Archive By Section - Columnists
Business is Booming in Perry’s Potemkin Village
You can't change the facts of an explosion. A large fertilizer factory operated next to homes, a middle school and a nursing home. The factory blew, and 14 people died. We can't change those facts, but it's up to us to decide what they mean.
Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Nation
As Mother's Day approaches, the political scene makes me think of an old spiritual: "Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child."
It’s spring time for Kim Jung Un
HOLLYWOOD--God bless America, and how's everybody? Kim Jung Un announced he'll build a replica of London's Big Ben clock and the Eiffel Tower in a Pyongyang amusement park. It must be spring. He also asked Dennis Rodman to bring Jason Collins with him to North Korea next month and to wear something low-cut. NBA's Jason Collins came out as gay Monday and upset many traditional perceptions about NBA players. This will take some time for ...
This Is What Intolerance Smells Like
President Obama's new "religious tolerance" consultant to the Pentagon, Mikey Weinstein, wants Christian military service members who openly talk about their faith in uniform to be charged with treason, which is a crime punishable by death according to military law.
Reverse Psychology vs. the Nanny State
Get this: New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg wants to ban the sale of cigarettes - now legal to people at age 18 - to people younger than 21.
RIP George Jones
Even back in 1980 when George "The Possum" Jones received a Grammy Award, I regarded him as an old fogey who should step aside for the younger set, such as, well, um, Kenny Rogers.
Liberals Only Seem to Care When Kids Are Killed By Bullets
President Obama receives reports that 20 children and 6 adults have been murdered at the Sandy Hook Elementary School and decides the country needs national standards for gun accessories to protect our children. Limit ammunition capacities for rifle magazines. Outlaw triggers and stocks on rifles that look like pistols. Push for legislation requiring all law-abiding citizens to go through background checks and have the information stored for future reference.
Tail-Sucking Mobius Loop
F. Scott Fitzgerald famously uttered, "There are no second acts in American lives," but bless his heart, the besotted scribe seems blissfully unaware of the loophole large enough to taxi a C-130 through that exists for American politicians. These people are as indomitable as a mule falling off a bridge. More oblivious than a blind tortoise humping a rock. Limber like a deboned eel.
Lessons Learned in Boston
The beautiful Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Center for Public Affairs in Simi Valley, Calif., was the last place I expected to be reminded of the violence that paralyzed the city of Boston last week and turned it into a mini-Baghdad.
Will Rubio Becoming Yet Another Candidate for Whom I Cannot Vote?
There are times when the words "never" and "always" are the only ones that work. In my case, "never" is becoming the word I must use to describe how I feel about certain candidates for high office. For example, I voted four times for a Bush and once for a McCain - something I will never do again.
But, can he check out a book
HOLLYWOOD - God bless America, and how's everybody? The George W. Bush Presidential Library opened at Southern Methodist University in Dallas on Thursday. It's a fitting tribute to all he got done as president. The library promises to be a repository of the world's largest collection of books about brush-clearing. The Bible mini-series that aired on the History Channel will be re-edited into a three-hour movie and released. Theater owners are wary about booking it. ...
Boston Marathon Bombing: Was Twitter For the Birds or Revolutionary?
When James French became the last person to be executed in 1966 under Oklahoma's death penalty law, he uttered these famous last words (no joke) that quickly belong to the ages: "Hey fellas," he shouted to reporters there to witness his electrocution. "How about this for a headline for tomorrow's paper? 'French Fries!'"
Beware the American Prom
Proms sure have gotten expensive these days. According to the San Jose Mercury News, high school kids spend nearly $4 billion annually for dresses, accessories, flowers, beauty products, limos and other prom-related items. The average couple spends upward of $1,000 for the one-time event. That got me thinking about my own prom in 1980. I didn't know my date very well. She was in my photography class, pretty and, more important, available. We arranged a ...
Boots in Boston
Riveted to our screens, we learned last week of the enormous value of social media and surveillance video when tragedy strikes. But -- and this second point is as significant as the first -- we were also reminded of the importance of established, well-funded, conventional media, without which the big picture would have had gaping holes.
Lobbyists versus Sick People
What if you had to choose between making insurance more affordable for Americans with pre-existing conditions or funding lobbyists and political hacks? That's the decision the House will face when it considers H.R. 1549, the Helping Sick Americans Now Act, sponsored by Rep. Joe Pitts of Pennsylvania. It should be an easy choice.
Articles by Section - Columnists
Will Obama Beat the 6-Year Itch?
If the 2010 elections weren't bad enough for Democrats, here comes the "six-year itch." With the exception of Bill Clinton's second term, the party that controls the White House loses seats in congress six years into a presidency. But there's a gathering sense among Democratic consultants who work on congressional campaigns that their party could buck the trend in 2014 for a number of reasons, not least because Barack Obama is finally fired up and ...
No-Fault Internet Addiction
Online chat host: Good morning, cyber pals. As you know, the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), the psychiatric "bible," is to be released this month. It will include "Internet-Use Disorder" - also referred to as Internet addiction - as a condition recommended for further psychiatric study. Our guest today is Dr. Adam Von Cybercruncher, America's leading authority on Internet addiction.
Droning On
Put on your tinfoil hats everybody. Or didn't you get the memo? Its paranoia time in America again. Maybe it's the spring that brings out the crazy in our legislators. Of course, that would assume a semblance of sanity the other three seasons, and nobody wants to bet anything more than lunch money on that proposition.
FCC Must Run Honest Auctions
"America's global leadership in mobile, and the strategic bandwidth advantage so many have worked hard to create, is being threatened by the looming spectrum crunch," recently departed Federal Communications (FCC) Chairman Julius Genachowski said.
Will George W. Bush and A.J. Clemente Get Mulligans?
When should you give someone a mulligan? Should you give a former President a mulligan for a good chunk of his 8 years in office? Should you give a young broadcaster a mulligan when he doesn't realize his mike is on and he says words more suitable for a Chris Rock routine?
Out of the Closet and into Identity Politics
I've never sought the spotlight.
Come on guys, keep those doors open
Sunshine Week, the national initiative by journalists to assure that sunshine illuminates every crevasse in the halls of officialdom, runs March 10-16. During that week, newspapers traditionally run editorials and columns extolling the importance of open government as it relates to our freedoms as Americans.
