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Today's Opinions

  • Secretary of Defense battle will make good TV

    Another blunder by President Obama?

    With the looming “fiscal cliff,” the planned retreat from Afghanistan, controversial immigration reform and gun control battles overhanging and casting a pall over Congress and the White House, what does our President do?

    First he throws his brand of oil on the water by informing Congress he won’t negotiate over the “fiscal cliff” issue, thereby needlessly forcing House Speaker John Boehner and Kentucky State Sen. Mitch McConnell into a corner.

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  • GUEST OPINION: Elvis still icon in freedom of expression

    By KEN PAULSON
    President, First Amendment Center
    Last Tuesday would have been Elvis Presley’s 78th birthday, and he’s being widely hailed this week for his musical career.

    But it’s also worth noting that Presley was a singular figure in terms of free expression, pushing the envelope while the authorities inevitably pushed back.

    Elvis’ early career was almost a constant test of free speech.

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  • Woman meets Christmas angel at Walmart

    This letter is for (and about) a Christmas angel named Jack.

    His actions so stunned me and, afterward, he disappeared so quickly, I didn’t have a chance to adequately express my thanks.

    But I want to; I need to so badly that I hope and pray if Jack is not reading this himself, someone else will see it and point it out to him.

    Dear, dear Jack, lately, my family and I have had some things happen in our lives that were so bad, it caused us to become despondent and our faith to grow weak.

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  • GUEST OPINION: Public needs to see Gitmo proceedings

    By GENE POLICINSKI
    First Amendment Center
    As things now stand, Americans will not be able to see TV coverage of upcoming 9/11-related trials from Guantanamo Bay.

    The situation is regrettable — but easily remedied.

    A military judge this week said he had no authority to override an earlier decision by the Department of Defense that denied requests by the defense attorneys for the accused and by and news-related groups to televise the trials.

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  • A VIEW from LICK SKILLET: Lick Skillet: Why we have a Second Amendment

    Well, gentle reader, we return to the barricades after our short hiatus. We trust that you and yours had pleasant holidays.

    As this is written, we are right in the middle of the “fiscal cliff,” so we will await some more definitive outcome of this bizarre exercise in statecraft before writing further about it, but there are a couple of things that we wish to go into.

    First is the subject of guns, and the Newtown massacre.

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  • Lack of lights at The Wall deepens pain over war

    Editor’s note: This letter was originally addressed to U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander and U.S. Rep. Jimmy Duncan.

    I don’t know if either of you were in the Vietnam War, but I want to tell you about a visit that Jim Henry and I had at the Vietnam War Memorial in November.

    Years ago we went to the memorial, and I can still see Jim with his head against “The Wall” and crying.

    A few days ago, we revisited the wall listing the names of dead soldiers, and Jim was deeply moved that he had been spared when around 60,000 soldiers were not.

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  • GUEST OPINION: Misfire over publishing gun-holders

    By KEN PAULSON
    President, First Amendment Center
    When The Journal News, a suburban New York newspaper, published the names of gun-permit holders late last month, the backlash was immediate.

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  • Volunteer officers could make schools more safe

    When I was young things were a lot more different.
    If you lived less than two miles from your school, you couldn’t ride the bus, you had to walk.
    There were crossing guards at every intersection within a few blocks of our school. Most of were retired policemen who worked part time, protecting the children who had to walk to school.
    I was one of those unfortunate children who happened to live 1.9 miles from Lime Street Elementary School.

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