Huge week for Des Moines hotels and restaurants
The National Junior Olympics came to town last week. Unless you were in a hotel lobby or somewhere around Drake Stadium, you might not have known. It didn’t register with [...]
Read More →
Posted August 06, 2014in Guest Commentary
Posted July 09, 2014in Guest Commentary
Nixon knew the public wants to be lied to; Branstad follows suit
Predictably, if Richard Nixon were around today he would endorse Gov. Terry Branstad’s bid for — yawn — yet another term in office. No news there. The reason for the [...]
Read More →
Posted July 02, 2014in Guest Commentary
A great day for America
Editor’s note: Last Friday, 64 men and women were sworn in as citizens at Jordan House in West Des Moines. Michael Gartner was asked to give some remarks. Here they [...]
Read More →
Posted June 18, 2014in Guest Commentary
Jesus the candidate: Soft on crime, He’ll tax and spend
Consider yourself cursed for the next 850 days or so. With the November election 120 or so days away and the 2016 election adding 731 more to the total, you’ll [...]
Read More →
Posted May 28, 2014in Guest Commentary
Reggie, the editorial, meets ALAS, the therapist
When you deal day in and day out with daffy politics and scary politicians, you run the risk of becoming a bit confused yourself. Maybe that explains why many of [...]
Read More →
Posted May 14, 2014in Guest Commentary
Ernst steals Judge’s schtick
Patty Judge was offensive then, and Joni Ernst is offensive now. Ernst, a U.S. Senate candidate, is making a lot of hay with her “let’s make ’em squeal” in Washington [...]
Read More →
Posted May 07, 2014in Guest Commentary
Not exactly a sterling silver end to racism
People who enjoy viewing with alarm or pointing with pride had a field day with the soap opera and showdown involving the National Basketball Association and its face-off with the [...]
Read More →
Posted May 07, 2014in Guest Commentary
A bad kind of rare
Brain cancer is rare. According to the American Cancer Society, about 1.4 percent of all new primary cases of cancer found annually in the United States are of the brain [...]
Read More →
Posted April 16, 2014in Guest Commentary
A skeptical take on the sacred 67 of March Madness
Like any major cultural event, “March Madness” spans decades and lets us dip into many crosscurrents for added perspectives or to prove a point. For example, there were 67 games [...]
Read More →
Robin Williams, nonsensical news and supposed ‘Wake Up’ calls
Much of the TV coverage of the death of Robin Williams called to mind how awful the news can be when clueless reporters babble in their efforts to sound profound [...]
Read More →