Editorial

MANN TALK: The Return of the Sun

Whatever made the universe knew its geometry. It knew that if it tilted the earth’s axis 23.5 degrees from the perpendicular of the plane of the earth’s orbit around the sun, there would be seasons on that tilted planet, a blessing whose worth it reckoned would be beyond calculation.In the northern climes, at this time of the year of the earth’s orbit, all life on earth, whether or not it has knowledge of geometry, rejoices in the return of the sun and the start---but also the beginning of the end---of winter.    Read more

DEVOTION: Let It Be

A young teenage girl bearing the Christ child in a stable among the animals and the hay. An older man given responsibility for this child 'laid in a manger' with a calling that exceeded the boundary of human possibility. Read more

EDITORIAL: John Raese Would Have No Divided Loyalties in U.S. Senate

As the countdown to filing for next year's political offices begins, we know of one significant improvement in our representation in Washington that could take place.  We refer to the junior U.S. Senate seat, currently held by Joe Manchin.  This year's election for that seat will reward the winner with a full six-year term--that's a long time.  We believe that West Virginians need a U.S. Senator who has no divided loyalties while serving us in D.C. Read more

COMMENTARY: CT Scans the Biggest Cause of Breast Cancer -- Institute of Medicine

Profiteers in the medical CT scan business took a big hit last week from a major new government report on the causes of breast cancer. Read more

OP-ED: The Sad, Tragic Journey of U.S. Foreign Policy: Its Origins and Consequences

FOR WELL OVER A HUNDRED YEARS, United States foreign policy has contributed to death, suffering and instability all over the globe. We Americans don’t like to hear it—we want to believe that we are the good guys—but sadly it’s true. We have helped depose fourteen sovereign governments, often using reckless violence, beginning with Hawaii in 1893 and continuing with Iraq today; sponsored dictators all across Asia, the Middle East, Latin and Central America, Africa and Greece; and supplied brutal or genocidal regimes with credits, diplomacy, money, military weaponry, combat training and other assistance (or just turned the other way in the face of genocide because no perceived U.S. interests were at stake). Read more

NEWS ANALYSIS: Chicago Rally to Thank Obama for Supposedly Ending War in Iraq Turns Up 30 Speakers and 10 Audience Members

President Barack Obama promised to make ending the war in Iraq his first act in office. Then he did what he could to avoid ending it. Forced by Bush and Maliki and the Iraqis to remove troops, he's keeping troops nearby and filling bases with mercenaries, while expanding ground and drone wars around the region and claiming the power to make war anywhere he likes, including having already done so in Libya. Nonetheless a hearty band of Obama-Right-Or-Wrongers planned a rally in Chicago to praise the president for . . . well, for something or other. Read more

OP-ED: The Trial of Bradley Manning: Rule of Law or Rule of Intimidation, Retaliation and Retribution

Yesterday, December 16, 2011, 40 supporters of Bradley Manning saw him in person in the military courtroom at Fort Meade, Maryland and another 60 saw him on a video feed from the court, the first time Manning has been seen by the public in 19 months.  Over 100 other supporters, including 50 from Occupy Wall Street who had bused down from New York City, were at the front gates of Fort Meade in solidarity with Manning. Read more

EDITORIAL: Support for Obamacare Still Can Haunt Joe Manchin in 2012

We can only imagine what happens when a politician believes his own spin.  Take Joe Manchin, for example.  The Democratic National Committee and Manchin's own press flacks would have us believe that the junior U.S. Senator delights in fighting his own President, Barack Obama.  But on the key issues important to the President, Manchin is there for him, even when two-thirds of West Virginia voters disagree with the President. Read more

EDITORIAL: Oliverio's Exit a Victory for McKinley--and an Opportunity for WV GOP

The unexpected exit of Democrat Mike Oliverio from a rematch with Republican Congressman David McKinley has reverberated across Mountain State political circles over the last 24 hours.  While McKinley's energy and voting record would have made it difficult for Oliverio in 2012, their last outing together in 2010 was a close race, with about 100 votes separating them in the end.  So what changed Oliverio's mind?  And what does this mean for West Virginia politics? Read more

OP-ED: Remembering Hazel

So, somebody grabs you by the elbow and tells you that a book written by a little old lady who looks like Mrs. Santa Claus is really well written.  Then the elbow-grabber adds that it is the first book the little old lady has ever written, that it was self-published, and that if you want to buy a copy, you can get it only at Horton Hardware in Afton, New York, at Henry’s Diner, or directly from the author. Read more

COMMENTARY: Set Your Doomsday Clock to 11:51

The National Defense Authorization Act is not a leap from democracy to tyranny, but it is another major step on a steady and accelerating decade-long march toward a police state. The doomsday clock of our republic just got noticeably closer to midnight, and the fact that almost nobody knows it, simply moves that fatal minute-hand a bit further still. Read more

TROUT RECEIVED MORE PROTECTION THAN HUMANS IN NEW GAS REGULATIONS

The new gas regulations recently passed by the WV legislature called the Horizontal Well Act provides more protection for trout than to the humans in our state who are not served by public water but must depend upon private water sources like springs and wells.  Read more

COMMENTARY: What Have We Wrought?

Editor's Note: This column originally ran on Nov. 24, 2009 and is particularly relevant as the U.S. withdraws all troops from Iraq by the end of the year Read more

OP-ED: When Bradley Comes Marching Home

For Bradley Manning 
When Bradley comes marching home again Hurroo, hurroo
When Bradley comes marching home again Hurroo, hurroo Read more

OP-ED: Caribbean Travel: Cooking An Airline's Goose

LIAT, the small Caribbean airline that has been the workhorse of the region for several decades, is having its goose cooked.  And the cooking is being done by a few of its pilots, two of the 10 unions representing its workers, and some Caribbean governments and Caribbean institutions which have failed to act positively.

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EDITORIAL: The Manchin PR Machine Keeps Rollin'. But Who Buys It?

A recent story in Esquire magazine has elicited some gasps across West Virginia.  As part of a collection of short pieces on "American heroes," the stylish men's magazine featured a story and photo of Heather Manchin Bresch.  Yes, that Heather Manchin Bresch, Joe Manchin's daughter, whose academic scandal around her faux MBA degree brought down several WVU administrators, including then President Mike Garrison.  In addition, the controversy quite nearly brought down WVU's academic reputation, which could have hurt everyone who has a WVU diploma. Read more

OPEN LETTER TO THE EDITOR: What I’d like to See

 As we withdraw our troops from Iraq, this is what I’d like to see: Read more

COLUMN: A Dangerous Woman: Indefinite Detention at Carswell

Some things are unforgivable in a democracy. A bill moving through Congress, authorizing the military to imprison American citizens indefinitely, without a trial or hearing, ranks right at the top of that list. Read more

DEVITION: Near the Stable

Advent season draws us nearer to the stable...the manger... the place where the King of Kings...Lord of Lords is to be found again and again... flooding our spirits with God's presence and peace. Read more

CIVIL WAR OP-ED: A Soldier’s True Spirit of Christmas

What happened to Christmas?


Christmas was, once, a wonderful time that was celebrated with family, friends and dinner at Grandma's house. Grandpa would gather the children around the fire place and tell them the story about Jesus Christ who was born on Christmas Day.  Read more

Marcellus Shale: A Bright Future?

There is currently quite a discrepancy in Wetzel County.  Last month Wetzel County was again ranked as having the highest unemployment rate in the state, but it also has the highest rate of natural gas drilling activity in the region.  How can a county that’s booming with Marcellus Shale natural gas development still have record high unemployment? Read more

COMMENTARY: Try Not to Think of a Newt

The current President and Congress are destroying our Constitutional rights, our planet's climate, and the vestiges of a social safety net, and you are obsessing over a freak show of self-hating homosexuals and anti-intellectual intellectuals jumping through hoops in a corporate media circus with Ringmaster Donald Trump. Is this a good use of your time?

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OP-ED: Caribbean Electorates: Not for Sale

General elections in St Lucia and Guyana on November 28 have raised serious questions about the financing of campaigns and the unfair use of state resources by governing political parties to gain an advantage over their opponents.
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OP-ED: Fukushima’s owner adds insult to injury -- Claims radioactive fallout isn’t their’s

In the amoral milieu of the corporate bottom line, you can’t blame Tokyo Electric Power Co. for trying. Read more

OP-ED: The Real History of 'Corporate Personhood': Meet the Man to Blame for Corporations Having More Rights Than You

The following is an excerpt of Jeffrey Clement's Corporations Are Not People: Why They Have More Rights Than You Do and What You Can Do About It.) Click here to order a copy. Read more

DEVOTION: Christmas Preparation

The unfolding of Christmas is an amazing wonder. Barren places are drastically turned into scenes of beauty holding centuries of precious memories. Read more

OP-ED: Good Bye, Joe

The last time I saw my Uncle Joe, I was in Israel.  We were all sitting around eating, reminiscing, and telling stories about this and that.  At that time, I noticed that my Uncle was always in either at work or with my Aunt Esther, his family, and his dog.  Read more

West Virginia PTA Calls on Congressional Delegation to Put Children First

The U.S. Congress recently missed an opportunity to unite our nation in the fight against childhood obesity and hunger when they passed an agriculture appropriations bill that included language to weaken the USDA’s school nutrition standards. Unfortunately, while engaging in partisan wrangling over whether tomato paste constitutes a vegetable, Congress missed the big picture—the health of America’s children. Read more

CIVIL WAR OP-ED: When ‘Gone with the Wind’ Premiered in Atlanta

Hello America!


The 1930s was an exciting time when everyone loved Super Star-Shirley Temple, Baseball Home Run Legend-Babe Ruth, Aviator Pioneer-Amelia Earhart and “Gone with the Wind” Author- Margaret Mitchell. Read more

COMMENTARY: 70 Years of Lying About Pearl Harbor

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill's fervent hope for years was that Japan would attack the United States. This would permit the United States (not legally, but politically) to fully enter World War II in Europe, as its president wanted to do, as opposed to merely providing weaponry and assisting in targeting of submarines as it had been doing. Of course, Germany's declaration of war, which followed Pearl Harbor and the immediate U.S. declaration of war on Japan, helped as well, but it was Pearl Harbor that radically converted the American people from opposition to support for war. Read more

COMMENTARY: What to Replace the Imprison-Americans Bill With

The funny thing about the bill that the Senate just passed that lets presidents and the military lock you up without a charge or a trial — well, not funny ha ha but funny unusual — is that the basic bill to which that little monstrosity was attached is even worse. It's a bill to dump over $650 billion into wars and aggressive weaponry, continue the slaughter in Afghanistan, ramp up the creation and use of drones, and expand U.S. military bases around the globe. Read more

COMMENTARY: Save Guyana: History Summons Its Leaders to Higher Purpose

The November 28 general elections in Guyana have resulted in a crisis for the country.  While it is being suggested that the elected President, Donald Ramotar, of the Peoples Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) can appoint and run a minority government, it is an unrealistic proposition.
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DEVOTION: Blind Preparation

The Advent season reminds us to prepare for finding the "babe in a manger".  The material world sends out endless ads and catalogues... coupons and enticing "deals" for our preparation to celebrate God's gift of love and servanthood. Read more