Archive for ‘Opinion’

  • Uppermost House: Clothes shopping on the run

    By S. Peter Lewis BN Columnist I woke just after dawn one morning a couple of weeks ago and peeked into my daughter’s room to find an amorphous, Amanda-shaped lump under the distant covers. With great stealth, I tip-toed over the many discarded piles of college droppings to get to the bed, and after I […]

  • Small World: The War to end war

    By Henry Precht BN Columnist We have now seen the opening salvo of this new and long-delayed conflict. In a major speech on May 23, President Obama announced that the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) must end. It began after 9/11/01 with the pursuit of al Qaeda’s leading cadres and their Taliban allies in Afghanistan […]

  • Small World: What’s gone wrong

    By Henry Precht BN Columnist “This country’s a mess.” That judgment might win the support of many, perhaps most, Americans. It could also win endorsement from citizens in almost all of Europe, the Middle East or you name the geography. The whole globe — minus a few islands of contentment, e.g. Switzerland, Norway, Costa Rica, […]

  • Earth Notes: A quiet revolution

    “Are you polluting the world or cleaning up the mess? You are responsible for your inner space; nobody else is, just as you are responsible for the planet. As within, so without: If humans clear the inner pollution, then they will also cease to create outer pollution,” Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now. By Jen […]

  • Uppermost House: My wife, a mom on a mission

    By S. Peter Lewis BN Columnist On my desk at work, I have a photograph of my wife, Karen, when she was 20 years old; and on my computer background just a foot to the right is another photograph of her that was snapped after 30 years of marriage — I can’t tell the two […]

  • Small World: Forgive us our debts

    By Henry Precht BN Columnist This discussion is about debt, the oppressive burden weighing on all of us, some more, some less. The same lament could have been chalked up on a cave wall in Neolithic times. Debt is ancient, the experts say, older than money. Obligations to neighbors came first; money later, bringing with […]

  • My Irish Up: How to be dashing

    By Mike Corrigan BN Columnist Dashing and debonair Patrick Macnee, who played the sophisticated secret service agent who had a way with the ladies in “The Avengers”… review in Esquire  When you need to be dashing and debonair, add that touch of class with a tie by Prada… Adv. in GQ After a good deal […]

  • Small World: The Great Islamic Divide

    By Henry Precht BN Columnist According to Mark Twain, “God created war so that Americans would learn geography.” Had Twain lived longer he might also have said that there was a divine purpose in Khomeini’s revolution in Iran, for it taught Americans a full course on Islamic theology. If you were absent for those beginning […]

  • My Irish Up: Make millions, apply now!

    By Mike Corrigan News Columnist By 2025, the average cost of a college education figures to be about one and a half million dollars per student, excluding tips and gratuities (1). It’s become difficult for average American families to send their students off to even old State U without incurring crippling debt — but really, […]

  • Uppermost House: Calvin grows up…sort of

    By S. Peter Lewis BN Columnist In the last frame of a great Calvin and Hobbes cartoon, Calvin is sitting at the kitchen table with a bowl in front of him, holding a spoon and looking straight into the eyes of the viewer. “I won’t eat any cereal that doesn’t turn the milk purple,” he […]