Out with the old, in with the new is the mantra for ushering in a new year. So it was that an activity of clearing out old files led me to discover an article from 1997 about a 14-year-old boy named Nathan Zohner who got 43 out of 50 ninth-graders to vote in favor of banning dihydrogen monoxide (water) for a science fair project. He titled it: “How Gullible Are We?” He won the science fair and inspired the term “Zohnerism,” defined as “the use of facts to lead a scientifically ignorant public to a false conclusion.”

When thinking about Zohnerism, the impeachment perpetrated on our president by the Democrat-led Congress comes to mind.

The impeachment also brings to mind the Chinese word “lingchi,” meaning torture by which a victim is administered cuts to various parts of the body, thus causing a slow, painful death — a death by a thousand cuts.

Alexander Hamilton warned us about using impeachment for political purposes in Federalist No. 65: “… the greatest danger that the decision will be regulated more by the comparative strength of parties, than by the real demonstrations of innocence or guilt.”

Ed Liberatore

Turtle Creek

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)