RSS FeedsThe most urgent issue facing the next president (beyond the economy) will be how to deal with a remote area along the Afghan-Pakistan border, the new haven for al-Qaeda and radical jihadis.- 12:16 AM
Americans have an insatiable appetite for energy, and South Carolinians are no exception. Since Edison invented the electric light, we have continued to increase our dependence on electric energy. Think of the increasing number of appliances in the average home. Think of the increasing number of automobiles per household. As our population continues to rise and the number of households increases, energy demands grow exponentially.- 1:48 AM
I am worried for our country — not so much because of the tumult in the financial markets but because of the federal government’s response and its implications.- 9:11 AM
Congress faced an unpleasant but necessary choice of approving the financial rescue plan. We did not have the luxury of kicking the can down the road like we’ve done with Social Security and entitlements. We could not hope somebody braver than us would come along and have courage that we could not muster. This was on our watch, and time was of the essence.- 9:11 AM
Watching the slipping economy and Congress’ epic debate over the unprecedented $700 billion financial bailout, it is impossible not to wonder whether this is 1929 all over again. Even sophisticated observers invoke the comparison. Martin Wolf, the chief economics commentator for The Financial Times, began a recent column: “It is just over three score years and ten since the (end of the) Great Depression.” What’s frightening is not any one event but the prospect...- 1:48 AM
THE MOST significant recommendation from the American Bar Association’s review of our state’s judicial discipline system isn’t in its report. To find it, you have to read the Bar’s Model Rules for Judicial Discipline and Disability Retirement.- 1:48 AM
The first time, Troy Davis came within 24 hours of death. The second time, he came within two. Last year, it was a Georgia clemency board that stepped in to block his execution. Last month, it was the Supreme Court. Davis, the 39-year-old convicted killer of Mark MacPhail, a Savannah, Ga. police officer, was granted a stay to allow the court to consider whether to hear his appeal for a new trial. A decision is expected today.- 9:38 AM
Sanford thinks money grows on trees Get your wallets ready, because a new pointless proposal from one of Gov. Mark Sanford’s committee’s could cost taxpayers billions. This at a time when the global markets are struggling, the U.S. economy is failing and South Carolina is flat broke.- 1:48 AM
With financial markets reeling and much effort being made to attract new investment, we should not overlook the state’s first industry, which has been operating in South Carolina since the first settlers arrived, has continually expanded and still has huge growth potential, both literally and figuratively.- 1:48 AM
This summer was my 20th high school reunion. I didn’t go. My hometown is 10 hours away. Ten hours to go back two decades. I did the math. That would be like going back two years for each hour of driving, I figured. I’d rather just shoot two hours down to Folly Beach with the family and pretend I’m four years younger.- 12:13 AM
Poor Joe Biden. He likes attention, and he deserves it. He’s smart, experienced, engaging, witty, and has a smile that, could its brightness be tapped, would give the nation a nice start toward energy independence.- 11:43 AM
What did they do with the other Sarah Palin? I mean the one who bases foreign policy experience on the proximity of Russia to Alaska and who speaks cutely about Vladimir Putin poking his little head into American airspace. Where did they put her?- 12:13 AM
John McCain, like many Americans who should know better, extravagantly praises Theodore Roosevelt. He is a kindred spirit of the impulsive Rough Rider, but the visceral McCain is rescued from some of TR’s excesses by not having TR’s overflowing cupboard of ideas.- 12:13 AM
“Inaction is not an option. This is — I repeat — a crisis.... We’ve got to get this done.”- 12:13 AM
Krauthammer’s Hail Mary Rule: You get only two per game. John McCain, unfortunately, has already thrown three. The first was his bet on the surge, a deep pass to David Petraeus who miraculously ran it all the way into the end zone.- 12:13 AM
Everyone knows fear can make a person do strange things. Watching the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunge 777 points on Monday was enough to set anyone’s nerves on edge. Amid the financial and political fallout, there is one thing that is easy to understand: South Carolina banks are safe and sound, and they are still the best place for all your financial needs.- 12:15 AM
I was channel surfing on Monday, following the stock market’s nearly 800-point collapse, when a commentator on CNBC caught my attention. He was being asked to give advice to viewers as to what were the best positions to be in to ride out the market storm. Without missing a beat, he answered: “Cash and fetal.”- 12:15 AM
IT’S BEEN THREE weeks since our second child — another boy — was born, and I still haven’t gotten over the euphoria.- 12:15 AM
Unanticipated by anyone who was supposed to know anything, our government is still fiddling over a bailout that didn’t pass the House, a bill that technically isn’t a bailout despite the fact that everyone in the media is calling it a bailout. Maybe it is a sort-of bailout or a new bailout. Like a New Deal.- 12:15 AM
His name was George F. Babbitt. He was 46 years old now, in April 1920, and he made nothing in particular, neither butter nor shoes nor poetry, but he was nimble in the calling of selling houses for more than people could afford to pay.- 12:15 AM
