The past week's worth of commentary in The Tentacle
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Cops “In The Street”
Roy Meachum
Many local residents were astonished when they learned the Fraternal Order of Police insisted City Hall should raise property taxes to pay the member cops off. As readers know, the boys and girls who wear badges on their issued-blue costumes already make an average $20,000 more than other municipal employees.
Unwinding The Tangled Web
Shawn Burns
President Barack Obama is still roundly criticized for his stimulus spending and now for his plan for job creation. Former President George W. Bush, in the twilight of his second term, authorized the federal government to spend billions to bail out our banking system. Both plans have their faults, failures and critics.
Monday, September 12, 2011
Rabble-rousing, Union-style
Richard B. Weldon Jr.
Last week on Labor Day, James Riddle Hoffa, Jr., the president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, finally started acting like the thug we all suspected he was harboring deep inside. His father was the lion of the modern American labor movement, the birthright genius of rousing a rabble to action.
Fixing the Postal System
Michael Kurtianyk
Many of us are planners. We schedule, we organize, and we run our businesses with all the decisiveness of a CEO. We do what we can to keep our business, not only afloat, but profitable. In economically tough times, good businesses must consistently look to raise revenue and lower expenses.
The 9/11/11 Attack
Steven R. Berryman
Hope I’m wrong about a new or copycat attack on “Patriot Day” Sunday; this column was written on Saturday 9/10/11 in anticipation of the 10th anniversary of the past suicide bombings. As of this writing, rumors circulate; advice is cheap and plentiful. Here’s mine!
Friday, September 9, 2011
September 11’s Additional Victims
Roy Meachum
In addition to the nearly 3,000 lives taken on September 11, 2001, all Americans suffered the loss of constitutional rights for the sake of a federal bureaucracy that was really responsible, in the first place, for the attacks.
Enumerated Powers
Joe Charlebois
My daughter just finished her first week of high school and was exasperated at the increase in the size of her homework. As a part of one of her very first assignments, she had to define roughly 100 separate terms for her government and civics class. The term “Enumerated Powers” was one on the list that stumped her.
Enough Blame To Go Around…
Patrick Kjellberg
What do you do when you have no past from which to learn? Well, it might actually be a good position because it would free you from making the same mistakes that were made in the past.
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Bad News and More of the Same…
Joan Marie Aquilino
The news is so glum, the outlook so negative, and the day-to-day stories of so many are so very sad and depressing that it’s difficult to even write about them anymore.
So Many Different ‘Truths’
Amanda Haddaway
Television news has evolved tremendously since the first broadcasts in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Back then, television news was only 15 minutes.
Under The Guise of Protection
Blaine R. Young
Every 10 years or so our wonderful liberal Democrat leaders in Annapolis come up with a new statewide land use plan that they have concocted “for our own good.” This year they have introduced us to PlanMaryland as the latest of the so-called “Smart Growth” ideas.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Without a Clue
Kevin E. Dayhoff
Tomorrow evening President Barack Obama will lay out his job creation proposals in a campaign address to a joint session of Congress. The president previewed his plans Monday in a Labor Day speech in Detroit.
Homesick Relief on the Way
Tom McLaughlin
Kuching, Malaysian Borneo – I have to go to the capital of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, and I detest going there. I have to visit the United States Embassy to get a passport for my son and a visa for my wife for our yearly visit to the states. I am married to a local Malaysian.
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
“Best ‘Man’”
Roy Meachum
With a major GOP presidential debate on-tap Wednesday evening, defying Mother Nature, Labor Day kicked off the 2012 election year. Rep. Michelle Bachman disturbs the gender of the inevitable Best Man scenario. Meanwhile former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin hovers, not far from the action.
Economic Recovery without Housing?
Earl 'Rocky' Mackintosh
It has never been accomplished before in modern times, but could the economy come back to nearly full strength without a real estate comeback in housing?
Politics Driving Backdown on Environment
Farrell Keough
Might this current administration have seen the light? A “Gallup survey from March showed that Americans prioritize economic development over environmental protection at a rate of 54 percent to 36 percent – the widest margin since Gallup first asked the question in 1984.”
Monday, September 5, 2011
Speeches, plans and power
Richard B. Weldon Jr.
It’s Labor Day, and the week of the big Capitol Hill speech by President Barack Obama. His lackeys and messengers call this the JOBS speech, and it ought to be a whopper, since he needed 10 days in Martha’s Vineyard to concoct it.
9/11 Patriotic Lessons
Steven R. Berryman
Why do the powers that control such things insist that we remember the anniversaries of the 9/11-suicide attack on the World Trade Center twin towers, Pentagon, and Capital as “Patriot Day?”
Things that make me cringe….but first…
Michael Kurtianyk
The first week of school has come and gone, and it seems that – overall – it has been a smooth opening for our children.
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