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Dear Annie: Taking time to find perspective

Columns

Dear Annie: My husband and I are in our early 60s, married for 40-plus years. We plan to retire and travel soon. But the past year or so he seemed to become obsessed with his smartphone, holding his phone all the time and guarding it. I asked him if he had a Facebook account and he said no. But when I entered his cell number in the Facebook login and a common password we use, it came up with “invalid password.” (It would have said “no account found” if he didn’t have one.) I told him I wanted to talk and asked him to be honest if he had a Facebook account. He yelled no and ...

Columns

Murano glass is one of the best demonstrations of how the old lives on in the new. The island of Murano, just off Venice, Italy, became a center for glassmaking in 1291 and has been ever since. Beautiful glassware has been there for export in various colors and patterns, starting with beads, ...

Dear Annie: When love meets its limits

Columns

Dear Annie: I’ve never written to an advice column before, but I honestly don’t know where else to turn. My mother is elderly, physically frail and becoming increasingly confused. Earlier this year, she developed pneumonia and was so sick she could barely function. Her longtime boyfriend, who’d spent years neglecting, stealing from and verbally — and at times, physically — abusing her, refused to take her to the hospital. He even prevented EMTs from entering the house because he had drugs inside. I eventually got the police involved, and she was finally taken to the ...

The right to be left alone

Columns

“The makers of our Constitution undertook to secure conditions favorable to the pursuit of happiness. ... They conferred against the Government the right to be let alone — most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized men.” — Justice Louis D. Brandeis (1856-1941) The rapid spread of public surveillance cameras represents something far more consequential than a new piece of police technology. It represents a fundamental change in the relationship between the individual and the state. These cameras allow government agents to record, identify, catalog ...

Why can’t we fix the oil problem?

Columns

“We are the United States of America and there is nothing we can’t do if we do it together.” — President Joe Biden I am not in the habit of favorably quoting the former president, but he was right when he said this. Why, then, are we still beholden to Iran and Saudi Arabia for so much of our oil needs? A Wall Street Journal headline says: “Gulf States are Resigned To Iran Control of Straight (of Hormuz).” Must we also be resigned to an unending dependence on Middle East oil? Presidents since Jimmy Carter have said we must overcome that dependence and loosen their ...

Americans get rare break from quietly expensive law

Columns

Since March, America has been running an accidental experiment and glimpsing what the country might look like without one of its dumbest statutes. The results are in, and they embarrass a century’s worth of U.S. lawmakers and defenders. The statute is the Jones Act, passed in 1920 to rebuild and protect the U.S. merchant marine fleet after World War I disrupted American shipping capabilities. It requires that any vessel moving cargo between two American ports must be built in an American shipyard, be American-owned and be at least three-quarters American-crewed. Miss any one of these ...