The presidential candidates have made headlines by embracing ethanol as the alternative to America’s dependence on gasoline. Most of their arguments are based on misinterpretations of scientific, social and economic facts. In the recent months, numerous scientific studies have clarified many such issues, making it clear that ethanol is not a suitable alternative to oil.- 12:16 AM
In one of the numbers from “Fiddler on the Roof,” Tevye sings, with a mixture of emotions: “We haven’t got the man... we had when we began.”- 12:16 AM
YOU’VE dropped by your office on the weekend to go over some paperwork, and you accidentally lock yourself inside a storage room. The door can only be unlocked from the outside, and the only person who has a key is your assistant. You call your wife and tell her to find your assistant and have him come rescue you.- 1:47 AM
To get a glimpse of what we are in for after the Supreme Court recently threw in with libertarians and the gun lobby, turn to Atlanta’s airport, Hartsfield-Jackson International. What is locally billed as a showdown — “High Noon” style — is brewing there.- 1:47 AM
Despite mounting pressure from the public over the past seven years, lawmakers failed to override Gov. Mark Sanford’s veto of the cigarette tax bill, effectively putting our state and its health on hold for yet another year.- 1:47 AM
Bobtailed bill on court’s chopping block? Legal experts privately say the court gives all the appearances that in short order, it will strike down a hopelessly-flawed bill that is to bobtailing what Pam Anderson is to plastic surgery.- 1:47 AM
A civil society exists for the common defense, to assure the rule of law and to help care for those who cannot care for themselves.- 1:47 AM
“The curtains pull away. They come to the door. And they know. They always know.” — Maj. Steve Beck, U.S. Marine Corps- 12:16 AM
JOHN McCAIN and Barack Obama are lucky there’s such a thing as Republicans and Democrats in this country, because neither would be able to get the Energy Party nomination.- 12:16 AM
This year’s college graduates owe their success to many factors, from hectoring parents to cherished remedies for hangovers. But one of the most remarkable of the new graduates, Beatrice Biira, credits something utterly improbable: a goat.- 12:16 AM
“The helicopter almost fell from the sky because we were jumping up and down, yelling, crying, hugging one another.”- 12:16 AM
Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David McCullough has grave concerns that we are raising an historically illiterate generation. Every idea is accompanied by values, ethics, attitudes, behaviors and ultimately consequences, and lack of a common historical knowledge places our future in jeopardy. In the words of historian Daniel Boorstin, “Trying to plan for the future without a sense of the past is like trying to plant cut flowers.”- 12:16 AM
A parishioner recently told me, “I never thought I’d say this, but I’m proud that my minister is involved in a lawsuit.” I have to say that I am proud, too, to join two other ministers, a rabbi and a Hindu organization in a lawsuit against the state of South Carolina, filed on our behalf by Americans United for Separation of Church and State.- 12:16 AM
SOMEONE in Richland County had better set some priorities about taxing and spending before there’s a tax revolt. And they’d better do it now.- 12:14 AM
I felt a personal and professional obligation to be in the court room last week as the state’s highest court pondered the issue of providing a minimally adequate education for South Carolina’s most disadvantaged youngsters.- 12:14 AM
Patson Chipiro, a democracy activist, wasn’t home when Robert Mugabe’s thugs showed up looking for him. So they grabbed his wife, Dadirai, and tormented her by chopping off one of her hands and both of her feet. Finally, they threw her into a hut, locked the door and burned it to the ground.- 12:14 AM
LAST WEEK, the state Supreme Court once again struck a unanimous blow against South Carolina’s special brand of legislative logrolling, and all the critics of bobtailing could do was complain that the ruling was too tepid.- 1:45 AM
One must understand the system of earmarking before declaring it broken, and it is clear from The State’s editorial on Thursday that this paper doesn’t understand the system.- 1:45 AM
Tired of high gasoline prices and rising foods costs? Well, here’s a solution. Let’s shoot the speculators. A chorus of politicians, including John McCain and Barack Obama, blames these financial slimeballs for piling into commodities markets and pushing prices to artificial and unconscionable levels. Gosh, if only it were that simple. Speculator-bashing is another exercise in scapegoating and grandstanding. Leading politicians either don’t understand what’s...- 1:45 AM
Just a few months ago, the consensus view was that Barack Obama would need to choose a hard-core national-security type as his vice presidential running mate to compensate for his lack of foreign policy experience and that John McCain would need a running mate who was young and sprightly to compensate for his age.- 1:46 AM
RSS Feeds
