Posted May 04, 2020in Stray Thoughts
Editorial cartoonists — the outstanding ones, like the Des Moines Register’s Frank Miller and Brian Duffy — have a marvelous ability to express a point of view with only a few words and a skillfully drawn image. When I was the Register’s opinion editor, Miller’s most famous cartoon hung next
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Posted April 27, 2020in Stray Thoughts
The coronavirus crisis has exposed the financial vulnerabilities of countless Iowa businesses. Whether we like it or not, it will be touch-and-go to see how many come through this intact, how many will end up as shadows of their former selves, and how many will disappear. It’s implausible that businesses
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Posted April 20, 2020in Stray Thoughts
In the world of contagions, epidemics and vaccines, there are not many true rock stars. There is, of course, Dr. Anthony Fauci, who directs the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. His face is recognizable worldwide from his television briefings on the coronavirus epidemic sweeping the globe. Another is
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Posted April 14, 2020in Stray Thoughts
It’s quiz time. What arm of the federal government has the most contact with ordinary Americans, people like you and me? Is it the Internal Revenue Service? Social Security Administration? The Food and Drug Administration? Or the Department of Agriculture? Nope. Not that one. Not that one, either. None of
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Posted April 06, 2020in Stray Thoughts
One of my memories, one that had been tucked away back where the cobwebs congregate, is from that day in 2004 when the oldest Evans daughter graduated from Saint Louis University. The graduates crowded onto the arena floor for the commencement ceremony. They were grouped by their areas of study
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Posted March 31, 2020in Stray Thoughts
We have all become acutely aware in the past few weeks why masks and face shields, respirators and ventilators are so important for hospital workers and their patients. The supply is not keeping up with the need, and that could have dire consequences for the doctors, nurses and patients. Likewise,
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Posted March 10, 2020in Stray Thoughts
Iowans take considerable pleasure in enumerating the various ways our state stands apart from the other 49 states — beyond our endangered first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses. For many years, we pointed with pride to the fact that Iowa’s high school graduation rate was tops in the United States. We like to
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Posted March 03, 2020in Stray Thoughts
A bill now awaiting debate and a vote in the Iowa Senate is quite short. It adds a mere 10 lines to the Iowa Code. But those 10 lines are an important legal statement Iowa lawmakers should adopt before they finish their work for 2020. Senate File 2331 says employees
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Posted February 25, 2020in Stray Thoughts
If you are looking for something in government that can be quite messy, even under the best of circumstances, look no further than the power that allows presidents to issue pardons. I’m not a member of the Donald Trump Fan Club, as my friends and readers can deduce. But President
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Posted February 18, 2020in Stray Thoughts
Members of the Iowa Legislature are in the midst of tying themselves into knots over the issue of equality, and that’s unfortunate. The knot-tying involves what these lawmakers call “religious freedom.” That has a patriotic ring to it. Who would disagree? Our constitutional right to freedom of religion sets the
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