Columnists

After closures votes, some important words and letters

Samantha Frazier's picture

[Editor’s note: The Fayette County Board of Education voted Monday night to close four schools. Among them was Fayette Middle School. FMS seventh-grader Samantha Frazier attended the meeting.]

Four schools: FMS, FIS, Tyrone, and Brooks.

Four letters: H-O-P-E.

Four words: Fayette County is STRONG.

Four people who helped to make our county better: Mrs. Marion Key, Dr. Bob Todd, Mr. Leonard Presberg, and Mr. Barry Marchman. Read More»

The minimum wage and common sense

Walter Williams's picture

Let’s work through an example.

Suppose 100 yards of fence could be built using one of two techniques. You could hire three low-skilled workers for $15 each, or you could hire one high-skilled worker for $40. Either way, you get the same 100 yards of fence built. If you sought maximum profits, which production technique would you employ?

I’m guessing that you’d hire one high-skilled worker and pay him $40 rather than hire three low-skilled workers for $15 each. Your labor costs would be $40 rather than $45. Read More»

The challenges of America’s growing government class

Dr. Paul Kengor's picture

[Editor’s note: A longer version of this article first appeared at American Spectator.]

The latest unemployment figures are again depressing, but not for the usual reasons. They provide further confirmation of Barack Obama’s fundamental transformation of America, specifically through his creation of a growing government class.

The numbers show a massive increase in government jobs created over the last five months (through November 2012) — 621,000, to be exact, dwarfing private-sector job growth. Read More»

When Lincoln dies

Ronda Rich's picture

[Editor’s note: This is third in a three-part series.]

Charlie Tinker, according to his diary, was feeling poorly on the morning of April 15, 1865. He had left the office on April 12, gone home and to bed. A doctor visited and said he must stay in bed since he had an intermittent fever.

Sadly, that sickness would confine him to bed for the next two days, meaning that the last he would see of his good friend, Abraham Lincoln, was when the President had comically frolicked out of the telegraph office on the 11th. Read More»

Catfish tales

Sallie Satterthwaite's picture

A long-time aficionada of the succulent white meat of Ictalurus Punctatus, I was delighted several years ago to be invited to join the Loyal Order of Catfish Lovers. For $5 I’d get a badge, bumper sticker, newsletter, membership card, and instructions for the secret LOCL handshake from The Catfish Institute (a marketing association, not a school of fish).

What a deal! The packet came promptly as promised. Read More»

Sequestration — What it really means

Bonnie Willis's picture

With all the fear and rhetoric going on about the sequestration and the impending deadline for the “across the board cuts in federal spending” to take place in less than a week, I think it is important to take everything in context and understand how we got to this point, the real numbers involved, and the implications of what this means for our government and ourselves. Read More»

2 solutions to our schools’ money problems

Claude Paquin's picture

What is most disturbing about the current reports that our Fayette school board is about to perform radical surgery on the system, through a drastic slashing of expenses and school closings, is that it is so unnecessary, and of course harmful for the community.

Where there is no vision, we learn from the Scriptures, the people perish. I am afraid we have a school board without vision, which prompts me to speak up, not so much for the benefit of the clueless voters who elect our school board members as for the benefit of the nonvoting students who have to suffer the consequences. Read More»

After the meeting, some thoughts on getting through

Samantha Frazier's picture

People change. Things change. Twenty years from now, when my kids go off to school, I’m gonna think back to Fayette Middle.

When my kids come home and need help with their homework, I’m going to use what those brilliant people taught me. My life is better since I moved to Fayetteville.

What I need to say to the citizens of Fayetteville is that if we buckle down and prepare for the oncoming storm, we will survive. There will be some damage but if we are all careful and look out for each other we can clean up good. Read More»

Lincoln and the slaves

Walter Williams's picture

Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln” has been a box-office hit and nominated for 12 Academy Awards, including best picture, best director and best actor for Daniel Day-Lewis, who portrayed our 16th president.

I haven’t seen the movie; therefore, this column is not about the movie but about a man deified by many. My colleague Thomas DiLorenzo, economics professor at Loyola University Maryland, exposed some of the Lincoln myth in his 2006 book, “Lincoln Unmasked.” Read More»

Looking for a woman

Ronda Rich's picture

There’s a woman I’m looking for. Perhaps you know where she is. If you do, please help me find her again.

It’s been several years since our paths crossed but the moment our eyes met, I was captivated. Her eyes told me she had a story to tell me, a life of adventure and a misadventure or two. I’m drawn toward stories but then you know that. My friends and families choose gifts for me, saying, “It has a story so she’ll love it.” It is always the story that is more valuable to me than the present. Read More»