Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
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This week, President Obama delivered the annual State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress. The speech is a great tradition and it is an important opportunity for the President to share his vision with Congress and the American people. While there were positive elements of the speech, I was disappointed President Obama did not say anything to indicate he has a serious plan to address our nation’s most urgent problem – out-of-control federal spending and debt. In fact, the President seemed to double down on the same tax, spe...
What do farmers and ranchers, builders and businesspeople have in common? One thing I keep hearing from constituents in these respective industries is that an onslaught of rules and regulations from federal agencies has hampered their abilities to develop new innovations and create needed jobs. Since President Obama took office, more than 308,000 pages of new rules have been added to the Federal Register. That’s enough paper to cover more than four and a half acres of farmland, and weighs more than three Ford F-150 pickups trucks. The E...
I was once told that in life one must wear many hats to truly appreciate the full affect life has upon any one given person – in other words wearing many hats gives a person a true understanding of empathy. In my life I have found this to be overwhelmingly true and with honesty if it wasn’t for all the things I have seen in my short life or been a part of I do not think I would have half the empathy I contain today. And as it is with all aspects of life the journey does not stop in one place, it is us who gets stuck in that place whether or not...
You know how something isn’t really news, but suddenly, everywhere you look, there’s a story about it? I felt like this last week, when I saw headline after headline asking me whether I know how smart is my dog. This is all sparked by a new book called “The Genius of Dogs: How Dogs are Smarter Than You Think,” a groundbreaking work that provides evidence dogs are really, really good at reading their owners’ gestures and learning words. (When you write a book about it, it’s called a “groundbreaking work.” When you just look at your dog, wonde...
The lesson from the State of the Union address is this: Barack Obama has no second term agenda. Oh, sure, he campaigned furiously for the job, starting in about January of 2011. But his campaign almost never outlined his plans for a second term, focusing instead on interest group payoffs and demonization of his rival. Late in October of 2012, as if recognizing that they’d forgotten to attend to it, the Obama campaign released a 20-page glossy handout called a “blueprint for America’s future.” It featured splashy photos of the president on near...
Does it bother anyone else that the president of the United States seems to believe that our collective future entails assembling battery parts in a government-subsidized factory for $9 an hour? Is that really what Americans envision for their kids — an assembly line? Because when you look past Barack Obama’s mesmerizingly hollow rhetoric, what he’s proposing is a return of jobs that progress and prosperity have left behind. In his State of the Union speech, the president laid out a vision that we’ve heard countless times. In his world,...
Gina Odom didn’t like guns until she felt that her baby’s safety was threatened. Daniela Halliburton armed herself when she returned to a home ripped apart by Hurricane Katrina. Susan Fowler and Mary (last name withheld) grew up with weapons in the house. Ask about their first guns, and their voices soften to describe cherished childhood memories. Earlier this week, I posted a Facebook request to interview female gun owners. In two hours, more than 150 responded, including these four women. Like many who reached out, they are liberals, whi...
Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta was in court last week. More well known as Lady Gaga, she explained to the judge that she refuses to pay her former employee $390,000 for overtime hours because “she is a hood rat . . . suing me for money that she didn’t earn.” Lady Gaga said that she paid Jennifer O’Neill $75,000 a year, but O’Neill said she worked “virtually 24 hours a day, seven days a week.” One can conclude that there was a breakdown in their employer-employee relationship In 2009 Lady...
I wasn’t able to pilfer an advance copy of the president’s State of the Union address, but I hereby offer some guesses as to what he said. The president will assert, against the evidence, that the state of our union is strong. He will boast that during his first term, we averted another great depression, achieved history-making reforms of health care and banking, saved the auto industry and began to conclude two wars. He will caution though, that we face great challenges. Obama will acknowledge that our economy is not as vibrant as it cou...
I’ve never truly celebrated Valentine’s Day before. My mother would always get my brother and I some treats on the holiday but it was never a big event in my household. When I was younger and inquired as to why we rarely even gave the holiday recognition my father replied, “It’s a stupid holiday. If you love someone you should tell them everyday, not just once a year.” Even at a young age I understood this and thought that it was a good reason to boycott the holiday myself. My father also explained that kids my age had no idea what “love” me...
The massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut has caused grief and reflection across the nation. I join all Nebraskans and Americans in mourning the victims and in prayer for their families and friends. Such an act of horror naturally invites debate over what can and should be done to protect children and prevent senseless acts of violence in the future. President Obama and others were quick to insist on new gun restrictions. We all share the goal of reduced violence, but I believe further gun control measures would not...
America has endured times of great challenge and great triumph. At a time when doubt is growing about the prospects of a bright future for America, we must remember that the road to prosperity has never been an easy one. And our success has always been because we, as a people, are greater than the challenges we face. Without a doubt, years of economic recession have taken a significant toll on our country. During this period, unemployment climbed to 10 percent, remaining alarmingly high in January, at 7.9 percent. The financial markets have...
Let’s Get Mad, Men! A recent study published in the February issue of the American Sociological Review raised a whole lot of discussion last week. The study has been all over the Internet, where I found it (I canceled my subscription to the American Sociological Review years ago, when I realized I didn’t know what Sociology was). The study showed that husbands who help out with traditionally “wifely” chores have sex less often than more manly guys who stick to more traditional guy pursuits like cutting the grass, fixing the car and hammering aw...
Four years ago, Michelle Obama picked up a shovel and made a powerful symbolic statement about America’s food and farm future: She turned a patch of White House lawn into a working organic garden. That was a great move, earning kudos from just about everyone this side of Monsanto and the pesticide lobby. But now, as she begins another four years in the people’s mansion, the first lady is probably asking herself: “How can I top that? What can I do this time around to plant a crop of common sense in our country’s political soil that will link Am...
Democratic Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey is having a bad month. He recently wrote a check to a large donor for nearly $60,000 reimbursing him for the generous gift of trips on a private jet. The paperwork had “fallen through the cracks,” an aide explained. Under investigation by the FBI regarding allegations that he engaged underage prostitutes during visits to the Dominican Republic (the destination of those jet trips), the senator was also recently embarrassed when it emerged that an 18-year-old intern on his staff who was hel...
So I think enough time has passed that the fear of 12-21-12 and the misconceptions that came along with that have passed. While in pursuit of my Bachelor’s Degree in Photography I had to take an English Comp 2 class, as everyone going for a BA knows you have to do, and this particular class was nothing but essays and writing skills. For one of my assignments I had to write an informative paper that would do two things: the first take a topic and clear up misunderstandings and secondly give actualities of the subject. Anyone who has been in c...
Before we know it summer will be here and students will be actively searching for internships to enhance their skills. This is a great time to remind businesses and students about Nebraska’s internship program – Intern Nebraska. I am pleased to announce the new and improved InternNE.com website is up and running. Since going live in early January, the website has seen an increase of nearly 100 registered students. The new, streamlined design and easier navigation capabilities make this a positive change for both students and business lea...
Every week, it seems, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s name inches higher on the list of potential 2016 Republican presidential candidates. As a result, unlike any public figure in recent memory, he is increasingly compelled to assure reporters and the general public that his weight does not impair his ability to lead. Christie, by any measure, is obese. This has provided endless fodder for late-night talk show hosts – David Letterman has ridiculed him for years – and politicos who hope to use his weight against him. Stereotypes masqu...
I stand out among my conservative friends in disliking guns. I favor reasonable restrictions on the Second Amendment, such as bans on fully automatic weapons, background checks for purchases and forbidding the sale of guns to those with histories of mental illness or criminality. Yet I cannot agree with liberals that more gun control will lead to fewer gun crimes. President Obama’s choice for defense secretary, Chuck Hagel, actually illuminated one of the weaknesses of the gun control case. Hagel had been closely associated with Global Zero (...
Fear. When I was younger I had an intense fear of heights. My father too said he had the same fear so at the time I felt a little better in knowing that the person I saw as the bravest man on Earth could have fears as well. However when I was a kid I felt that fears would stay permanent and that there was no way you could get past something you once found terrifying. But over the years I learned of the kind of freedom that comes from getting over your fears and what significant impact that can have on your life. When I was a sophomore in colleg...
Accountability and risk. There was a time in the late 1960s or early 1970s when Lyndon Johnson put his presidency on the line with the civil rights movement. His advisors and many from his political party felt he shouldn’t do that and the president, being as he was – Texan and unafraid said, “Well what’s the presidency for if you can’t put it on the line? – to make people’s lives better, to improve their station and to provide opportunity.” This, in my opinion, is the way it should be about anything. If you take a political office or if you are...
Last week’s decision by Japan to amend a nine-year restriction on certain beef imports is a promising sign for Nebraska beef producers. Beginning this month, the Japanese will be able to import high quality American beef from animals aged 30 months old or younger. Japan halted its U.S. beef imports in 2003, when a single case of BSE was detected in the United States. In 2005, Japan resumed limited imports, only allowing beef from animals 20 months old or younger. Lifting these restrictions opens opportunities for Japan’s import of more saf...
In case you missed it (and it you did, you live in a cave) Notre Dame star linebacker Manti Te’o recently got himself in a whole lot of hot water after he received sympathy and attention by announcing that his girlfriend had died. When reporters later discovered that the girlfriend had never existed, Te’o claimed he’d been “catfished”, and that the girl was someone he’d met, and fell in love with, without ever actually seeing in person. The entire relationship was over the Internet. Catfishing is a relatively new term, and basically m...
If you are sensitive to stories of human suffering and economic hardship, let me warn you that the following report contains material that could be upsetting, so discretion is advised. It’s about a fellow named Jamie. He lives in New York City, and he has recently had a very rough go with a large financial institution. Such behemoths can be heartless, so as you can imagine, it’s tough to stand up to them. The giant in this case is JPMorgan Chase, Wall Street’s biggest bank, and it went after poor Jamie Dimon hard. In the end, the bank took...
In the days since the second Obama inauguration, I’ve been thinking about Kelly Clarkson and Beyonce. No, not the great lip-synching controversy, but the choice of popular entertainment for a solemn national rite. That Beyonce apparently lip-synched her beautiful rendition of the national anthem is a triviality. It’s cold on the steps of the Capitol and even the greatest singer might have trouble sounding good in those conditions. Kelly Clarkson apparently sang live (and perhaps paid a price in quality). Four years ago, at Obama’s first inaugur...
