Opinion Forum

Parasites and Health Care

September 29th, 2009

The parasites in question are trial lawyers, particularly those who specialize in medical malpractice lawsuits. These unsavory ambulance chasers, like personal injury lawyers in general, aggressively pursue potentially lucrative cases through in-your-face TV ads and tasteless roadside billboards. Some even lurk in hospital corridors, shoving business cards into the hands of potential clients and their families. Why do they behave so [...]

Articles written by Tom Carter
Tags: Democrats, health care, malpractice reform, tort reform, trial lawyers
Categories: Economics, News, Politics | Comments (5) | Home

LIFE Magazine

September 28th, 2009

I suppose you have to be of a certain age to remember LIFE magazine. For me, LIFE and its photographs and stories were a big part of my youth, and I’ve always regretted its passing. Now every issue of LIFE during its existence from 1936 to 1972 is available with a few clicks of your mouse. You [...]

Articles written by Tom Carter
Tags: Google Books, LIFE Magazine
Categories: Arts, Life, Media, News | Comments (3) | Home

Afghanistan Crossroads

September 27th, 2009

No Deadline Set for Decision on Troops by Bob Woodward in The Washington Post details the Administration’s current review of strategy for the war in Afghanistan. Afghan agony: More troops won’t help by Ralph Peters in the New York Post presents a realistic alternative. As Woodward reports, the Administration is considering whether to grant a request headed their way [...]

Articles written by Tom Carter
Tags: Afghanistan, Democrats, Obama, strategy, terrorism
Categories: Military, News, Politics | Comments (6) | Home

Brain Drain – A Personal Tale

September 26th, 2009

During the course of the previous summer, I had far fewer tasks and responsibilities assigned to me than I am accustomed to dealing with. As a result, I turned to my usual boredom-preventing pastime: books. When I was in middle and high school, this typically meant reading science-fiction and fantasy, but this time most of [...]

Articles written by Brianna Aubin
Tags: academic careers, America, brain drain, France
Categories: Life, News, Politics | Comments (7) | Home

American Values and Rights

September 26th, 2009

While the world’s leaders met in Pittsburgh to do little if anything to improve our lives, there were all sorts of things going on outside. A YouTube video is showing demonstrators at the G-20 being arrested by National Guard troops. I wonder on whose authority? The Governor can activate the Guard, but can he use the [...]

Articles written by Larry Ennis
Tags: G20, National Guard, NEA, Obama, schools
Categories: News, Politics | Comments (2) | Home

Say What?

September 25th, 2009

Ah yes, yet another America-bashing hatefest has come to town. Moved from New York City to Pittsburgh to separate the Muslim terrorists from New York and the Libyans from the relatives of the 182 Americans who died over Scotland when a Pan Am flight exploded and fell to earth. What good, if any, has ever come [...]

Articles written by Larry Ennis
Tags: foreign policy, G20, Iran, Libya, Obama, UN
Categories: News, Politics | Comments (21) | Home

Reuse as Art

September 21st, 2009

Recycling bottles and cans and other stuff can be darn boring. Yet a new use for an old building took an exciting turn in Amarillo, Texas. A former shopping mall, sitting forlornly in a sea of cracked asphalt, was transformed into a thriving arts center. Air-conditioned hallways that sat empty after department stores and specialty [...]

Articles written by Jan Barry
Tags: Amarillo, arts center, recycling, shopping mall, Texas
Categories: Arts, Life, News | Comments (1) | Home

Educated and Ignorant

September 21st, 2009

AOL News carried this report from Tulsa World: Only one in four Oklahoma high school students can correctly name the first president of the United States, according to a survey released Friday. The Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs conducted the survey to find the students’ basic knowledge of civics, Tulsa World reported. Students were asked 10 [...]

Articles written by Tom Carter
Tags: citizenship, Oklahoma, test
Categories: Life, News | Comments (4) | Home

The Church and the Holocaust

September 20th, 2009

There has been a lot of speculation about the actions of the Catholic Church and Pope Pius XII (at left, as Nuncio in Berlin in 1927) in regard to the Holocaust during World War II. Some feel that the Church did more than it got credit for; others condemn the Church’s reluctance to criticize Germany [...]

Articles written by Tom Carter
Tags: Catholic Church, Hlond, Holocaust, Innitzer, Pius XII, Stepinac
Categories: History, Politics | Comments (4) | Home

Foreign Policy

September 19th, 2009

Our country has decided to be the first in this century to desert Poland and most of eastern Europe. The Administration elected to appease Russia instead. This, of course, isn’t the first time that Poland and her neighboring countries have been betrayed for this reason. This is, however, the first betrayal in my memory of [...]

Articles written by Larry Ennis
Tags: foreign policy, Hillary Clinton, Israel, Obama, Poland
Categories: History, News, Politics | Comments (4) | Home

Traveling Through America

September 18th, 2009

After enduring travel in an army convoy that rattled over rutted roads for two months navigating from coast to coast in 1919, Dwight Eisenhower’s dream was a national network of paved highways. As president, Ike signed an order in 1956 to build a system of superhighways. Little did he know how that would turn out. [...]

Articles written by Jan Barry
Tags: backroads, interstate highways, travel
Categories: Life | Comments (3) | Home

Vietnam and Afghanistan

September 17th, 2009

In late 1965, I was in Kontum, Vietnam as a pilot in a helicopter crew sent there for a few days to support U.S. Special Forces operations. I was quartered in a Vietnamese Army compound, a fairly nice facility left over from French military days. There were rooms in a wing of the compound, each with [...]

Articles written by Tom Carter
Tags: Afghanistan, Bernard Fall, Taliban, Vietnam
Categories: History, Military, Politics | Comments (7) | Home

Scamming America

September 16th, 2009

It’s one of the biggest scams in the USA , according to the Federal Trade Commission. Yet chances are that most Americans don’t know much about it. In a bizarre twist on our nation’s traditions of justice, victims of this financial ripoff are treated like criminals, forced to pay for someone else’s fraud — and, [...]

Articles written by Jan Barry
Tags: advance-fee, banks, federal law, law enforcement, scams
Categories: Life, News, Politics | Comments (5) | Home

Lust for Money and Power

September 15th, 2009

By Tim Seretis The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 25, December 10, 1948: Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of [...]

Articles written by Guest Author
Tags: greed, human rights, money, power
Categories: Economics, Life, Politics | Comments (7) | Home

More Left-Right Legerdemain

September 14th, 2009

About a year ago, there was a big kerfuffle over what was going to happen with 401(k) plans. Congress held hearings on whether or not to eliminate the tax advantages of the 401(k). Contributions to a 401(k) plan presently defer taxes until the money invested is removed, either in part (as one would do after [...]

Articles written by Brian Bagent
Tags: 401(k), IRA, retirement, stocks, taxes
Categories: Economics, News, Politics | Comments (19) | Home

Is President Obama a Wimp?

September 13th, 2009

In an article at Politico.com, Ben Smith poses an interesting question: “Who’s afraid of Barack Obama?” The answer, apparently, is no one, aside from extremists on the right who have exaggerated his agenda and his strength. As Smith notes, Obama by nature is cool and conciliatory, and in particular he’s shown virtually no tendency toward making members of [...]

Articles written by Tom Carter
Tags: Congress, Democrats, Obama, strength, weakness
Categories: News, Politics | Comments (5) | Home

Joe Wilson: Gutless

September 12th, 2009

This is exactly what’s wrong with the Republican Party today and, in a sense, it symbolizes what’s wrong with America today. It takes guts to stand toe-to-toe with the opposition and verbally slug it out; and Joe Wilson did not have the courage of his convictions and did not tell them that he would see them all in Hell before he apologized. A man acting on his convictions doesn’t have to apologize, especially to the man who is leading the pack of people who are raping this country’s traditions, destroying this country’s economy and vandalizing this country’s Constitution.

Articles written by Harvey Grund
Tags: Congress, Democrats, immigration, Joe Wilson, Obama, Republicans
Categories: News, Politics | Comments (25) | Home

Story Time

September 12th, 2009

Geez, isn’t it funny how certain things occur that set off a chain reaction in your mind. In days gone by, before television and all the other limitless array of electronics, there was word of mouth. I can remember my mother telling my brother and me stories. In time she taught us to read the [...]

Articles written by Larry Ennis
Tags: Aesop, fairy tales, Grimm, Obama, stories
Categories: Arts, History, Life | Comments (4) | Home

Lest We Forget

September 11th, 2009

Articles written by Tom Carter
Tags: 9/11
Categories: History, Politics | Comments (5) | Home

Dystopian California

September 10th, 2009

In his column today George Will does a good job of describing the dystopia* that has been created in California by years of progressive solutions to social problems and by politicians’ obeisance to unions. Here’s what has resulted: Having institutionalized envy in a steeply progressive income tax, California depends on 200,000 wealthy taxpayers for 25 percent of [...]

Articles written by Tom Carter
Tags: California, socialism, taxes, unions
Categories: Economics, News, Politics | Comments (9) | Home

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