columbiatribune.com stories: Commentary

TRIB TALK

Wed, 30 May 2012 14:00:00 -0500

"One of the dumbest things in town is the off ramp from I-70 westbound to Business Loop 70 East. That is a wreck waiting to happen..."

Nationals share joy of winning

By CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER — Tue, 29 May 2012 13:50:34 -0500

It was our much-anticipated quarterly lunch with Tim Kurkjian, baseball analyst extraordinaire, wherein George Will and I bathe in a constant flow of obscure statistics, Kurkjian oddities and ribald anecdotes, like the one about the Red Sox beat writer who accidentally walked in on a players' prayer meeting and was greeted by the burly right fielder, newly born-again and not yet practiced in the language of Christian fellowship, bellowing, "Hey! Can't you see we're having f------ chapel here?"

Liberals adopting new lingo

By ED ROGERS — Tue, 29 May 2012 13:50:28 -0500

The left is scrambling to help President Barack Obama in a suddenly close race with Mitt Romney, but not all of its efforts are particularly clever or even effective.

An 'Other' soon to be another

By LEONARD PITTS JR. — Tue, 29 May 2012 13:50:26 -0500

I too, sing America.

Abortion doesn't follow attitude shift to left

By WILLIAM SALETAN — Tue, 29 May 2012 13:50:22 -0500

According to the latest Gallup polls, public opinion on issues of sexual and reproductive freedom has become steadily more liberal.

Cheap learning marks the start of a revolution

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN — Tue, 29 May 2012 13:50:22 -0500

Andrew Ng is an associate professor of computer science at Stanford University, and he has a rather charming way of explaining how the new interactive online education company he co-founded, Coursera, hopes to revolutionize higher education by allowing students from all over the world to not only hear his lectures but to do homework assignments, be graded, receive a certificate for completing the course and use that to get a better job or gain admission to a better school.

Millionaires not in middle class

Tue, 29 May 2012 13:50:16 -0500

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has an interesting definition of what constitutes the middle class. She believes it includes people earning anything less than $1 million a year — at least when it comes to tax cuts.

TRIB TALK

Tue, 29 May 2012 13:50:09 -0500

"This is in response to the caller that was complaining about the good ol' boy network when it comes to every channel airing sports on the weekend. I'm a woman, and I thoroughly enjoy watching sports..."

Redistricting

Henry J. Waters III — Tue, 29 May 2012 13:50:06 -0500

This year in the Missouri General Assembly, Republicans held their largest majorities in 80 years, leading to more intraparty strife than usual, according to students of the political trade.

Gender choices best left to adults

By MONA CHAREN — Sun, 27 May 2012 02:00:00 -0500

Because of copyright considerations, this content is not available in the online edition of the Tribune.

TRIB TALK

Sun, 27 May 2012 02:00:00 -0500

"Bill Clark's article complaining about the city's dangerous drivers definitely shows we have one driver who needs to turn himself in for dangerous driving, and that's Clark himself..."

We may be seeing a Catholic spring

By E.J. DIONNE JR. — Sun, 27 May 2012 02:00:00 -0500

There is a healthy struggle brewing among the nation's Roman Catholic bishops. A previously silent group, upset over conservative colleagues defining the church's public posture and eagerly picking fights with President Barack Obama, has had enough.

Iraq native did what was right

By STEVE JACOBS — Sun, 27 May 2012 02:00:00 -0500

When I heard the judge sentence my friend Shakir Hamoodi to three years in prison, I remembered our first introduction and his advice before I embarked on a human rights delegation in 1997 to Iraq to document the desperate conditions caused by U.S.-imposed economic sanctions. "When you see how the people are suffering under sanctions," he said, "ask how this will make us safe from Saddam Hussein." 

Ex-prisoners deserve a chance

Wayne Anderson — Sun, 27 May 2012 02:00:00 -0500

A reunion of 20 former maximum-security prisoners, sponsored by Catholic Charities of Central and Northern Missouri, gave me an opportunity to discuss with them the problems of re-entry into civilian life. They offered thoughtful suggestions about what could be done to prevent recidivism, focusing on two areas: preparation for discharge and mentoring during the re-entry process.

MU has way to go to gain NSEI's trust

By TRUMAN STORVICK — Sun, 27 May 2012 02:00:00 -0500

Tribune reporter Janese Silvey has done excellent work detailing the Nuclear Science and Engineering Institute's struggle to survive under University of Missouri management. Her May 19 account on Page 1A provides the lead sentence: "The dean of the University of Missouri's College of Engineering extended an olive branch to nuclear engineering faculty yesterday."

Shooting range

By TINA DUPUY — Sun, 27 May 2012 02:00:00 -0500

If you ask the typical hyper-political gun owner (and I have … at Thanksgiving dinner) why it's important to own a gun, they'll bark about the Constitution. Yes, the Second Amendment: "The Right of the People to Keep and Bear Arms Shall Not Be Infringed!"

Time to go

Henry J. Waters III — Sun, 27 May 2012 02:00:00 -0500

When I search far enough through uncertain memories, I remember March Drug Store on the corner of Range Line Street and Wilkes Boulevard. Later the location was home to an auto parts store. Somewhere along the line, it became known as the Heibel-March building. Then it fell into disuse and disrepair.

Improving prospects

Henry J. Waters III — Sun, 27 May 2012 02:00:00 -0500

City and county building permits and sales of existing homes are up. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. reports that at the end of 2011, Boone County's unemployment rate was 5 percent, the lowest among Missouri's 114 counties.

Good luck getting a teenager to care about much

By BILL O'REILLY — Sat, 26 May 2012 02:00:00 -0500

As a former high school teacher, I know one of the great challenges in education is to get teenagers interested in their country. Many of them take their freedom for granted and have no interest in even learning about what it takes to be a good citizen. They are too busy keeping up with the Kardashians to absorb John Adams.

Don Laird

Henry J. Waters III — Sat, 26 May 2012 02:00:00 -0500

Everyone who has worked through the years with Chamber of Commerce President Don Laird will agree: His particular style and presence will be very hard to replicate.