Opinion

Naughty vs. Nice

Published on Thu, 12/24/2020 - 12:53pm

Who should be on Santa’s naughty and nice lists this Christmas?  

 

Naughty:

I’d give lumps of coal to: 

Federal bureaucrats, whose rigid rules delayed COVID-19 tests. The CDC wouldn’t allow private companies to sell COVID-19 tests until the CDC’s own test didn’t work.

President Donald Trump, for talking about cutting that red tape but not doing the hard work needed to get enough of it done.

Gavin Newsom, California governor, for eating with several other families, unmasked, while his state forbade that.  

The pandemic and COVID-19 vaccines

Published on Thu, 12/24/2020 - 12:52pm

There’s no bigger story this week or this year than COVID-19, which continues to rage wildly through the U.S. and other countries.

As of Monday, 1,963 more Americans won’t be returning home this week to open Christmas presents.

North Carolina has thus far had almost 489,000 confirmed cases, with nearly 6,300 resulting in death. Statewide hospitalizations climbed past 3,000 for the first time.

Meanwhile, the nationwide total has swollen to more than 18 million cases and more than 320,000 deaths.

Christmas mask

Published on Wed, 12/23/2020 - 4:49pm
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A refreshing apology

Published on Wed, 12/23/2020 - 4:48pm

We can’t learn from our mistakes if we don’t fess up to them.

So it was refreshing over the weekend to hear Gen. Gustave F. Perna, head of the federal effort to distribute coronavirus vaccines, offer an actual apology — just when we feared the word had been stricken from the dictionary of politics.

Securing trust of Blacks, Latinos in COVID vaccinations

Published on Tue, 12/22/2020 - 12:00am

Robert Luckey, the first person in the Houston region to get the coronavirus vaccine, is a registered nurse at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, and is assigned to the hospital’s COVID-19 unit.

Stability without freedom?

Published on Tue, 12/22/2020 - 12:00am
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From the cluttered old attic that is my memory I remember that “Stability is possible without freedom, but freedom is not possible without stability.” It is a truism, I think, and I was reminded of it in a recent discussion with a group of Chinese graduate students studying to become officials in China’s government.

So many things to be grateful for

Published on Tue, 12/22/2020 - 12:00am

Editor:

Trump must never hold power again

Published on Tue, 12/22/2020 - 12:00am
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WASHINGTON — Looking on the bright side of a humiliating national disaster, the manner of President Donald Trump’s departure from power has clarified why he must never hold power again.

Don’t be a part of the problem

Published on Mon, 12/21/2020 - 12:00am

Editor: Medical staff across the USA are leaving their jobs. They have been voluntarily working overtime in the ICU and COVID wards for months and are burned out. Enough already.

Revenge of the lapdogs

Published on Mon, 12/21/2020 - 12:00am

For four years, we heard that President Donald ‘frump is a threat to freedom of the press. The Washington Post signaled its own faux bravery by adopting the slogan “Democracy Dies in Darkness” at the top of its masthead. CNN began running commercials about facts being facts, and apples being apples rather than bananas (unless, presumably, those apples identify as bananas). The New York Times championed its own supposed stunning intrepidity in covering the Trump administration.