Snowe Job

I've been following politics in America for a long time, and I have to admit that I never saw Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe's decision not to seek a fourth term coming.I'm not alone in that. A lot of people are surprised, but I suppose none of us should be. Snowe is, after all, 65 years old. She would be in her 70s when her seat will be up for election again. She is at the age that most Americans have been conditioned to expect to be retired — even...

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Age Discrimination

From time to time, I send e–mails to the White House about issues that concern me.When you do that, you have the option of checking a box that serves as a request for a reply. I did check that box the first couple of times that I e–mailed the White House, but, frankly, I don't do it anymore because the responses I received never addressed the specific issues that I raised.Now, I realize that, in a nation of more than 300 million people, the White...

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Peering Into the Future

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."George Santayana(1863–1952)It really is amusing to hear diehard Democrats talking about the permanent damage that would be inflicted on the Republican Party if it cannot settle on a nominee before Easter.And that, many of them are saying, is what we can expect if Mitt Romney fails to win the Michigan primary on Tuesday.Granted, losing Michigan would be a bad thing for Romney — for several...

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Sad Times for Journalists

We live in a Through–the–Looking–Glass kind of world — where everything is the opposite of what it should be.I tend to see that contradictory nature most vividly in my field of study, journalism — or, put in more general terms, communication.Sometimes I look back on the scope of my life, and it takes my breath away to realize how much things have changed — I mean everything.When I was growing up, we had three TV networks. Today, we have hundreds of options.When I was in graduate school and I had research to do, I had to go to the university library,...

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When East Met West

"This was the week that changed the world."Richard NixonIn hindsight, I don't think I really understood the significance of what was happening when, 40 years ago today, Richard Nixon began his historic trip to the People's Republic of China.I wasn't old enough. I had a general understanding of the fact that the United States had been fighting a war in Vietnam (actually, I couldn't remember a time when America wasn't involved in that conflict — for...

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Godspeed, John Glenn

Fifty years ago, writes John Noble Wilford in the New York Times, America "needed a hero."I suppose the same could said of many times in America's history, but, as Wilford observes, "Americans had yet to recover from the Soviet Union's launching of the first spacecraft, Sputnik, in October 1957 — a rude jolt to our confidence as world leaders in all things technological."In hindsight, it's probably as remarkable that the United States beat the Soviet...

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The Latest Reminder That Time Marches On

Bob (Bob Newhart): Jerry, why would she spend so much for a watch?Jerry (Peter Bonerz): She loves you, Bob.Bob: She'd better have a better reason than that."The Bob Newhart Show" (1973)Warning: This may have the ring of a good old days syndrome story, but bear with me. We're all entitled to them, and this is mine — or, at least, my latest one.I was scanning the news stories on news web sites this morning when this item caught my eye.A nickel boost in the first–class stamp price to 50 cents is part of the U.S. Postal Service's latest plan to stop...

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Palin's Pronouncement

As hesitant as I am to give Sarah Palin credit for, well, anything, I actually do feel compelled to give her some credit for her observation that a brokered convention would not necessarily be a bad thing.Folks who perpetuate the idea that it would be bad for the Republican Party, she said, have "an agenda" — which, admittedly, sounds a lot like her usual conspiracy theory talk defaming everyone in the media or the party establishment — but suspend...

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Whitney Houston's Troubling Death

Less than 24 hours ago, the word began to spread that singer Whitney Houston had been found dead in her hotel room.There have been paroxysms of public mourning ever since. It's gotten to the point where I really feel that this is the flip side of the Michael Jackson experience. And that is appropriate, I guess. Even in his lifetime, Jackson was known as the "King of Pop" — and, more than once, I have heard Houston called the "Queen of Pop."And both...

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Third-Rate Romance

"I've never really done this kind of thing before, have you?"A news item from the other day ...(Reuters) — President Barack Obama's re–election campaign, worried about the influx of money to groups supporting Republican candidates, said on Monday it would start supporting the struggling Super PAC designed to help Obama stay in office."Yes, I have. But only a time or tw...

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