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Today's Opinions

  • IMPRESSIONS: Your gift buying can be present to community

    We’re slipping, sliding and rolling headlong into the holiday season.
    Let’s make sure as many of our friends as possible grab onto a piece of the Yuletide spirit!
    Mother Nature is cooperating.
    Our recent dustings of snow certainly got me in the mood.
    Shoot, one morning I stood quietly in the parking lot well before sunrise and savored the tiny flakes falling from the heavens.

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  • Overspending can sabotage benefit of any tax cuts

    Internal Revenue Service records show increases in tax revenues for every year of the Reagan administration.
    More money was collected after the tax cuts, and the rich actually paid more total taxes and a higher percentage of all taxes.
    So why did the deficit increase?
    The simple answer is more money was spent than collected, even with increased revenues.
    Other tax cuts have produced the same results, but overspending can sabotage the benefits of tax cuts.
    Tom Hensley
    Kingston

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  • HUB’s show of respect will never be forgotten

    On a recent Wednesday, around 10 a.m., I witnessed a truly remarkable sight — the B.D. Cochran funeral procession.
    As we passed the Harriman Utility Board office on Roane Street, about 20 or so staff were standing at attention in the cold winds along the sidewalk.
    This sight alone was an inspiration for the family as we passed by, but as we topped the hill by the Sexton dealership, our already wet eyes and heavy hearts were captivated by the heavy equipment line trucks with  their white booms raised in a crossed configuration for us to drive under.

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  • Largen taken on about climate change, billboards

    On Aug. 13 of this year, Gerald Largen wrote, “Here at home, the predominant feature is the unrelenting heat, with every day seeing 90 degrees and more.”
    I will have to agree with my friend, Gerald Largen, concerning the summer heat, but in June, July and August, we only had 63 days of 90-and-plus temps, according to the Knoxville weather station.
    This could be plus or minus 1 degree depending on different locations in this area.

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  • More thoughts on consolidation of utilities

    A number of years ago, discussion of the potential of a merger of some municipal and county services was discussed in this county.
    Few people embraced the possibility of a full metro government, with the cities and county merging into one.
    However, some embraced aspects of such mergers. High on that list are municipal utilities.
    Both Rockwood and Harriman have or are anticipating the loss of top managers in their utility departments.

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  • A View from Lick Skillet by Gerald Largen

    Gentle reader, there comes a time when repeating oneself is no longer repetition but instead tradition.
    Thus it is with our annual holiday column about our beloved Tennessee Apple Stack Cake, also known in this area as “Fruit Cake.”
    As we have said many times before, what is being offered in some grocery stores as apple stack cake is not our Tennessee Apple Stack Cake.

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  • Note to authorities – reporters are not demonstrators

    By GENE POLICINSKI
    The First Amendment is not a secondary concern. That simple and obvious statement is disregarded by police and municipal authorities when they arrest journalists who are reporting on controversial protests.
    In the process, they debase all of our rights of free speech, press and assembly — three of the core freedoms in the First Amendment specifically delineated by the Founders to protect us against government suppression of points of view, speech and news reports.

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  • LOOSELEAF LAUREATE: Who has rocks in their head? Probably me

    When my youngest brother, Rick, was in the first grade, and I was in the sixth, his teacher tapped on my classroom door and called me into the hall.

    Rick hovered behind her.

    She opened her palm, revealing an impressive pebble. I say impressive, because she said it came from Rick’s nose.

    “He says he didn’t put it in there,” the teacher said.

    I stared at her a minute, wondering if she had rocks in her head, then pulled Rick aside.

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Copyright © 2013

The Roane County News is your source for local news, sports, events, and information in Roane County and Kingston, Tennessee, and the surrounding area.