Column by Mike Zagata, July 6, 2018 Is There No Way To Stop Child Separations? Most of us are the descendants of immigrants who legally entered the country via Ellis Island. As Americans, we should be proud that people want to come to our country. However, there are laws that control the rate of entry and processes to follow in adhering to those laws. Today we’re besieged with a media blitz focused on the separation of children from adults caught…
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Column by Tom Morgan, July 6, 2018 Money Talk On Fourth Of July, Love Letter To America We find dollops of hatred on the menu this 4th of July. Facebook bristles with diatribes. As do various social media portals. Politicians screech insults. Hollywood stars spit gutter language at the President. Mobs drive White House staff and their families from restaurants. Academics rev up poisonous demonstrations. They fill young minds with anti-American bile. News networks blister the administration. Endlessly. Protests morph…
Column by Adrian Kuzminski on June 29, 2018 Can GOP, Democrats Compromise? About a year ago, a deal was suggested between President Trump and establishment Democrats whereby Trump would support a path to citizenship for at least some illegal aliens while Democrats would support something like The Wall on the southern border. The deal came very close, after Democrats met with Trump, but fell apart. It’s now back in the news again. Is such a compromise possible, or even desirable?…
Column by Adrian Kuzminski June 15, 2018 Demagogues Happen – And Can Happen Here The Wikipedia – it may be the closest thing we have to a common standard of what things mean in our culture – tells us that a demagogue is “a leader in a democracy who gains popularity by exploiting prejudice and ignorance among the common people, whipping up the passions of the crowd and shutting down reasoned deliberation. Demagogues overturn established customs of political conduct, or…
Column by Mike Zagata, June 8, 2018 Doctor-Patient Discussions Private? Little By Little, Confidentiality Goes Are there circumstances where it’s OK to violate your privacy? It might be OK if you make an informed decision to allow that to happen – but what if you don’t? Have you heard of HIPPA – the Health insurance Portability & Accountability Act of 1996? If you have, you probably have a sense of comfort that it protects conversations your doctor has about your…
Column by Adrian Kuzminski, May 31, 2018 Are Today’s Disputations Only Reformation Battles Revisited? A recent op-ed in the New York Times by a University of Virginia professor, Gerard Alexander, was provocatively titled: “Liberals, You’re not as Smart as you Think.” It may have been a shocking idea for the Times, but it’s old news for anyone who’s been listening to Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity or watching Fox News. Hillary’s comment about the “deplorables” in the 2016 campaign was…
Column by Mike Zagata, May 25, 2018 ‘Big Brother’ May Be As Close As Your Next New Automobile If you haven’t read George Orwell’s book “1984”, now would be a good time to read it. In the book, Winston Smith wrestles with oppression in Oceania, a place where the Party (Big Brother) scrutinizes human actions with ever-watchful eyes. Winston chooses to defy a ban on individuality by daring to express his thoughts in a diary and pursues a relationship with…
Column by Adrian Kuzminski on May 11, 2018 Money Made Out Of Thin Air, But Be Sure To Repay Lenders You’ve got to have money to make money, the saying goes. If you have money, you can invest (or speculate) in something you hope will produce a profitable return. If you don’t have money, you’ll need to figure out where you can get some. There are two basic options for most people: work and debt, and they usually go together.…
Column by James Dean, May 11, 2018 To Succeed, Otsego County Must Be Known Editor’s Note: James R. Dean, the Cooperstown village trustee, has been proprietor of New York Custom Curved Wood Stair Railings & Handrailings locally since 1973. In last week’s Part I, he analyzed out economic-development challenges we face. This week, Part II offers solutions. So what is the plan? Almost everything that has been done so far to increase our population and business base, while very good,…
Column by Adrian Kuzminski, May 5, 2018 More Gas? Only If Paired With Equal-Sized Renewable Project When fracking was proposed in New York State a decade ago, the potential benefits were jobs, economic growth, lower energy prices, and energy security. Opponents (like me) worried not only about local degradation of the environment but about the global consequences of methane seepage and emissions for the climate as a whole. In most places outside of New York State, the frackers won the…
