’s at it again with the mythology stuff,” you might declare, and ask, “What in heck is Momus?” [A note on readability: My words are in italics.] Momus is a demigod from Greek mythology. Momus was the minor god or spirit of mockery, blame, ridicule, scorn, complaint and harsh criticism. Zeus finally…

By Ron Rise Sr. When government is healthy, its laws are simple: general rules, openly debated, applied evenly, and restrained by due process. When government is sick, its laws grow clever: written for a moment, for a place, for a conflict—and justified by urgency. Senate Bill 648 looks like the second kind. Thomas Paine would…

By Ken Falke Over the last several years, I have noticed a peculiar verbal habit spreading through meetings, podcasts, classrooms, and news studios across America. It sneaks in quietly, usually at the end of an otherwise complete thought. It sounds harmless. Even friendly. But it’s not. It’s the reflexive, unnecessary, credibility-eroding habit of ending sentences…

What follows is a personal reflection that gradually gives way to satire—a speculative look at where current civic habits, if left unchecked, could lead.  By Charlie Houston Retrospection can bring warm memories or cold anger. I’ve experienced both since moving here thirty years ago. Memory is generous; the present, less so—and often deserving of a…

The Ratchet and the Economy By Charlie Houston Old fashioned car jacks are ratchets: They allow continued upward movement, but downward movement will be one slow notch at a time. That tool lends its name to an economics concept called, naturally, the ratchet effect: Prices can rise quickly in inflationary times, but fall slowly. That’s…

By Joe LaFiandra Most people are not fully aware of the danger of injury or death from falling trees in Western Loudoun. Before your eyes glaze over and say “Another thing to worry about” consider the following deaths from falling trees in Loudoun County:  St. Francis de Sales Church pastor, Michael Kelly, in Hamilton, in…