The Palm Coast Observer’s managing editor has a new blog full of tiny jewels of witty wisdom from our most precious philosophers.
Commentary
Arizona Boots Up Brown Immigrants’ Guantanamo
The virus that led to Arizona’s anti-immigration law has crossed Arizona’s borders into the rest of America. Its carrier is as white as a bed sheet and by far the greater threat to America’s character than anything that ever crossed the Rio Grande.
Nashville Surrenders to Grab Your Crotch Country
T. Paige Dalporto, a West Virginia songwriter, pains his way through the Academy of Country Music Awards and mourns his old country gone pop.
Brett Copeland Star Spangles at School Board
Brett Copeland, a senior at Matanzas High School, switched from violin to voice to sing the national anthem at a school board meeting.
Legislature’s Roadkill: Raiding Trust Funds
The Florida Legislature has balanced the budget by taking money from the transportation trust fund. It’s a short-sighted solution with dire consequences, argues Mark Wilson, president of the Florida Chamber of Commerce.
Students Fail. Cut Teachers’ Pay. Seriously?
The thinking behind Senate Bill 6 is rooted in the idea that teachers cause students’ success or failure. That’s wrong, argues Dave Riegel, a high school principal.
Sara Palin’s Cafeteria Christianity
Russell A. Pizer gives the once and future queen of reactionary Republicans a lesson in the Declaration of Independence and other spelling tips.
Why Is Flagler Being Mealy-Mouthed Over KKK Fliers?
How easy to pick at an obvious target like the KKK, and easier still to do it in language that commits to nothing more than fortune-cookie bromides. How meaningless too.
Call Me a Tea Party Fan
Maybe not a fan of the tea partiers’ ideas. But definitely a fan of their sincerity and, yes, eloquence. Let’s bust some stereotypes.
Tea Party Circus Is In Town
I’m about to head out to Palm Coast Parkway and Old Kings Road where the tea party folks are holding their latest rally against (fill in the blanks).
Health Reform’s Bigger Windfalls for Florida
while there are still many unknowns about how the new federal health-care laws will be implemented, Florida stands to do very well financially and socially.
Conklin to Crist: Children Are More Than Test Scores
Flagler School Board member Colleen Conklin urges Gov. Charlie Crist to veto Senate Bill 6, which she terms “political” and “inappropriate” for children’s education.
Stolz to Crist: I Am Tired of Teachers
Peter Stolz, a former teacher from Palm Coast, urges Gov. Charlie Crist to sign Senate Bill 6 into law.
Farewell to I-95
This morning’s commute, from home to government complex, was 3.1 miles, most of it unimpeded even by Palm Coast’s reputedly unbearable traffic.
“Pacific” a Sequel To Exalt War Passions
The Pacific war was not a sequel. It is here, with all the hand-me-down fatigues of war sequels.
Jonathan May, Conductor of Youths’ Fugues
To perform with Jonathan was to love him, and to love him was to live the joy that was his musical offering.
Unveiling Stereotypes at Stetson University
Undergraduates not used to wearing their religion on their sleeve, at least not Islam, wore one not even their own around their face–Islam’s most explosive symbol.
Taking Back America–from Tea Party Phonies
If Thomas Jefferson had heard Sarah Palin or Marco Rubio, he’d have had to ask how such a smart country would put up with such an obvious phonies and loons.
What If Tim Tebow Had Been Aborted?
By linking abortion with a life fully lived, Tebow is pretending to tell us something about the mysteries of life’s origins that nobody knows — not Tebow, not Pope Benedict, not Stephen Hawking, not my pet ferret, if I had one.
Weimar Germany’s Shadow Creep on Main Street
Philip A. Farruggio argues that the United States is forgetting the lessons of 1930s Germany–and Sinclair Lewis’ prophetic warnings–at its own risk.
He Had His Moments, But…
There’s too much reaching for the old magic–which is just the problem: this lunge for “magic,” this desire to make the impossible real, when it should be the other way around.
Americans Owe More to Haiti Than They Know
Well beyond earthquake relief, an American commitment to independence and democracy in Haiti would not be a favor, a gift or an indulgence. It would be the down payment of an incalculable debt long overdue.
Is This Harry Reid Cartoon Offensive?
The Omaha World Herald’s sanctimony over a skin-tone cartoon is more offensive than Harry Reid’s misjudgment.
Prohibition’s Binge of Sanctimony
On the history and stupidity of Prohibition, the 13-year binge of sanctimony that a minority of eugenics fans and anti-German racists imposed on the majority.
My Ten Predictions for 2010
“All prophesies are wrong, therefore this one will be wrong,” Orwell said. So here are mine for the coming year of our blogs, 2010.
Brighthouse, Worst Company in Florida
Brighthouse puts a happy face on its business. For customers of cable and internet service, Brighthouse can be a miserable experience. If it’s customer care you’re looking for, it ain’t there.
A Health Care Deal out of Arab Bazars
For all the missteps, for all of Obama’s prevarications and defanged tactics, the end result will (should the bill pass) vindicate whatever he did, however he did it. What was bound to be a colossal battle turned out to unravel the worst and little of the best about America.
The 10 Most Ridiculous Commandments
In order for any Republican candidate to receive support from the Republican National Committee, they have to sign off on eight out of 10 newly-mandated, government-approved, “conservative” principles.
Initial Unemployment Claims Up 17,000
Weekly unemployment claims are up 17,000 from the previous week’s unrevised figure of 457,000. The 4-week moving average was 473,750, a decrease of 7,750 from the previous week.
Rev-Up Time for the Flagler Youth Orchestra
They’re practicing as I’m writing–the Flagler Youth Orchestra’s four music teachers (Jonathan May, Jack Jeffe, Justin McCulough and Linda VavBuren–in preparation for tonight’s inaugural concert of the new season: the quartet is putting on a few pieces of its own for the occasion, including, from what I hear, a Christmassy jaunt or two. It’s barely […]
Soldiers, Kids Reunite, but Cameras Exploit
In one video, Army Master Sgt. Joseph Myers walks unannounced into his 10-year-old daughter Hanna’s classroom in Texas after a long deployment. In split seconds Hanna’s expression goes from blank to shock to joy to meltdown. She barely manages to make it toward her father’s embrace. In another, at a Jacksonville Jaguars football game last […]
Forget Obama’s. What About Sadie’s Vietnam?
Sadie’s relationship with Vietnam was a complete surprise. But it explains an adolescence rife with post-traumatic stress disorder and reenactments of napping through napalm.
Unemployment: 10.2%. Corporate Profits: Up 10.6%
Corporate profits, which logged some record-breaking soars during the Bush years, are back to their not-so-old form, outgunning the unemployment rate.
The Twisted Reality of War’s Homecoming Videos
Soldiers’ “surprise” homecomings are the new voyeurism, and soldiers’ children and wives the most exploited victims.
South of the Border, Where Drug Policy Makes Sense
On Aug. 20, Mexico for a few days became the most enlightened nation in the western hemisphere regarding drug policy. That day, a law took effect decriminalizing possession of small quantities of drugs. All drugs. South of the border you can carry up to 5 grams of marijuana (four joints’ worth), half a gram of […]
Nuclear’s Glowing, False New Dawn
Besides radioactive waste with nowhere to go, the nuclear power industry is releasing a rich array of glowing falsehoods about the supposed promise of nuclear power.
Prejudice Guides Speculation Over Fort Hood Killings
Even in the United States, land of diversity and individualism, there’s still nothing like race and ancestry to imprison you in other people’s dumbest assumptions and cruelest distortions. An American – American-born, American-bred, American-educated – is suspected of having committed the mass killing that resulted in the death of 13 people at Fort Hood on […]
“60 Minutes”‘ $60 Billion Lie About Medicare
I haven’t watched CBS’ “60 Minutes” in years. But it was one of those stories that stops you in your tracks: Medicare fraud is “a $60 billion crime.” Medicare is the $456 billion government health insurance program serving 46 million elderly Americans. Its credibility as a government-run program is at the heart of the health-care […]
Quit Dithering: Let Them Ask and Tell
Any soldier’s morale faint enough to be affected by a fellow-soldier’s sexual inclination is a warning that that soldier’s fibers may not be worth the fatigues he’s wearing. Homophobia, not homosexuality, is the sickness in the deal.
‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ Try to Survive Crushing Stones
The dishonor is the nation’s tolerance of a don’t-ask-don’t-tell policy no less offensive than segregation-era racism – or current-era worship of “diversity,” which stops at sexual preference.
Health Reform Nears Universal Coverage – Of Insurers
When Congress haggled five years ago over the prescription-drug benefit portion of Medicare, the government health-insurance program for the elderly, cost projections of the new benefit ranged from $400 billion to $720 billion over 10 years. Congress had not one penny in dedicated revenue to pay for it. Whatever the cost, it would all be […]
Locked and Loaded for Dignity Deserved but Withheld
There was the case of Milissa Holland, the Flagler County commissioner, who in June accused 81-year-old John Petyo of Palm Coast of making death threats. Petyo has a recent history of trespassing and mental-health issues. There was the case of 82-year-old Antonino Milian of Deltona, who in August was found dead in the woods of […]
Holes Still Scar Landscape from New York to Afghanistan
Terrorists dug the first eight years ago in Lower Manhattan. The hole is still there, visible live on Web cams keeping track of the crater’s make-work traffic. It was seven years from the time the design for the Twin Towers was unveiled in 1964 to the day the second building was topped out on a […]
CIA Fails Mission to Detect Danger
Franz Kafka’s “Trial” is the story of a nobody tried for crimes never made clear by faceless authorities upholding secret laws that never fail to get their guilty verdict. You could read it to understand how easily reality is distorted and justice impersonated, even in “civilized” nations. Or you could read the inspector general’s recent […]
‘Deadliest Catch’ a Cowboy Race to Cap-and-Trade
The Discovery Channel’s “Deadliest Catch” is a reality series based on the toil and tyranny of crab fishing in the Bering Sea. About 4 million people watch the show every week, making it one of the top-rated programs on cable. It’s a strange phenomenon, considering that it’s just watching people work. But it’s more than […]
Stoking Rage from Manipulated Fears
You remember the e-mails five years ago. They were all the same, junking up our in-boxes with bullet lists of how great things were going in Iraq – the exact number of new schools built, the number of Iraqis happily employed, the number of cell phones beeping everywhere (including, presumably, those used to detonate roadside […]
Atop a Decapitated Peak with Hoot
Mountain-top removal coal mining in West Virginia: the grinding tragedy of Kayford Mountain, where Massey Energy has been removing mountaintops to dig out coal.
Hoards of Wealth but No Will to Tax
Empires rise and fall on the strength of their kitty, not their guns. Spain in the 17th century, France in the 18th, Britain in the 19th – they each went bankrupt, exhausted from debt. With unsustainable trillion-dollar deficits projected through the next decade, is the United States going the way of its European forebears? If […]
Scholar’s Arrest Illustrates Harm of Police Overzealousness
The New Yorker’s Steve Coll was on assignment in Nigeria recently, dining alone “over spicy rice and cold beer” and entertaining himself with the letters to the editor in a local paper. One in particular, which Coll reproduced in his blog, recounts a man’s absurd run-in with cops. The man was carrying a bag. The […]
Universal Health Care Closer than a Moon Shot for U.S.
Here’s a good way to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Moon landing: Exceed that achievement with one of greater value. Going to Mars would be nice. Getting universal health care would be cheaper. It would do more good to millions of people than expeditions to outer worlds to pick up rocks and plant flags. […]