http://www.gainesvilleregister.com en-us Copyright CNHI All Rights Reserved. 5 Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:44:00 +0000 http://www.gainesvilleregister.com/editorials/local_story_320124608.html http://www.gainesvilleregister.com/editorials/local_story_320124608.html “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”Powerful words speaking volumes. Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:46:00 +0000 http://www.gainesvilleregister.com/editorials/local_story_314144704.html http://www.gainesvilleregister.com/editorials/local_story_314144704.html Are some violent crimes more heinous than others? Is killing a person because of race, sexual orientation or religion worse, say, than murdering someone because you were drunk or he rear ended your car?President Barack Obama recently signed into law the Hate Crimes Prevention Act. Well, actually he passed the 2010 National Defense Authorization Act, slipped onto it was the hate crimes legislation. Mon, 02 Nov 2009 09:57:00 +0000 http://www.gainesvilleregister.com/editorials/local_story_306095849.html http://www.gainesvilleregister.com/editorials/local_story_306095849.html The World Series is full-on and I’m watching it. At the time of this writing, the Yankees and Phillies are tied 1-1. Mon, 19 Oct 2009 11:50:00 +0000 http://www.gainesvilleregister.com/editorials/local_story_292115123.html http://www.gainesvilleregister.com/editorials/local_story_292115123.html The reaction to President Barack Obama's selection as the 2009 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize was predictable. Conservative Republicans declared utter contempt, while Democratic liberal counterparts hailed the decision as a fitting tribute to a new order. Mon, 12 Oct 2009 09:45:00 +0000 http://www.gainesvilleregister.com/editorials/local_story_285094733.html http://www.gainesvilleregister.com/editorials/local_story_285094733.html Hollywood sure seems to be aware of America’s weight problem. Mon, 28 Sep 2009 12:38:00 +0000 http://www.gainesvilleregister.com/editorials/local_story_271124049.html http://www.gainesvilleregister.com/editorials/local_story_271124049.html Feel free to believe this column or not, but the public’s view of media accuracy is now at an all time low. Mon, 21 Sep 2009 14:37:00 +0000 http://www.gainesvilleregister.com/editorials/local_story_264143946.html http://www.gainesvilleregister.com/editorials/local_story_264143946.html Brewing over President Barack Obama’s 35 percent tariff on tires imported from China, Beijing has retaliated with a hard stomp on our chicken feet.Americans' distaste for the bony appendages has long forced U.S. chicken processors to peddle them in feet-friendlier markets, the biggest being China. It buys and eats an estimated $700 million in U.S. chicken each year -- half of it in feet alone.Tracking hefty profit margins to the poultry industry, chicken feet are worth only a few cents a pound in the United States. As delicacies in China, they fetch 60 cents to 80 cents a pound, a price that no other foreign market comes close to matching, according to industry experts.The chicken dance may soon be ending. China, this week, launched an investigation into alleged anti-competitive practices by American chicken importers that could threaten chicken foot traffic to the Asian country. Mon, 14 Sep 2009 14:44:00 +0000 http://www.gainesvilleregister.com/editorials/local_story_257144447.html http://www.gainesvilleregister.com/editorials/local_story_257144447.html Children who “opted out” of the president’s back to school speech missed an inspiring yet pragmatic pep talk, and that’s a shame.Points to PonderBarack Obama wasn’t the first president to address children on the traditional opening day of school, but I cannot recall an instance when parents considered it inappropriate for children to listen to the leader of their country.Controversy spawned over a lesson plan the White House posted online to aid teachers in conjunction with the speech. Included was language about how children could “help the president.”Some interpreted that to mean that President Obama would ask children to help him advance a radical social agenda - phrasing that was later pulled from the plan.We may never know if the speech was altered likewise in response to the controversy.However, as presented, President Obama’s talk to students had everything a parent could wish — even, perhaps, a politically conservative parent. Tue, 08 Sep 2009 09:30:00 +0000 http://www.gainesvilleregister.com/editorials/local_story_251093130.html http://www.gainesvilleregister.com/editorials/local_story_251093130.html Mon, 31 Aug 2009 10:37:00 +0000 http://www.gainesvilleregister.com/editorials/local_story_243103927.html http://www.gainesvilleregister.com/editorials/local_story_243103927.html U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, who died Tuesday at 77 and was the last of the storied Kennedy brothers, was a legislative giant. He was an American icon, a powerful political leader and a revered elder statesman who served the public almost 47 years, making him the third-longest-serving senator, after South Carolina's Strom Thurmond and West Virginia's Robert Byrd. Mon, 24 Aug 2009 11:36:00 +0000 http://www.gainesvilleregister.com/editorials/local_story_236113829.html http://www.gainesvilleregister.com/editorials/local_story_236113829.html Growing as fast at the heated debates about President Obama’s health care proposal are American’s waistlines.Warnings that overeating and a sedentary lifestyle can lead to chronic diseases and conditions, including heart disease, type 2 diabetes, hypertension and some cancers, have gone unheeded by the public.What should grab everyone’s attention is that obesity has become a huge contributor to this nation’s rising medical costs.Just-released data show how very expensive not taking proper care of our bodies has become.According to research by North Carolina based RTI International, two-thirds of all Americans are either overweight or obese, and the average American is 23 pounds overweight. Mon, 10 Aug 2009 15:31:00 +0000 http://www.gainesvilleregister.com/editorials/local_story_222153403.html http://www.gainesvilleregister.com/editorials/local_story_222153403.html I probably spend far too much time contemplating the human race’s levels of stubbornness and thick headiness. While we have achieved incredible cognitive milestones in the short time humans have dominated the planet, we still require sophisticated scientific studies in order to conclude the obvious.Once again, thanks to top scientific minds a question that has riddled both parents and legislators is finally resolved - a study showing that texting while driving really is dangerous.The Virginia Tech Transportation Institute has found that texting while driving is actually far more dangerous than earlier studies have shown. Basically, the new study indicated that drivers sending or receiving text messages take their eyes off the road much longer than they do when talking or listening on their cell phones. Tue, 14 Jul 2009 15:37:00 +0000 http://www.gainesvilleregister.com/editorials/local_story_195153957.html http://www.gainesvilleregister.com/editorials/local_story_195153957.html Back in grade school, if asked of myself or any of my peers what we wanted to be when we grew up, without blinking the answer would fly from our lips.An astronaut.Those were the days when pioneers, our heroes, were first being jettisoned into the vast abyss of space.I’m bringing this up because this month marks the 40th anniversary of the very first moon walk. Tue, 14 Jul 2009 15:32:00 +0000 http://www.gainesvilleregister.com/editorials/local_story_195153638.html http://www.gainesvilleregister.com/editorials/local_story_195153638.html 've been trying to get a handle on just why the current administration seems so ominous and threatening to people like me.It's not so much that he can't be trusted, it's more that he can be trusted to behave in certain ways. His commitment to his big government agenda is so strong that things like rights guaranteed by the constitution take a backseat.