Coronavirus gives rise to scholars and creativity

Posted by:

The directives from the Ohio Department of Public Health concerning how we are to deal with the coronavirus have brought many revelations. Until the virus hit, I didn’t realize how many constitutional law scholars we have, nor was I aware how creative people can be when objecting to the guidelines.

Take, for instance, the owner of The National Road Diner near Cambridge, Ohio. She refuses to close because, “it’s my constitutional right to open my business now.” Apparently, constitutional law ...

Continue Reading →
13
MAY
7

Social Issues, Uncategorized

,

Trump’s defense skips over an important fact

Posted by:

One of President Trump’s defenses to his impeachment is that he withheld aid from Ukraine because of his concern for corruption in the country. But there’s a significant fact he doesn’t mention. 

According to Trump, then-Vice President Joe Biden told Ukraine’s president at the time, Petro Poroshenko, the U.S. would withhold $1 billion in loan guarantees unless Ukraine’s prosecutor general Victor Shokin was fired. According to Trump, Shokin was investigating Burisma, where Bidens’ son, Hunter, sat on the ...

Continue Reading →
27
JAN
3

Political Issues, Uncategorized

,

Decrease in health insurance enrollment costs lives

Posted by:

Until recently, the nation was making headway in providing health insurance for more people. The Trump administration, however, is doing its best to reverse that trend, and it’s costing us lives.

At the end of 2017, 28.9 million Americans under the age of 65 were without health insurance, a big improvement over 2010, when 48.6 million were uninsured, but the number of uninsured Americans is about to increase. The Congressional Budget Office projects that by the end of this year, 32.9 ...

Continue Reading →
5
MAR
8

Uncategorized

,

Soccer stadium trumps social needs. A politician laments over what’s wrong.

Posted by:

The end of 2018 brought two news items that don’t make sense to me—a soccer stadium and a politician’s farewell speech.

First, the soccer stadium. Columbus and Franklin County will help fund the proposed Arena District soccer stadium. The city will contribute $50 million for site development and infrastructure costs, and the county will pitch in another ...

Continue Reading →
27
DEC
13

Uncategorized

,

More diversity would make for a better Congress

Posted by:

If you haven’t noticed, Congress doesn’t represent a cross-section of America. Its members comprise a narrow sector of the nation, and that’s a problem for reasons I’ll discuss in a minute. First, let’s look at the numbers.

Non-Hispanic whites make up 61 percent of our population, but 80 percent of representatives and senators are white. People 60 years old or older make up just 20 percent of the population but the average age of a representative is 57; for a senator ...

Continue Reading →
4
NOV
7

Political Issues, Uncategorized

, , , , , ,

We need more liberals

Posted by:

With the divisive discord that permeates the news and our conversations, I think about the dearth of liberals in our world. There are plenty of liberals, you might say. No, there are plenty of progressives. There’s a difference.

The term “liberal” has been perverted to refer to political progressives, when it actually means being broad-minded and tolerant of people with different views. You can be conservative and be liberal. Consider Columnist David Brooks.

Few people are able to maintain a strong ...

Continue Reading →
20
NOV
2

Social Issues, Uncategorized

,

What makes us think?

Posted by:

What makes us think? Is it intellect that determines how we analyze problems? If so, how is it that two people of equal intelligence can look at the same set of facts and reach different conclusions?

Let’s look at global warming. Two weeks ago, Columbus Business First carried an article about Bob Murray, the CEO of Murray Energy Corp., the no. 3 coal company in the U.S. Murray sees all the talk about saving the environment as “crony capitalism,” where President ...

Continue Reading →
20
DEC
7

Uncategorized

, , , ,

Donald Trump and James A. Traficant, Jr.–Soulmates?

Posted by:

traficant 2It wasn’t obvious at first, but then it dawned on me. Donald Trump and James A. Traficant, Jr., though they may be different in one sense, are very much alike. In case you don’t recall, Traficant was a Congressman from Youngstown, Ohio, who was expelled from the House in 2002.

The differences between them may be striking, but those differences are just superficial.  Down deep, these men ...

Continue Reading →
10
AUG
6

Political Issues, Uncategorized

, ,

Fraternity racist chants–what about contrition?

Posted by:

The story a few weeks back about the bigotry displayed by two members of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity at the University of Oklahoma gave rise to different viewpoints about how the situation should have been handled. Here are two that stand out.  Both miss the mark.

One reader of the Columbus Dispatch thought the fraternity members’ words should be protected by the First Amendment. As the argument goes, if we allow the Ku Klux Klan to protest on public venues, ...

Continue Reading →
24
MAR
6

Social Issues, Uncategorized

, , , , ,

Page 2 of 3 123