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Holiday Columns
 Barton
Goldsmith: Be
grateful - The holiday season has begun, and from now until
New Year's Day is a good time to take time to reflect on what's
most important and express gratitude to those you love. We're
only here for a very short time. Being thankful will help you
value it. Don't forget to be grateful for the following:
1. Life. Life is a gift, and
life with love is heaven on Earth. To be able to share whatever
you have with those closest to you is one of the best feelings
any human being could ever experience.
2. Laughter. Being with someone
who makes you laugh every day is healing, enriching and just
downright fun. It is also one of the signs of a healthy relationship.
3. Trust. To be at peace, partners
must trust each other. Knowing your partner is there for you
and will remain faithful on all levels takes a lot of the stress
of daily living away. - More...
Thursday - November 24, 2005
Michael Goforth: Giving
thanks from A to Z - On this day we celebrate a cornucopia
of blessings.
We are thankful for angels
who guard us, for anthems and artists, for pendants made of amber
and amber waves of grain, for acts of charity and arias by Bocelli,
for bright-eyed babies in homes where they are loved, for Bach,
Beethoven and beautiful beach boardwalks, for blues tunes and
butterscotch brownies; for county fairs and cuddles and corn-on-the-cob,
for carolers and Christmas trees, and for chewy chocolate chip
cookies; for Degas and Dali and DVDs, for dancing and romancing
and dreams that come true.
We're thankful for ears to
hear and eyes to see, for evergreen trees and evenings by the
sea, for elevators and escalators and everything coming up roses;
for friends and family and the feast we share today, for football
and fishing and festivals and fantasies. - More...
Thursday - November 24, 2005
 Sharon
Randall: My
true Thanksgiving - This is the lull before the storm
we call "the holidays."
Can you hear it? Of course
not. It's silence - a rarity, especially at this time of year.
My house is now clean, or as
clean as it gets. I've changed the sheets, dusted the stove and
put the vacuum cleaner back in the closet for another year.
In a few hours (or maybe days,
as I'm never really sure just when they'll all show up until
I see the whites of their eyes) my three grown children and their
"others" will start returning to the nest.
Upon their arrival, the phone
will start ringing. The dryer will begin to hum. The cat will
get catty and go into hiding. And the refrigerator will start
to open and close like the sliding door of a supermarket.
All the silent, empty spaces
will be filled to overflowing with belly laughs and loud music
and other sounds I've come to love - a basketball bouncing on
the back court; glasses clinking in the kitchen; bare feet clomping
up and down the stairs. - More...
Thursday - November 24, 2005
Columns - Commentary
 Michael
Reagan: A
GOP Thanksgiving Turkey - Just in time for Thanksgiving,
warm-hearted Republicans in the House of Representatives have
come up with a genuine turkey for the nation's taxpayers to swallow
- a bill to ladle out a whopping $830 million to millions of
Americans to pay for converting their TV sets to receive high-tech
digital transmissions.
A bill passed on Friday before
the members ran off to spend Thanksgiving at home and brag about
how they are cutting spending (while bringing home the federal
bacon to their districts), requires TV broadcasters to switch
to all-digital transmissions by December 2008.
Some 21 million households
are dependent on free, over-the-air TV, and will need converter
boxes to keep receiving their television signals after the switch
to all-digital TV transmission. The Associated Press says that
cable and satellite customers will not be affected. - More...
Thursday - November 24, 2005
 Martin
Schram: The
Can-Do Coalition - Here in Hate City, Washington's partisans
plunged themselves this month to record depths of shame-and-blame
name-calling over war and peace.
Things got so bitter in the
nation's capital last week that you couldn't tell the leaders
from the wing nuts. Indeed, the 16 blocks of Pennsylvania Avenue
that separate the Congress from the White House reverberate with
sounds ranging from road rage to Rove rage.
But back in the congressional
cloakrooms and occasionally on television news, you could hear
a wisp of rational response and even problem-solving discourse,
voiced by thoughtful adults who are also politicians. They stand
out because they seem more interested in reining abuses by their
party's leaders and working with, rather than pummeling, the
other side. - More...
Thursday - November 24, 2005
 Clifford
May: Memo
to Murtha - Before I say anything else, Congressman Murtha,
let me thank you - for your long public service in Washington
and, before that, in Vietnam.
And let me commend you, too,
for sparking an honest debate. Until now, what has passed for
debate on Iraq has been mostly slander - for example, calling
President Bush a liar and questioning his patriotism. Yes, questioning
his patriotism, because anyone who would lie to get America into
a war for reasons unrelated to national security would not be
a patriot. He'd be a traitor.
I ask you, sir: Has such a
vicious charge ever before been leveled at an American president
in a time of war - or even a time of peace?
But you have not taken this
low road. Instead, you have said you believe the war in Iraq
"cannot be won" and that "it's time to bring the
troops home." This is a discussion worth having. - More...
Thursday - November 24, 2005
 James
Glassman: Defuse
the ticking tax bombs - The first rule in government, as
in medicine, is the Hippocratic one: Do no harm. Unfortunately,
Congress is about to do severe harm to the U.S. economy if it
fails to act in the next few months to stop three huge automatic
tax increases.
Let me shift metaphors. The
increases - 133 percent for the rate on dividend income, 33 percent
for the rate on capital gains and what amounts to an infinite
increase in the coming rate on what you pass on to your heirs
- comprise a ticking time bomb.
The dividend and capital gains
rates were reduced to 15 percent in 2003. The estate (also called
death or inheritance) tax got an overhaul in 2001, with gradual
reductions over 10 years and complete elimination set for 2010.
- More...
Thursday - November 24, 2005
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