http://www.post-gazette.com/columnists/ Dan Simpson's column en-us Copyright 2012, post-gazette.com. Thu, 9 Feb 2012 05:09:35 -0500 15 http://www.post-gazette.com/includes/2007design/images/150x30pg_now_logo.gif http://www.post-gazette.com/ 144 39 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12039/1208681-374-0.stm?cmpid=simpson.xml LA PAZ, Bolivia -- None of my other trips to South America had ever included Bolivia; thus, I have found its complexity somewhat daunting. What brought my wife and me here was my stepson's wife, an internationally acclaimed pianist, Ana-Maria Vera. Ana-Maria is half-Bolivian, half-Dutch and now American. She started her career at age 8 as a child prodigy. Wed, 8 Feb 2012 10:25:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12025/1205690-374-0.stm?cmpid=simpson.xml Much about Newt Gingrich's campaign for the Republican presidential nod is puzzling, but I found his compliment of the news media in South Carolina last week for its "destructive, vicious, negative nature" to be encouraging. I'm sure he meant it as a snivel, but the fact that he noted it means that we are doing our jobs. Wed, 25 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12018/1204108-374-0.stm?cmpid=simpson.xml A trend toward tolerance allows intolerant believers to thrive Wed, 18 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12011/1202677-374-0.stm?cmpid=simpson.xml It is hard to tell what is going on in South Africa, and whether, 18 years from the end of apartheid rule, the glass is half full or half empty in terms of how much progress it has made. Wed, 11 Jan 2012 10:50:00 -0500