Last week I wrote of the prospect of banning gas golf carts in Peachtree City because some say they are noisy and stink, and that it seems symptomatic of the nanny-state drift of expecting government to solve our every petty problem.

What about the private property rights of those who own gas golf carts? When should government be compelled to intrude into a citizen’s private property? Read More»

The Peachtree City Council is considering a ban on gas-driven golf carts, granting preference to 95 percent of the people like me who purchased an electric golf cart.

I know the mayor and City Council members are good people, working hard for all of us with the best intentions. But I do hope those leaning toward the gas golf cart ban will consider what may appear at first to be an outrageous observation, that this tiny and local golf cart issue is symptomatic of a national breakdown in what we expect our government to do. Read More»

As I watch Obama administration officials, and the President himself, talk on TV news about stimulating the economy, holding jobs summits and discussing techniques to motivate business to hire new employees, I can’t help but wonder if it were a Broadway production whether it would be classified as a comedy or a tragedy. Maybe a farce. Read More»

Peachtree City’s budget crisis has its citizens debating — a charitable description — the appropriate mix of cutting city staff, cutting city services or raising taxes. Amidst the verbal rock-throwing is an assertion that city employees will double-dip into taxpayers’ pockets at retirement since they have both a defined benefit pension and a defined contribution 401K plan.

As usual, the deeper the passion of the argument, the more quickly facts get trampled. Read More»

Last week Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele made the mistake of speaking his mind at a Connecticut fund-raiser when he said about Afghanistan, “This is a war of Obama’s choosing ... This is not something the United States has actively prosecuted or wanted to engage in.” Read More»

The election of Barack Obama, and his presidency so far, have reminded me of “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” a story written in 1837 by Danish author and poet Hans Christian Andersen.

In that story a dishonest pair of weavers took advantage of the vanity of a king who cared for nothing but his wardrobe, telling him and his court that they could weave a fabric so fine it would be invisible to anyone who is unfit for his position or “just hopelessly stupid.”

I’m tempted to digress on a tie-in between “hopelessly stupid” and the voting public, but ... Read More»

In Pensacola, Fla., where I grew up, where the crystal white sand reflects the mid-day sun to make a glow along the beach you can see from the roadway even when the water is hidden by dunes, where the double-dose of sunlight will force your eyes to mere slits without sunglasses, where as a high school student I often swam to the offshore sand bar to snorkel at low tide, where turquoise is a special water color telling me the winds are onshore and the water calm and snorkel-friendly, where my siblings and 86-year-old mother still live, where I always drive to the beach when I visit family there Read More»

The approach of Memorial Day reminds me of the utter stupidity emanating from Washington, D.C., and TV news reporters that seem complicit in delivering the party line but rarely think of sobering questions to ask. Read More»

Last month in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal caused quite a stir among the troops when he ordered junk food outlets shut down.

Our news media digs about an inch deep to tell us these bits and pieces in sound bites, but as my friend Bill Neal of Hague, Va., reminded me, even those of us who go beyond TV news to read newspapers know very little about what really happens in a war zone; our lives are too far removed. Read More»

I have not met nearly all the people employed by Peachtree City, but those I do know care deeply about their job and wear a bit of pride on their sleeve for their role in a city they believe is special. I believe that, too, and I also believe we are making a double-dip mistake in the public discourse about staff cuts to solve our budget crisis. Read More»