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Today's Opinions

  • GUEST OPINION: Petraeus affair reminds us how little is private

    BY GENE POLICINSKI
    First Amendment Center
    National attention to the Petraeus affair is driven by everything from morbid curiosity to concern for national security. But for most of us, issues of privacy and the First Amendment also should take center stage.

    As shown by the FBI’s relatively quick trip through the online missives of Gen. David Petraeus’ trysts, not much — if any — of our electronic communication is genuinely “private,” not even for the director of the world’s largest spy agency.

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  • Congress needs to read, think, collaborate

    By LEE HAMILTON
    Center of Congress
    An intriguing conversation about the next step in the fiscal drama is taking place among our elected leaders.

    At this early point it is mostly at an exploratory level, but it’s no less real for that.

    A day after an election in which a changing electorate essentially cemented the status quo in place — re-electing the president and keeping Congress split between the two parties — the stock market swooned.

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  • GUEST OPINION: First Amendment gives us much to be thankful for

    By KEN PAULSON
    First Amendment Center
    Last week, at a time in which Americans traditionally give thanks, two incidents beyond our shores remind us not to take freedom of expression for granted.

    In China, Zhai Xiaobing’s tweet on Nov. 5 jokingly linking a popular horror movie to the Nov. 8 Communist Party congress led to his arrest on charges of supporting terrorism.

    His tweet, which said “An earthshaking debut will be seen at the global premiere on Nov. 8!,” was apparently a reference to the Great Hall of the People.

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  • A VIEW from LICK SKILLET: We are thankful for the blessings of friendship

    Inasmuch as the elections are over, we feel free to look to other matters besides politics for a time, brief though it may be.

    One thing we have meant to write about for some time is the matter of the Harriman Hospital being converted to a V.A. hospital.

    We are highly favourable to this idea, and, despite the recent rejection, we think that it just might work, if the proponents of the idea will try to look at it from the viewpoint of the government officials who must ultimately make the final decision.

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  • No one is forcing Dunn Center to do anything

    I would like to provide some additional information to supplement the front page article written by Damon Lawrence that appeared in the Nov. 12 edition Roane County News under the headline “School board stymies transfer of Dunn land.”

    To quote a phrase used by County Executive Ron Woody, if Michael Dunn Center were to relocate to another part of the county this could be a “win-win” for both Michael Dunn Center and the county.  

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  • OUR OPINION: Kingston solar farm is a sunny idea for the city

    Kingston city officials seem to have taken to heart some public relations advice that to counter the negative impact of the TVA ash spill, it should focus on rebranding itself as an environmentally sustainable community.

    They have made a number of efforts to improve their energy footprint in city buildings, but now they are considering a broader plan.

    The city is considering operating its own solar energy farm. The plan involves installing a collection of solar panels on city property on James Ferry Road.

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  • Generals being persecuted under antiquated rules

    How many suicide bombers would al Qaida or the Taliban have sacrificed in order to eliminate these two generals, David Petraeus and John Allen?
    Yet, we are doing it for them because of a private tryst and a flood of emails that conflict with an antiquated Uniform Code of Military Justice article that requires marital fidelity of our military officers who live from day to day and year to year in combat zones far from their spouses.

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  • Court’s ruling on political spending under assessment

    By GENE POLICINSKI
    First Amendment Center
    There’s one result from the election that we likely won’t know for months or even years: the full meaning of this year’s massive run-up in campaign spending.
    The U.S. Supreme Court, in its Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision in 2010, freed corporations, unions and others to spend as much on elections as they wish — setting up the circumstances for the financial version of Superstorm Sandy in this year’s races.

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