Columnists

Gov. Perdue, please clean up District Attorney Ballard's mess

Listen below to extraordinary recording of closed meeting with 2 judges, DA and public defenders

OPINION: Fayette County District Attorney Scott Ballard — a candidate for one of the two vacant judgeships in this district — has called out The Citizen for raising questions about his so-called “investigation” into misconduct by his long-time friend and now-disgraced Superior Court Judge Paschal English. Before we get down to cases, let’s alert Governor Sonny Perdue. Governor, if you choose Ballard to don judicial robes, you will be embarrassed. Read More»

Still looking for Daddy

Sallie Satterthwaite's picture

When I opened a letter from a cousin last week, out dropped a photocopy of a hideously scarred old photograph. It was a formal studio portrait, dated December 1892, of a woman and a man of indeterminate age, with an infant and a small boy. I sat for a long time looking at that dim picture.

It was the first time I had ever laid eyes on a likeness of my grandparents.

Haven’t brought up my genealogical data lately; I get so wrapped up in it that nothing else happens when “Mom’s doing genealogy stuff.”

My daddy's family was what we'd call today dysfunctional. Read More»

Here comes the double-dip recession

Dick Morris's picture

The drop in the stock market (now about 1,000 points on the Dow) is a graphic indication of the stark fact that we are entering the infamous double dip of the recession, long feared and predicted. The economy is not in a V after all (down and then up) but in a W (down, up, down again and then, finally, up). And the cause of the second dip is not the recession itself, but the cure administered to it by President Obama and the Democratic Congress.

Consider the indications (data provided by New America Foundation, analysis by Sherle R. Schwanninger and Samuel Sherraden): Read More»

German healthcare: Not so great

Ronald E. Bachman's picture

At the invitation of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, a dozen American policy wonks from differing perspectives traveled to Germany in December 2009. The Foundation was interested in our observations of the German social health system. My interest was how consumerism and individual choice worked in Germany.

We listened to federal and state officials, doctors, hospital executives, members of the Bundestag (German parliament), a health journalist and German policy experts. Read More»

Obama’s Cairo speech, 1 year later: Middle East worse

Cal Thomas's picture

One year ago this month, President Obama addressed the “Muslim world” from Cairo, Egypt. Some saw that speech as unnecessary groveling.

Critics — and I am among them — think such displays communicate weakness and only encourage those who wish to damage our economy and kill our people.

Supporters of the president’s speech think he did the right thing and that his attempt to reduce tensions between the U.S. and Muslim world can only bring positive results. Read More»

A lesson in dying well

Ronda Rich's picture

Too often in recent times, death has visited itself upon my family, its intrusion bitterly unwelcome.

When my cousin Jacky, one of the younger members of our sprawling clan, received his personalized calling card to meet the Lord, we all discovered something that we never imagined was possible – happiness in death. His dying, in fact, was pure joy. Read More»

Florida-born and pulling for BP

Terry Garlock's picture

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»

Obama slips us a timebomb

Janet Trautwein's picture

Many Americans are still confused about how the federal healthcare law will affect them. That’s understandable. The bill tallied over 2,000 pages. And many of its provisions have not been vetted publicly.

For instance, most Americans probably haven’t heard of the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports or CLASS Act, which charters a new government-run long-term-care insurance plan. But this under-reported measure threatens to add billions to the federal deficit — and diminish Americans’ private insurance choices in the process. Read More»

Daddy’s lasting gift to me

Ronda Rich's picture

Often, I find myself thinking of the wisdom of my daddy. His observations and experiences continue to guide me daily 11 years after his departure from what he sometimes called, “this ol’ vale of tears and sorrow.”

I was probably 12 or so years old when I overheard him and Mama talking while sitting around the kitchen table, sipping on cups of coffee. It was a Saturday afternoon and Daddy had just come in from a hard day on the farm. He was talking about a newly purchased tractor and he kept using the pronoun “we” such as, “We brought the tractor,” “we thought it was a good buy,” etc. Read More»

The good parent

Rick Ryckeley's picture

There’s a place where facts, myths, and legends merge, blending together in our minds into a soft, purple, swirling haze. It’s a place where each of us was the star, the captain of the football team, the head cheerleader, the smart kid with the 4.0 average, or the popular kid that everyone wanted to be and be seen with.

Memories. Somehow, now that we have children of our own, we’ve forgotten the awkwardness of adolescence as it slowly ebbs away with time. In time, we have forgotten how hard it actually was. Read More»