Opinion Forum

My Newton Scooter

October 23rd, 2009

In Science class we’ve been learning about Newton’s laws. So, our teacher, Mrs. Stewart, gave us a project to do. The project is to make a Newton Scooter. A Newton Scooter is a toy car that moves by obeying Newton’s third law of motion. It has to move 1.5 meters by itself. So, the Newton [...]

Articles written by Amber
Tags: Newton's Laws, physics, Science, scooter
Categories: Arts, Life, News | Comments (17) | Home

How Could I Know?

October 23rd, 2009

Opinion Forum has been around for almost a year, and during that time we’ve received thousands of comments. Two or three times, someone has countered my opinion not with logic or reasoned argument but with a comment to the effect that since I’m in Europe most of the time, how could I possibly know what’s [...]

Articles written by Tom Carter
Tags: carrier pigeons, information, TV
Categories: Humor, Media, News, Politics | Comments (7) | Home

Leftist Talkers Shooting Blanks

October 22nd, 2009

The race is on to carve out a place for a “hard left” talk show host to counter the Glenn Beck phenomenon. So far it’s a rout as Beck rolls over the best the left has to offer. I expect to see the nasty brothers, James Carville and Paul Begala, show up in prime time [...]

Articles written by Larry Ennis
Tags: cable TV, conservatives, fairness doctrine, liberals, talk radio
Categories: Humor, Media, Politics | Comments (10) | Home

Wars and Real Security

October 21st, 2009

Winding Down Wars — And Ramping Up Real National Security The warning signs have been flashing for some time. Waging two wars in distant parts of the world simultaneously is unsustainable. Yet American leaders seem to have no clear-cut plan for winding down military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Meanwhile, from Baltimore to Detroit to [...]

Articles written by Jan Barry
Tags: Afghanistan, Bacevich, Iraq, national security
Categories: History, Military, Politics | Comments (4) | Home

Losing Traditional America

October 21st, 2009

Pat Buchanan has an excellent article today at World Net Daily. He writes about the loss of traditional America and the effect it is having on all Americans, especially white middle class Christians. This piece is so good I’d be hard-pressed to add anything to it (but I will). Buchanan has mellowed into pretty much [...]

Articles written by Larry Ennis
Tags: Buchanan, liberals, Obama
Categories: Media, Military, Politics | Comments (26) | Home

Obama’s Indecision

October 20th, 2009

Yet another seven days has passed with our forces in Afghanistan waiting for some sort of direction from the Commander in Chief. How long would be considered a sensible time to wait? What are they doing in the White House? This game of hide and go seek between the President and General McChrystal has been [...]

Articles written by Larry Ennis
Tags: Afghanistan, McChrystal, Obama
Categories: Military, News, Politics | Comments (0) | Home

The Faux Golden Boy

October 20th, 2009

I’ve watched President Obama through the campaign and during his first nine months in office. I’ve read and watched the mostly adoring press coverage. I’ve also read and heard the alarmist conservative plaints to the effect that Obama is a not-so-secret socialist/communist/Muslim whose main goal is to destroy America as it is, or once was. I’ve [...]

Articles written by Tom Carter
Tags: Afghanistan, failures, Obama, promises
Categories: Life, News, Politics | Comments (11) | Home

When News Isn’t

October 19th, 2009

I suppose that by now everyone is aware that a state of war exists between Fox News and the President. It’s common knowledge that Fox refused to “roll over” like the rest of the media and has been a source of much anti-administration reporting. The White House even went so far as to circulate a rumor [...]

Articles written by Larry Ennis
Tags: First Amendment, Fox News, Obama, Rahm Emanuel
Categories: Media, News, Politics | Comments (10) | Home

Health Care Red Tape

October 19th, 2009

It’s a term directed derisively at government bureaucracy, often accompanied by copious cursing. But something’s happened with health care as administered by private insurance companies that can only be described as [expletive deleted] red tape. Here’s a recent example that’s astounding, given the rip-roaring national debate as to whether private insurers or government can provide [...]

Articles written by Jan Barry
Tags: bureaucracy, health care, health insurance, red tape
Categories: Life, Politics | Comments (10) | Home

For the … Children?

October 18th, 2009

Everybody in the United States knows that there are problems with our health care system. They say that while the quality of care is excellent for anyone able to obtain it, there are too many poor and uninsured who cannot get access to care. They also complain about our infant mortality rates and life-expectancy, saying [...]

Articles written by Brianna Aubin
Tags: Britain, Canada, children, health care, Japan, statistics
Categories: Economics, Life, News, Politics | Comments (10) | Home

The Beating Continues…

October 18th, 2009

We have an ugly little saying in nursing and medicine when a patient isn’t long for the world: we say that they “are swirling the drain.” Alternatively, they “have one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel.” Whichever metaphor you prefer, that’s where the dollar is headed. For the first time ever [...]

Articles written by Brian Bagent
Tags: China, currency, Federal Reserve, US dollar
Categories: Economics, News, Politics | Comments (6) | Home

Annoying Voices on the Right

October 17th, 2009

It’s an interesting enigma isn’t it? When someone is saying or doing things that support your world view, little things like twisted facts, partial truths, out-of-context quotes and annoying mannerisms are as inconsequential as sunshine in July.

Articles written by Harvey Grund
Tags: conservative, Hannity, Ingraham, Levin, Limbaugh
Categories: Life, Media, Politics | Comments (2) | Home

Smoke and Fire

October 16th, 2009

By this time, the name Glenn Beck is known to all of us, for better or worse. Beck makes no bones about his distrust of the President and those who comprise his entourage of radical followers. It’s true that Beck sometimes resorts to some theatrics to get his point across, but he does indeed make you listen. [...]

Articles written by Larry Ennis
Tags: Glenn Beck, Obama
Categories: Media, Politics | Comments (4) | Home

Department of Peace

October 15th, 2009

The former community activist who garnered a Nobel Peace Prize shortly after taking office as President of the United States should appreciate the grit of this civic campaign. Signing legislation that would cap this grassroots effort, moreover, is the sort of action that would likely generate a wall of peace awards for Barack Obama. The [...]

Articles written by Jan Barry
Tags: Afghanistan, Department of Peace, Iraq, USIP, Willie Nelson
Categories: Military, News, Politics | Comments (9) | Home

Would Hillary Be Better?

October 15th, 2009

Disillusioned liberals yearn for Hillary Clinton by Chris Stirewalt in The Examiner speculates that many liberals must now be wishing they had gone with Hillary Clinton for president instead of Barack Obama. Clinton charged during the campaign, including in the debates, that Obama’s health care reform plans wouldn’t result in coverage for everyone now without health [...]

Articles written by Tom Carter
Tags: health care, Hillary Clinton, Obama, uninsured
Categories: Politics | Comments (11) | Home

Paglia on Obama, Law, Palin

October 14th, 2009

This month’s Camille Paglia column at Salon.com is, as usual, a delightful read. As a firm liberal Democrat with a very open mind, her views are unusually realistic and bluntly stated. In this column, she responds to letters from readers. The letters themselves are good, and Paglia’s responses are even better. Here are a few excerpts [...]

Articles written by Tom Carter
Tags: Afghanistan, hate crimes, Iraq, Obama, Paglia, Palin
Categories: Arts, Life, Media, Military, Politics | Comments (14) | Home

The Age of Stupidity

October 13th, 2009

Zachary Christie, a six-year-old “A” student at John R. Downes Elementary School in Delaware, brought his favorite Cub Scout camping utensil (a combination knife, fork, and spoon) to school to eat lunch with it — he eats all his meals at home with it and saw no problem with taking it to school. That afternoon, Zachary [...]

Articles written by Harvey Grund
Tags: public school, race card, zero-tolerance
Categories: Life, News, Politics | Comments (8) | Home

The Travails of Air Travel

October 12th, 2009

I’m sitting in the Munich, Germany airport writing this, en route from the U.S. to Serbia. This trip, like every trip to one degree or another, leaves me with less than a positive attitude toward airlines. On the long, boring flight from Washington Dulles to Munich, I found myself reflecting on the differences between air [...]

Articles written by Tom Carter
Tags: airlines, Lufthansa, security checks, travel, United Airlines
Categories: Life | Comments (6) | Home

The Duty of Dissent

October 11th, 2009

They teach a lot of things at the US Military Academy at West Point, but one thing they don’t teach is the honorable duty of dissent, a vital element in a democracy. I was reminded of that while reading a new book about the latest crop of veterans protesting military actions in Iraq and Afghanistan. [...]

Articles written by Jan Barry
Tags: Afghanistan, dissent, Iraq, soldiers, suicide, veterans, West Point
Categories: Military, Politics | Comments (14) | Home

Afghanistan – Vietnam Redux?

October 10th, 2009

I made the point in Vietnam and Afghanistan that we’re in danger of repeating the mistake we made in regard to the Vietnam War — sending more and more troops into a war we were inevitably doomed to lose. We didn’t learn from the French experience in Vietnam; did we learn anything from our own [...]

Articles written by Tom Carter
Tags: Afghanistan, escalation, Obama, troop levels, Vietnam
Categories: History, Military, News, Politics | Comments (9) | Home