You’ve gotta love the consistency of the Bushites. When they ram through their multibillion-dollar tax giveaways, it’s the super-rich and corporations that gain. And when they unleash their IRS to look into tax cheating, they don’t probe the tax shelters of millionaires or the multibillion-dollar offshore tax havens of corporate finaglers — instead, they go […]
Editor’s Note
Posted inOpinion
Equip the grunts
There’s an old bumper sticker with the message “It’ll be a great day when our schools get all the money that they need and the Pentagon has to hold bake sales.” Well, guess who now has to hold bake sales to get the supplies they need? Not the Pentagon, of course — its official budget […]
Posted inOpinion
Give us more artchitecture
Now comes an art show to complement Springfield’s rediscovery of design in its built environment. Architecture as Art, showing through Feb. 18 in the gallery of the Springfield Art Association, exhibits the art of local architects on two levels: first in the displays presented to clients, which are worth hanging on walls, and second in […]
Posted inOpinion
Learn from cows
Do you fear that the American people have become as fat, lazy, and submissive as a bunch of cud-chewing cows? Well, if you think that we’ve totally lost our rebellious spark, let me tell you a heartening cow story. Few creatures in the animal kingdom are perceived as so doltish and docile as your average […]
Posted inOpinion
Bush still wants torture
The stench coming out of the White House is more nauseating than usual. For months, Bush, Cheney & Gang had fought tenaciously to kill U.S. Sen. John McCain’s bill to outlaw the U.S. government’s use of torture against prisoners of war. The Bush administration tried to cajole McCain into at least exempting the CIA from […]
Posted inOpinion
Ethics training for Congress
Some days, I don’t know whether to laugh, cry . . . or run for the hills. What’s gotten me wound up is a little news item about Dennis Hastert. He’s that rotund Republican who serves as speaker of the House of Representatives. It seems that he’s now proposing a new training session for our […]
Posted inOpinion
The politics of God-talk
You’d think that political scandals, inept disaster relief, a war going badly, and low poll numbers would be enough to humiliate politicians and the religious right out of claiming that God is speaking to them directly. Then along comes Pat Robertson, host of The 700 Club, suggesting last week that Ariel Sharon’s stroke was divine […]
Posted inOpinion
Sharing the pain?
Robert “Steve” Miller is a “corporate turnaround specialist,” but his specialty really amounts to nothing more than whacking blue-collar workers. Miller was brought in as CEO of Delphi Corp. in July 2005 in the wake of an accounting scandal that helped bring the corporation to the brink of bankruptcy. After only three months at the […]
Posted inOpinion
Money-gobbling war machine
How much is a billion dollars? Most of us are unable to comprehend such a stash. But to get your mind around a billion, think of it like this: Suppose you had a billion dollars and you spent $3,000 of it every day. Wow, you’d be living high on the hog! So, spending at that […]
Posted inOpinion
Time for a little tenderness
At a recent party, a friend was way down. George W. Bush had ruined his Christmas. He was so upset about the state of the world that he could hardly function. There is so much wrong — how can people celebrate? The war in Iraq is wrong. The trade deficit is wrong. The government can’t […]
Posted inOpinion
Ministering, not preaching
All of the pundits and consultants are unanimous these days about what Democratic Party candidates must do to gain political favor: emulate Republicans by wearing religion (specifically Christianity) on their sleeves, making alliances with evangelical churches, and openly engaging in “faith politics!” The pundits and consultants are, of course, wrong. Yes, professing one’s heartfelt spiritual […]
Posted inOpinion
Landlord journal
My tenant came by first thing this morning and turned in his key, just as he had said he would. He said that he had swept up as much of the broken glass as was possible and, again, that he was sorry about what happened. If he could be so polite and responsible about moving […]
