Archive By Section - Columnists
Leading from behind is just weird
Just before my early morning run this morning, a young boy, three-foot-nothing, wearing shorts and a helmet whizzed past me on his scooter, and then abruptly stopped and backed up - when he saw me stuff a 20-pound terrier into my backpack.
Tea Party continues to shape politics
Speculation is running rampant about why House Majority Leader Eric Cantor walked out of debt ceiling talks with Democrats. Most of the speculation is credited by pundits to insider maneuvering between Speaker John Boehner and Cantor.
Doobie Frank pushes for state pot control
HOLLYWOOD - God bless America, and how's everybody? U.S. Congressman Barney Frank introduced a bill Thursday that removes marijuana from the federal list of controlled substances so that the states may regulate marijuana the way they do alcohol. This'll save lives. Even a Jackass isn't going to be killed driving nine miles an hour. The FDA ordered cigarette manufacturers to display photos of throat cancer sufferers on every pack of cigarettes. Bar owners applauded the ...
Jon Huntsman is no Ronald Reagan
All of a sudden the "kept media" is all agog over one Jon (not John) Huntsman, recently retired from his Obama administration post as U.S. Ambassador to the People's Republic of China, provoking the president to joke that he was "sure that him having worked so well for me will be a great asset in any Republican primary."
Ill wind does blow some good blow
HOLLYWOOD - God bless America, and how's everybody? Hurricane Beatriz pounded Mexico's Pacific coast with high winds and driving rainstorms Tuesday. Winds were clocked blowing out of the south at 100 miles an hour. In San Diego people were holding paper bags up in the air and catching enough cocaine to make a house payment. President Obama made a prime time address Wednesday to announce a gradual U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan. The good news ...
'Democracy' doesn't equal 'happiness'
The whole idea of a democracy is accepting you'll never fully get your own way in government.
It's time to rethink Romney
Reading Al Gore's comments on Mitt Romney we were reminded of all of the reason's we don't trust the man: "Good for Mitt Romney though we've long passed the point where weak lip-service is enough on the Climate Crisis. While other Republicans are running from the truth, he is sticking to his guns in the face of the anti-science wing of the Republican Party."
Don't drop Romney because he's a Mormon
If your party nominated a generally well-qualified person for president who happened to be Mormon, would you vote for that person?
Father's Day isn't one side fits all
Due to varying family circumstances, Father's Day is not a "one size fits all" holiday. Different individuals greet the day with warmth, melancholy, numbness, or anger.
Dads have earned our admiration
My father worked hard to support six children - to send us to private school, contribute to our college costs and pay for all five of his daughters' weddings.
How DO you get your name in the paper
They're a puttin' on extra shifts at the ol' Great Bend Rumor Mill. Talk about job creation and a recovery. Granted, they may be low-wage, part-time jobs with no benefits. But, hey, we can't be too choosy in these tough economic times. The mill might even qualify for some sort of tax abatement. From corruption allegations to who sold whose house to whom, to "look who is in jail," we here at the Tribune have ...
Obama said he'd resign if he was Weiner
HOLLYWOOD - God bless America, and how's everybody? President Obama said Monday he'd resign if he had a scandal like Anthony Weiner's sex scandal. He shouldn't tempt the fates like that. If the unemployment rate goes any higher, some guy is going to snap a picture of him in the shower and post it on Facebook to save the country. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords posted photos of herself on Facebook Sunday that showed her smiling, beautiful ...
Juvenile 'justice' often misses the mark
My local paper carried two stories the other day that underscore the tragic state of the criminal justice system - not just here in California, but nationwide.
We are all getting robbed
Some of the best TV in America comes and goes too quickly. This past year we enjoyed the short lived FOX police drama, "Chicago Code." The show featured the battle for police resources in a city run by corrupt politicians with little more desire than to milk the system for perks, money and power. However, we didn't expect to watch its sequel as a reality horror show on the nightly news. The specter of mobs ...
Double standard is hard at work in D.C.
A recent Newsweek/Daily Beast survey found that the majority of Americans are growing increasingly angry with the circus act taking place in Washington. And how could they not be?
Articles by Section - Columnists
Keep Those Catalogs Comin’
What America needs is a good Productivity Boosting Nap Pod, a device that looks like a dentist chair with a roof. As luck would have it, this 310-pound unit, that "provides optimal ergonomics for napping," is available from Hammacher Schlemmer for $16,000. Dagwood Bumstead take note.
Even the bugs are getting audited
HOLLYWOOD-Happy Wednesday, everybody, and God bless America.
Obama Agenda Undermines Medical Innovation
Alzheimer's Disease costs the U.S. economy over $200 billion per year, about $140 billion of which is a direct federal budgetary cost to Medicare and Medicaid. On our present course, this cost will quintuple to $1 trillion by 2050. It is the major driver up the steeply rising health care cost curve. Given this context, the most important question for health policy is not the green eyeshade question of who-pays-how-much that has come to dominate ...
Welfare on Mars?
HOLLYWOOD-Happy Tuesday, everybody, and God bless America.
Learn from History
History is one of our greatest teachers.
Do We Still Need the Department of Education?
When executives of corporations are caught aiding and abetting criminal behavior of their employees, the executives are prosecuted and the businesses are destroyed.
American pravda, a nation of lawbreakers and Benghazigate
Louis Brandeis, who served on the United States Supreme Court from 1916 to 1939, once warned, "Our government teaches the whole people by its example. If the government becomes the lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy."
Limbaugh, Kurtz and the Bum’s Rush
Big news for those who think there aren't consequences in our media when professional talkers cross the line, or when famous reporters mess up and don't fix their mistakes without qualification, or do so begrudgingly. We now see proof of the law of consequences.
Did something happen in Benghazi?
HOLLYWOOD--God bless America, and how's everybody?
