author of Barbary Pirates

Napoleon Bonaparte would be at home in today’s relatively irreligious age. A recent poll showed nearly 20 percent of Americans report no religion, up from 8 percent in 1990. In France the percentage declaring no religion is 48, in Britain 50. Even in Mexico, 20 percent report no religious affiliation.

Napoleon seized power in a military coup against a revolutionary government that began as officially atheistic, and which had booted out France’s dominating Catholic Church. Notre Dame was turned into a “Temple of Reason” with busts of Greek philosophers. Then it briefly became a food warehouse.

Church property was seized, churches temporarily closed up, and convents and monasteries emptied.

One of Bonaparte’s first acts as dictator was to reach agreement with the Church to welcome back Roman Catholicism, but under conditions that trimmed it of its old ownerships and powers.

It was political calculation. The revival of religion was as popular with many French commoners as the return of Orthodox religion was popular with some Russians after the collapse of communism.

But Bonaparte was no churchgoer and no true Catholic. He remarked once that perhaps the sun would be a logical object of worship. He had curiosity without faith. His last deathbed word was not […]

When I worked as a journalist, I was a professional worrier. So are many academics, politicians, non-governmental “cause” groups, charities, lawyers, doctors, government officials, religious leaders, and Moms.

Americans tell each other things are bad so we’ll make them better.

Well, the world didn’t end Dec. 21. And this holiday season, let’s take cheer that our pessimistic system actually works. A lot of progress keeps being made, fiscal cliffs and guns notwithstanding.

Google terms like “good news trends” on the Internet and you’ll soon be humming Jingle Bells.

Violent crime and murders, for example, are down by half since 1991, despite the “if it bleeds it leads” credo of the evening news.

American life expectancy is up another two years since 2000, now averaging 78.5 for men and women combined.

Income taxes, as a percentage of the gross domestic product, are lower than in either the Eisenhower or Reagan Administrations. Our tax burden as a percentage of GDP is lower than 27 of 30 industrialized countries.

House fires are down 60 percent since 1972, and fire fatalities have been cut in half.

Farmland has shrunk slightly since 1982, but agricultural production is up 50 percent.

Traffic fatalities are at the lowest level since 1949. Aviation and railway accidents are […]

Which are you more afraid of?

That the American government, U.N. black helicopters, or some other right-wing boogeymen will impose tyranny if civilians aren’t armed to the teeth with assault rifles?

Or that some lunatic with 50-bullet clips allowed under our crazy gun laws will invade a shopping mall, school, or movie theater, when you are unlucky enough to visit, and open fire? Or settle a domestic dispute with an assault weapon?

The first is paranoid fantasy. The second is everyday reality.

It’s time not just to reconsider an assault weapons ban, but to take a look at clarifying the purpose of the Second Amendment by modifying it. There are just too many crazies, with too many guns.

I say this as a one-time gun owner, former hunter, and author of books that feature a good deal of military violence. I enjoy war movies, action heroes, and military history as much as the next guy.

But the modern fad of taking as many people with you before extinguishing your own life is out of control – in part because lobbying groups like the NRA have hijacked common sense about guns into “principled” extremism. The more they insist on absolutism, the worse it gets.

Here’s a list of […]

The small city of Anacortes, population 16,000, reputedly has more preserved forestland per capita than any municipality in the Lower 48.

This is one of the blessings of Fidalgo Island where I live. A million people a year rush across Fidalgo to board the ferry to the further San Juan islands. While parked in the ferry line, most of them don’t see the 2,800 acres and 50 miles of trails of our protected woodland, plus its multiple lakes, ponds, meadows, and rocky peaks.

Which is just as well, I suppose. The trails are busy enough.

I serve on the board of Friends of the Forest and recently co-taught a class to the city’s Senior College on the forest with Denise Crowe, a naturalist who has been leading educational hikes for adults and schoolchildren for a generation.

Most of the surviving forest on Fidalgo is second or third growth. Huge stumps from pioneer logging can still be seen with telltale springboard holes. The swollen base of the trees was too big to cut, so loggers would cut crude planks and insert them several feet high in slots sawn in the trunk. There they would balance to cut the titans down.

The regrowth means a lot of […]