The Republican faithful gathered Tuesday night for its annual Lincoln-Reagan Day dinner honoring both its namesakes and local members who excelled in promoting the party in the county. Former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton was the featured speaker.
The people of the United States have been through a lot in the last year. Our most innocent, along with just ordinary people out having fun or even praying, have been attacked and murdered more than once.
As he out liberals the liberals, Gov. Martin O’Malley has earned his way to stardom in the Democratic Party. When I first saw him on national television on a talk show, I, a reasonable conservative, said, in a high pitched voice, “Who is he sleeping with, to be chosen as a national spokesman?”
“Nice pillow pet,” said the man behind the information desk at Baltimore’s Penn Station. Indeed, it was a nice one – a medium, tie-dyed, very soft bear.
It’s talked about so frequently, in relation to everything from children growing up, to organizing your closets.
It’s time to talk about Egypt. Of all Middle Eastern countries attempting to overthrow their despotic rulers, Egypt is the most modern, vital, educated and sophisticated society.
A recent Parade magazine poll, taken just before the presidential election, asked 1,000 people what they wanted from the next president. The answers were to create more jobs, improve the economy, balance the budget, be honest and truthful, and improve healthcare.
Do you think your vote counts? Well, it doesn’t, certainly not in the presidential election, and far less that you might wish in more local elections. The weight of your personal vote is decided by partisan politicians, both Republican and Democrat. Worse yet, most people are completely unaware of this.
Smoking is not good. Everyone knows that. In recent compiled data reports from the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, covering the years 2000 to 2004, an estimated 443,000 annual premature deaths can be attributed to smoking cigarettes alone….
As the “Ball” dropped over Times Square Monday night, the evening’s host, Ryan Seacrest, stood surrounded by a group of zombies, or something: an Asian guy wearing white fur, a person white from top of head to tip of toe who was not an albino, and someone with shaved sideburns and hair sticking on the top of his head, to mention a few.
Most American adults would give their lives to save the life of a small child. That someone would shoot 20 of them and their loving, caring teachers, is almost unthinkable.
One of my closest friends just moved out of Maryland. Actually, he didn’t move. He just changed his residence by extending his stay in his second home to six months and one day each year. That’s the official requirement to end his residency in Maryland.
Even before the recent election, the Republican Party was in need of reform. Out of touch with the reality of even the conservative American population, the party had come to be seen as the home of successful white men and their families, and an unfair supporter of big business.
It’s that time again. Thanksgiving and the holiday season have arrived again – already. It seems to me that it has been a rough year.
The election is over, $2 billion have been spent, and we have ended with essentially the same government we already had. Although the Electoral College voted heavily in favor of the president, the popular vote was very close. About 50 percent voted for Barack Obama and 48 percent for Mitt Romney.
In a little less than two weeks, the presidential election will be over. We wait with both trepidation and anticipated relief.
Poor guy. Can you imagine being on welfare for decades when you are fully capable of caring for yourself, and even earning a decent living? Even worse, can you imagine having people suggest you need welfare when you are fully self supporting?
How exhausting is politics? How one longs for beer or soda commercials in this time of constant, often misleading, political sound bites.
Tuesday, September 11, 2012, the eleventh anniversary of the World Trade Center and Pentagon bombings, brought another attack against the United States, with the murder of Christopher Stevens, our ambassador to Libya, and three other Americans.
This past week, two controversial movies entered the Frederick consciousness, both of which were well attended.
One stupid remark…one stupid remark, and now Missouri Congressman Todd Akin is to be drawn and quartered by both the left and the right. What cowardice indeed!
My original column for this week started with, “My head is hurting.” The subject, and what was causing the headache, was the lies, misleading sound bites and vituperative remarks that have, until now, characterized the current political campaign for president.
Everywhere I go, I become involved in conversation about the Summer Olympics, presently underway in London.
My brain, my best tee shirts and the lamp shade to my most beautiful lamp are lost, and lost again. I miss my brain the most.
I don’t fully understand President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform act, although, as a working nurse, I do understand a lot. While our president rejoices that the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the requirement of individuals to purchase health insurance, he should be tossing and turning at night over the meltdown that will soon be coming if this bill governs our health care system.
Responsibility is the core issue between the true right and the true left. Shall the person who works very hard to create a home for his two children, and to raise them with all the benefits he can provide, be required to support the 26-year-old welfare mother of eight…
Republicans are obstructionists. Just ask the media if you don’t believe this. They want to impose their moral values on others.
How unfortunate that the issue of gay marriage has come to the forefront of the presidential campaign. The media continues on its too frequent path, distorting this story as it has so many others.
Barack Obama, our president, half-black, half-Caucasian, with a half-Asian half-sister, is running for re-election. His apparently well funded campaign includes many websites and support groups.
I had wondered over the years what would be the fate of Park Hall on East Patrick Street in Frederick. I’ve watched horses grazing among construction supplies near the street between South and Patrick where one can access I-70.
“Never speak ill of your fellow Republican,” the eleventh commandment made famous by President Ronald Reagan, has been violated more egregiously than usual during the recent Maryland primary election.
Throughout the Republican presidential campaign, repeated assertions from Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum have been that Mitt Romney has an advantage over them because he has an organized and well-funded campaign.
One might remember the recent fracas in Maryland over in-state tuition for illegal immigrant college students. A bill allowing it was proposed, citing the problem of these children, who, it was stated by proponents, would make much greater contributions to society if educated.
The Florida Republican presidential primary has been won handily by former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, and the news reports focus almost exclusively on how much he has spent and how negative his campaign ads have been.
George W. Wireman died last week. He was known as the train man, and so much more. He was a polio survivor, rejected by the Army because of his deformed feet and legs, who walked and hiked everywhere, and visited all 50 states, including Hawaii four times – and he never had a driver’s license.
Kudos to President Barack Obama and the Democrats for their huge end-of-year public relations coup – all those ads talking about how much $1,000 per year would mean to working families.
Ah, it’s the season to be…What a mix of excitement, connection, pressure, stress, memories and exhaustion the Holiday Season brings.
Well, Herman Cain is out. He was pilloried for sure. He admitted he failed to tell his wife he had a friendship with Ginger White, but denied other wrongdoing. Maybe he’s guilty, but I’m still waiting for proof.
Our “Super Committee” has failed. We’re stuck without a solution to our national debt crisis, as limited a solution as it was planned to be. In spite of the alteration in party representation in Congress resulting from the 2010 election, there has been no change.
It’s discouraging to consider the upcoming presidential election for those interested in replacing President Barack Obama, and limiting him to one term.
“Senate votes to end millionaire farm subsidies,” read a recent Frederick News Post headline. The article referred to stopping direct payments made to farmers to grow certain crops, paid regardless of yield. Those now excluded would be farmers with adjusted gross income greater than a million dollars per year.
On September 30, it was reported that the Yemeni cleric, Anwar al Awlaki was killed in a drone strike by the U.S. military.
A recent Wall Street Journal report implied that there are signs of our economy crashing even further than it has, including the possibility of 50% unemployment.
A grim anniversary, one of those days people remember in vivid detail, sharing stories about where they were when they heard. In my case, it was in the lobby of a beautiful Art Nouveau hotel in the old city of Prague.
Born after their dads died on September 11, 2001, their photos etched into the brains of millions, they are now 10 years old. What is their world?
President Barack Obama, ending a tour of Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois yesterday in a new, U.S. owned, $1.1 million bus, stated in Minnesota that it’s not election season yet, while at the same time criticizing Republican candidates for saying they wouldn’t vote for a financial deal that includes tax increases.
They’ve made a deal, one that no one claims to like, but one that saves us, for the moment, from the catastrophe of default on our debts.
A recent news article in The Frederick News-Post caught my attention. It reported the execution of a Mexican national by the State of Texas.
The battle rages. Republicans refuse to raise the debt ceiling without spending cuts. Democrats accuse Republicans of reactionary politics, and lack of concern for the people. Both sides declare that their special offerings to their constituents must be honored.
An important, no, universal event, something that happens all around, the world, and to everyone else. In a riddle from the ancient text the Mahabharata, the hero Yudhishthira, is asked, “What is the most amazing thing about human life?” His answer is “That a man, seeing others die all around him, does not think that he will die.”
I’ve been driving through downtown Baltimore a lot lately. I am perfectly capable of losing my own gas cap, but am quite sure it was stolen from the top of my car while I was prepaying for gas at a Hess station in an inner city neighborhood.
Again, it happens. Two, not one, powerful, accomplished men have behaved disappointingly again. As Time implied on a recent cover, we would say they were behaving like pigs, but we are reluctant to offend the pigs.
Use good judgment before killing any living thing. Killing without just cause does honor to no one. – Hwarangdo Warriors Code of Honor
Easter weekend in downtown Frederick, in the most beautiful season of the year, left the city desecrated by trash.
In “Of Public Credit,” written approximately 250 years ago, David Hume wrote: “Contracting debt will almost infallibly be abused in every government. It would scarcely be more imprudent to give a prodigal son a credit in every banker’s shop in London, than to empower a statesman to draw bills on posterity.”
I stop reading the news when I’m experiencing a lot of personal stress. It is so generally disturbing that I can’t take both news and life.
The playground is on a rise next to the brick school and the park. The wind is blowing, chilly, but hinting of the Spring to come.
We all have to do it if we want to live in a house, have groceries, electricity, heat, air conditioning, a car. We can finagle for awhile without paying the bills, but the bank will show up eventually.
What’s worse? Being caught with your pants down, or letting them down in the first place? This is the situation in which the United States finds itself as the drama of the Egyptian revolution unfolds.
Something equivalent to the American Revolution has been happening in Egypt this week. The assorted faces and costumes of the crowd make it clear that this is not radical Islam on the move. This is the people of Egypt, finished and done with their tyrannical leader.
...or civil discourse. It’s about mental illness, discrimination, stigma and the lack of a safety net. In our society, we desperately need an attitude adjustment about this important subject.
On January 8, 2011, an apparently mentally ill young man attempted to assassinate the object of his obsession, Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. In the process of seriously wounding her, he killed six people, one a child, and wounded 13.
There’s a recession going on. As the year 2011 begins, individuals and governments continue to feel serious financial pressure.
Distinction is defined in Webster’s Dictionary as discrimination, or differentiation between two different things. Making distinctions effectively makes the difference between living in reality and living in made-up land, the place where one’s imaginings run one’s life.
It’s been said many times and many ways over the past month that the voters have spoken, but the question of what they really meant to say has yet to be answered.
That’s all we’ve been hearing about on the news and on the talk shows for the past week. Rudeness, roughness, perverse delight on the part of the security people, either because the opportunity for domination, or because of the opportunity for sexual contact.
The voters have spoken. “Yes, thank you, I’ll have another serving of change. This time hold the bacon.
It was in the elevator after seeing “Wicked” that I simply had to dance. My joy at spending a weekend in New York with my 10-year-old grandson simply blossomed into an elevator waltz. Every moment of this adventure was a miracle, for him and for me.
This week I’m surrounded by politics. I attended both State Senator David Brinkley’s fund raising breakfast and the Republican Women’s Club of Frederick County’s meeting on the same day. If I had worked at it, or donated more money, I think I could have spent the entire day in political meetings. It’s the season.
It’s hard to imagine that people who go to the polls don’t even know who is running for office, as in the case of the District 3-A delegate race, where Scott Rolle placed second, after dropping out.
The world definitely moves in mysterious ways, a case in point being the furor over Pastor Terry Jones, of the Dove Outreach Center in Gainesville, FL. Pastor Jones has a mere 50 families as congregants, and according to last Friday’s CNN News, may have bilked his former German congregation of thousands of dollars before being relieved of his duties and returning to his old haunts in Gainesville.
I was sitting in a doctor's waiting room when I checked my phone and found my editor's message, "When can I expect your column?" I jumped up from my chair and headed upstairs to the guest computer room at the University of Maryland. Thank goodness I was very early, as I had another, earlier appointment at another Baltimore hospital today.
The time is short to make the first decisions about who will provide new political leadership in our country. A lot of people think we blew it last time, and possibly the time before.
During the news the other morning, in response to a comment about President Obama’s deficit reduction ideas, a reporter said, “No one cares. It’s August, and everyone’s on vacation.”
On Tuesday, Sheriff Chuck Jenkins spoke at the Hagerstown TEA Party meeting on "Illegal Immigration in Maryland, a Plan for Action." He, of course, discussed the 287(g) program, active in Maryland only in Frederick County, wherein illegal immigrants who violate the law may be placed in federal custody and deported instead of incarcerated locally. He received a standing ovation.
I started to back out of my driveway (actually a private city right-of-way) the other day, and what did I find blocking my way but a bicycle and cart, one of several in the alley and garage across from me.
I didn’t want to hear about it and still don’t. I keep my eyes averted slightly as I watch television, afraid I’ll see another oil-soaked pelican.
I awoke this morning in my blue bedroom under my blue and white quilt and looked out my window at a beautiful little cumulus cloud against a sky that matched my bedroom walls. In a state of complete calm and relaxation (undoubtedly anesthesia induced) I realized that this was the one and only cloud. Yesterday’s cloud is gone, and tomorrow’s is completely uncertain, so this is my one sure chance to appreciate such beauty.
Energy: the capacity for vigorous activity, or so says Webster’s Dictionary. There certainly has been a lot expended lately, largely around the recent huge oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
The Republicans turned out in force Monday night for the annual Lincoln/Reagan Day Dinner. More than 300 attended, with a large number turned away.
They say that children raised in front of video games will grow up missing the skill of reading body language. They say this will hinder their ability to pick up social cues, and, thus, their ability to communicate effectively.
I thought the uproar over the census was right wing ridiculousness, but then I sat down and really read my form.
We all want it. We usually look down at our hands and count to make sure we have it. Instead of screaming epithets, maybe we should take just as careful a look at what is happening on our political scene.
A column yesterday morning in The Frederick News Post by Marta Mossburg of the Maryland Public Policy Institute inspired me to look around and see what’s happening in government.
I just returned from a weekend out of town. I left on Thursday, and returned on Monday. I was shocked by the snow still remaining on city streets. I couldn’t believe that Rockwell Terrace was one lane wide and not yet plowed down to the pavement.
President Barack Obama said in his State of the Union address that he “wants to make life better for the middle class.” Do we, the middle class, need to have our lives made better? Are we not capable of functioning on our own? Can we not work, buy food, make babies, and live in the suburbs by our own efforts? What should government have to do with any of that?
As this goes to press, I hope to be asleep after a 12 1/2 hour flight home from Egypt. I've been very lucky to travel and to live in other countries, and my departure reminds me of some of those experiences. The lesson learned, as it can only be learned by seeing in person, is that other people are different than we, in thinking and behavior, and that it's okay. They're quite happy, thank you.
The following list of resolutions is my gift to you. The reason I want to help you out with this is that I think you're basically a nice guy with good intentions.
It comes every year, whether we’re ready or not. We rush around, decorating, buying gifts, partying, bulging and dazed from excessive eating and drinking. We whine to each other about how tired we are, at least women do. What’s up?
From the Cato Institute: “Our greatest challenge today is to extend the promise of political freedom and economic opportunity to those who are still denied it, in our own country, and around the world.”
We’re trying too hard, and it isn’t working. Maybe it started when trash men became sanitation engineers, and when people started considering whether to call congressmen congress persons.
I’m sitting at my computer wearing a pendant that reads, in Arabic, “There is no God but God”. I‘m not a Muslim. I’m wearing it in sympathy for the many innocent Muslims who will suffer more hatred as a result of the Fort Hood killings by Major Nidal Malik Hasan.
“The Congress shall assemble at least once in every Year, and that Meeting shall be on the first Monday in December….” U.S. Constitution. Don’t we wish!
November 3 is coming fast. It’s the date of Frederick’s city election. Voter turnout for this election is often low, but was truly abysmal during the primary this year. We may not have been motivated, possibly because the city election stands on its own, or, on the Republican, side by the withdrawal of Ron Tobin, the second major candidate.
Writing a column is a very interesting occupation. It’s changed me. I’m more curious about the details of things, and in really looking for the truth among all the stories, charges, political posturing and innuendo. I work to insure there is truth behind my comments. I look for answers to dilemmas that face our society.
For at least the past one hundred years, the government of the United States of America has increasingly encroached upon the lives of the people.
They’re everywhere. They’re often small, pale, dressed in out of date clothing. We see them and immediately turn away. “Not me,” we say, “Not me.”
No one could miss the recent uproar in America over health care reform. People are standing up during Town Hall Meetings and yelling things like, “I’m a patriotic American!” and “I don’t want the government running my life!”
The latest brain child from our president, Barack Obama, is the last straw for me. And it isn’t likely to be the last “idea” whose time has come for this candidate who promised “Change we can believe in.”
I've reached the stage in life where I have the good fortune of several friends and relatives who own vacation homes. Nothing could be better except for having the master bedroom and private bath, than having a virtually free vacation among friends and family.
I just received the Republican National Committee 2009 Obama Agenda Survey. I answered, partially because I like you personally, and wish you success in your position. It does my heart good to see a moderate in a high level Republican role, for a change, as I really like feeling included.
Sarah Palin just announced her resignation as governor of Alaska, effective July 26, 2009.
There’s been a lot of local political fighting around here lately. It seems that Alderman Donna Kuzemchak decided to take on Mayor Jeff Holtzinger again, this time suggesting malfeasance on the part of his administration during the infamous retirement buyout, an endless source of conversation for his opponents during the last couple of years.
President Barack Obama has declared June Gay and Lesbian Pride Month. I received a copy of the proclamation from someone I believe disapproves. I’m not sure myself that it’s necessary, but it certainly brings to mind concepts such as fairness, inclusion, personal freedom, acceptance, respect, even integration.
I’ve just returned from a visit to my mom’s home, Texas. We went for the surprise birthday party she arranged for her brother, and for a small family reunion. She and I are so blessed that all three of her brothers, and her sister, are alive and well.
While campaigning for the presidency, President Barack Obama came up with a health care reform plan, a public private partnership that he believes will help to clean up the present mess and provide closer to universal coverage in the United States. He has now asked Congress to work out the details, but his plan included the following elements:
Barack Obama is not the only one who believes that health care reform is essential to the economic and personal well-being of Americans. Technically, we can’t be beat, but our system is a mess.
Today General Motors has a new leader. The former CEO was let go as part of a government bailout agreement. To cut to the chase, he was fired by President Barack Obama. Wow.
I can’t believe she’s back – yet again. She says she’s running because she loves Frederick. A lot of us love Frederick, and we love it a lot more when she is not mayor.
Our first snow finally arrived and departed, just in time for spring. I’d been waiting for a real snow, accompanied by cold weather that lasted a few days.
I’m a veteran now. I’m hardly alone. On our ship, Adventure of the Seas, attendance was 3,600, not counting a crew of approximately 1,800.
Tuesday night at the Hippodrome, I became 12 again, ever so briefly, doing the Twist in my seat and singing along with “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.” Why is it that silly song lyrics you learned at that age stay in your head forever, but you can’t remember why you just walked into the laundry room?
Well, it‘s done. Barack Obama is president. His inauguration was a historic event. The emotion and the tears are appropriate when you consider our history as a nation, and what this election declares to the world about us.
It’s a New Year again. For me, that’s always time to reflect. There is so much wisdom in the world, and so much idiocy. This time, at the beginning, I’d like to focus on the wisdom.
Our country is under siege. We’re dropping like flies from obesity, coronary artery disease, type II diabetes, etc. Even our children are affected, with many diseases traditionally associated with aging showing up in them.
I’ve lived a pretty long time. I was alive and conscious during the civil rights movement. In fact, during that time, my mom drove my brother and me through the South every summer to visit my grandparents.
I was asked some time ago to contribute a column on a political candidate and why he or she should be chosen. The request was to make it positive, without the “why not to vote for” usually associated with political arguments.
I had been to a funeral there just a week ago. Doris Grossnickle, a lovely woman, hard working, devoted to her family and her God, had died. She was 89 years old and had worked, helping her son with a painting job, and then cooking him dinner, on the day of her sudden death. The last time I saw her she was standing on the porch roof of a house in the city, helping him then, too.
I was listening to Senator Orrin Hatch the other day on television, when, referring to the financial bailout vote, he said, “We’re just going to have to sweeten it, and then they’ll vote for it.”
The election is still coming and, although we’re presently arguing over putting lipstick on a pig, there are some important issues involved.
Hurrah! A breath of fresh air has come into the presidential race. I laughed with delight at the perfection of the choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as soon as I heard it. I have felt strongly all along that the men on the “short” list would not be able to help John McCain win, and now a new choice is available, a choice that enhances his chances.
John Edwards has lost his place as a speaker at the Democratic National Convention. He is in disgrace. He cheated on his wife, and, not only that, she has incurable breast cancer. He is persona non grata in the world right now, or, at least, in the Democratic Party.
I read and I listen. Answers are elusive, dandelion fluff on a summer breeze. One says the other said…the other says he didn’t, but that the other did….There are funny ads, outrageous ads. Always, politics, when something closer to the truth is so needed.
I was reading The Frederick News Post a few days ago when I came across some fascinating stories. The first was about U.S. Olympic swimmer Dara Torres. She’s 41!
We all know people who have it. We all know it’s a life-affirming quality. It’s one of the attributes significant in high achievement, in finding happiness and even in longevity.
Oh, no! Not Hospice! Get out of my room. I’m not dying!
In A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Katie Nolan was 17 when she married Johnny, a charming, musical foil to her tiny, brisk, dark-curled practicality. She gave birth to her daughter Francie in 1901 in a tenement while Johnny, sent off by the women, spent 24 hours drunk, and lost their job cleaning a school at night.
Our medical system is broken. It’s up to you to navigate it, advocate for yourself, and get good care in spite of it. You are your own best bet.
It’s happened again. A daunted writer sitting in front of a blank screen facing a deadline.
My mom, Dorothy Kelly, recently featured in the Frederick News Post with a headline that included the word “Opinion,” was born in Tioga, Texas, on April 14 1925 to Raymond and Dovie Bodovsky, farmers, is the 2007 Republican of the Year for Frederick County.
This is for me, as much as for you, a study of the theoretical differences between the two major political parties, one of which will provide us with our next president.
I just finished reviewing a recent speech by Newt Gingrich, a well known moral icon from government, who has been rewarded with lots of cushy commentator jobs for his incredible act of attempting to impeach a president while hiding his own very similar behavior.
My life as a Republican was altered forever on the day the United States Senate attempted to circumvent the ruling of the state of Florida regarding Terry Schiavo. Bill Frist, a Tennessee senator, and cardio-thoracic surgeon said that, in his opinion from viewing a four year old videotape, there were signs of life in Terry, in spite of multiple court rulings that she was in a persistent vegetative state.
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