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Today's Opinions

  • Federal income tax simplification much needed

    As taxpayers we will spend millions of hours and hundreds of millions of dollars again this year in an attempt to determine how much we each need to pay in federal income tax.
    The tax code continually gets more difficult to understand, yet we are forced to use it.
    This angers me.
    It is a sad commentary when the average American taxpayer thinks the amount he or she must pay or the size of their refund depends on who prepares their tax return.
    With tens of thousands of pages of complex wordings, phrases and situations is it any wonder?

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  • Commandments shouldn’t be forced issue

    By CHARLES C. HAYNES
    It’s not every day that a school board votes unanimously to ignore legal advice, defy Supreme Court precedent and invite litigation.
    But that’s exactly what happened late last month in Giles County, Va., when members of the board ordered school administrators to hang the Ten Commandments on the walls of the county’s five public schools.
    Rehang, actually.

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  • A VIEW from LICK SKILLET: Justice Clarence Thomas shows true colors

    In olden times, persons with serious intellectual impairment were classified in the following order: the moron was the less impaired; the imbecile was more impaired; and, the idiot was the most impaired.

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  • News critics still have plenty of options out there

    By GENE POLICINSKI
    First Amendment Center
    After 40 years on the job, the Minnesota News Council is closing down.
    Council President Tony Carideo has said public complaints are down and so is corporate support for the independent news-review operation.
    Carideo noted that e-mail and Twitter now provide  virtually instantaneous ways for people to raise their concerns directly with journalists — presumably in contrast to the relatively lengthy notification-and-hearing process involved in council proceedings.

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  • LOOSELEAF LAUREATE: Laughing at yourself to keep from crying

    The other day, a Facebook friend admitted to picking up a TV remote and trying to dial a phone number on it.

    As someone who has tried to change the channels with my phone, I could relate.

    I’ve also pointed my remote car key at the TV to turn it on. I’ve even distractedly pointed it at the house to lock or unlock the carport door.

    It seems that while we (and by we, I mean people older than the age of 35) embrace new technology, we aren’t quite the whiz kids with it that many in the younger generations are.

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  • Impressions: Some hits, some misses, some other

     

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  • Honky-tonk? Not so much. Family fun? For sure

    The article about the Riverfront Band in last week’s Roane County News described it as a “honky tonk” band.
    I’d like to clarify that.
    The band plays country-western music in a family atmosphere, with no drinking or smoking allowed.
    We have mostly family, senior citizens, children and teenagers.
    The main object is exercise, fellowship and to have lots of fun.
    “Doc” Mullins
    Harriman
     

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  • Dunn Center benefits from silent auction

    On Friday, Jan. 7, state Sen. Ken Yager hosted his annual chili supper and silent auction at the Kingston Community Center.
    Sen. Yager had contacted the staff at Michael Dunn Center a few weeks prior to the event and notified us that he would like to donate the proceeds of the silent auction to the Michael Dunn Foundation.
    He and his staff spent a great deal of time soliciting gifts from businesses around his district to be entered into a silent auction.
    An estimated 400 people participated in the event.

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