Posted December 08, 2022in Morain
Christmas music has returned for the season, and we will hear it for the next three weeks or so wherever we go and wherever we listen. I knew the background story of “Silent Night,” but that’s about the only carol with whose origins I was familiar. Research turns up some
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Posted November 24, 2022in Morain
A little more than four years ago—on October 2, 2018—prominent Saudi Arabian journalist and dissident Jamal Khashoggi, 59, was murdered in the Saudi embassy in Istanbul, Turkey. Khashoggi had been living in the United States for a number of years and writing for prestigious publications, especially the Washington Post. Both
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Posted November 17, 2022in Morain
Iowa is a red state. Period. The Republican victories in the state last week rivaled the GOP’s dominance in Iowa back in the years following the Civil War, when most Iowans connected Democrats to the Southern rebellion. Both houses of the Iowa legislature now have Republican majorities of about two
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Posted November 10, 2022in Morain
Unlike everything you’ve read in the last few days, this column’s not about the results of Tuesday’s midterm elections. Well, not specifically, anyway. Because of the way the publishing calendar works, I have a deadline of Tuesday at 10 a.m. to submit my weekly column to the newspaper. Because Election
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Posted November 02, 2022in Morain
Although its safety mechanisms have improved, farming is still considered America’s most dangerous major occupation. Government service may fast overtake it. The recent attack on Paul Pelosi, 82-year-old husband of Nancy Pelosi, in their San Francisco home sadly doesn’t come as much of a surprise. The alleged attacker, a 42-year-old
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Posted October 26, 2022in Morain
October is a hot month for sports. The World Series is upon us. The National Football League is well underway, with millions watching games every Sunday, and other days as well. We’re in the midst of the Iowa high school football playoffs. While neither Iowa nor Iowa State currently provides
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Posted October 20, 2022in Morain
Cutting taxes has been a mainstay of Republican philosophy for decades. Iowa’s about to discover if it works. The 2022 session of the Iowa Legislature, with Republicans comfortably in control, enacted a massive state income tax restructuring whose strictures will steadily reduce state revenues for the next five years. Governor
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Posted October 04, 2022in Morain
With the midterm elections less than five weeks away, and absentee voting set to begin in only two weeks, Republicans across the nation are hammering away at one of their most powerful campaign issues: inflation. When the inflation rate first started to spike several months ago, economists both inside and
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Posted September 22, 2022in Morain
What do I do with all my stuff? Kathy’s answer: chuck it. Difficult to bring myself to do. I’ve always been a saver. Ten years ago I wrote about the stacks of stuff in my office at the newspaper: 15 or 16 of them, some several feet tall. I knew
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Posted September 15, 2022in Morain
For ages, Americans have demonstrated their fascination with British royalty. Maybe it’s because we don’t possess that institution ourselves. Maybe it’s a result of our childhood stories about kings, queens, princes and princesses. Maybe it’s simply voyeuristic enjoyment of pomp and all that accompanies it. But whatever the cause, we’re
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