Opinion: community columnists
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Thomas: T-Rex, chicken link is more evolutionary bunk Which came first, the T-Rex or the chicken? The answer: they came on the same day, Day 6 of creation. On April 24, The Times published a front-page article trumpeting an ancestral relationship between the Tyrannosaurus rex and the chicken. This is what decades of indoctrination in Darwinian evolution will get you: a front-page story in your local paper telling you that one of your favorite delicacies is perhaps a descendant of a giant lizard. I suppose we shouldn't be surprised. Darwinian evolution leads to many ridiculous scenarios. After stories like this, I don't ... |
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Shipp: Did no-show Georgia Democrats cut a deal? For months now we have been subjected to a steady stream of promises of political change. Georgia Democratic leaders painted their party's runaway voter turnout in the Feb. 5 presidential primary as a preview of the general election in November. Donkeys would fill up polling places to cast ballots for a new generation of Democratic candidates. If you paid attention to the horn tooting, the world's oldest political party appeared ready to rebuild in the Peach State. Speculation has been rampant that Republicans' icky sex scandals and ugly intraparty fights at the state Capitol ... |
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King: Culture of fear or fear of culture? When I was studying anthropology at Georgia State College eons ago, I had a professor who liked to ask the young women students how they would feel about sharing their husband with one or more other wives. Polygamy, he said, is a worldwide norm. Only modern industrial societies mandate monogamy. This usually got the class interested. After he’d given his female students time to ventilate, he’d explain that sharing a husband was not an issue in a polygamous society. Sharing a cook pot was. When a man took a second or third wife, he ... |
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Nichols: Tibet’s future hinges on China-Dalai Lama talks A couple of decades ago, I was camping in Alaska at the foot of Mount Denali (a.k.a, Mount McKinley), when I discovered a notice that Lowell Thomas Jr. offered to fly tourists in his small plane around the mountain to show it from above. I jumped at the chance. His dad was one of the best newsmen of the day, and I had just seen a TV movie of the father and son making a visit to Tibet in the mid-1950s. I was planning on leading a trip to Tibet and China, and wanted ... |
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Yarbrough: Protecting Jekyll at the grass roots I learned the hard way in my corporate life never to underestimate the power of grass-roots organizations. They are always the last to blink in a fight. I have the scars to prove it. One such group is the Initiative to Protect Jekyll Island, which claims to represent more than 5,000 visitors to the island from across Georgia and beyond. They are opposed to a number of elements in the $352 million, 62-acre proposed redevelopment plan of the Jekyll Island Authority and its developer, Linger Longer Communities. While on the coast recently, I dropped ... |
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Glazer: Mom’s advice includes home cures, common sense Most moms are a repository of knowledge, both the book and folklore variety. Lately, it seems every time I open my mouth out comes my mother's voice. After all, she gave me some of the best advice I've ever received and now that I'm a parent, it's time to pass it on. She told me, "wear an old coat and buy a new book," and "it's only a job if you'd rather be doing something else," and (particularly apropos in these hard economic times) "if money can fix it, it's not a problem." I ... |
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Shipp: Campaign rumors, spin detract from issues Try this hot scoop for a piece of outright absurdity: Knowing she has no chance of winning the Democratic nomination, Hillary Clinton continues to run full speed ahead against Barack Obama for president. She hopes to damage Obama so badly that she will have a clear shot for the presidency in 2012. Detailed planning for that faraway campaign is already in the works. This tale is spreading like wildfire across the cable TV networks and the eastern corridor newspapers. This tale tells us something about the sorry state of political strategizing and journalism. This ... |
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Oglesby: Will cool heads prevail in DOT drama? The kinder words I've heard from gleeful Democrats and longtime loyal Republicans about the 2008 performance of the state legislature and its key leaders range from disgust to outright outrage. I rank it closest to disgust. Most responsible are the key leaders, Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and House Speaker Glenn Richardson. Neither would compromise when compromise was necessary. Each tried to undercut the other in their obvious quests for the GOP gubernatorial nomination in two years, putting political ambition ahead of their bigger responsibility to govern effectively. One result could be calls for U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson to come home ... |
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Yarbrough: Carter should stick to woodworking, poetry What are we going to do with Jimmy Carter? The man has gone from being a joke to someone who is suddenly very unfunny. Some folks I know think he is senile. Others believe he is bitter about his failed presidency and is trying to make sure we all understand that if he can't make it to Mount Rushmore, George W. Bush isn't going to either. A lot of native Georgians who remember his earlier days in Georgia politics view him as a shameless hypocrite who made a big deal of refusing to attend ... |
