OpinionOctober 18, 2009
Speak Out 10/18/09
Peas in a pod; No Columbus Day; Chavez playbook; University smoking
Peas in a pod
PRESUMABLY, President Obama cinched the Nobel Peace Prize when he announced we were going to stop fighting the Taliban and focus on al-Qaida in Afghanistan. There's a difference? Yes. Al-Qaida is the fighting arm of the Taliban. I imagine our soldiers can tell a difference when their outposts are attacked. Maybe the attackers wear signs: I am al-Qaida and you can fire at me. Don't shoot my cousin over there. He's Taliban. Our top military commander in that quagmire want 40,000 more troops, which sounds like the same refrain we heard in Vietnam. What would he want if al-Qaida had an air force? Declare victory and get out.
No Columbus Day
I am sad that this country still celebrates Columbus Day. The man did not discover America. He discovered the West Indies and thought he was in India. It has been proven that the Vikings were the first to discover North America. They were here in the early 1300s, more than a hundred years before Columbus. Columbus also killed some of the natives of the Indies. So I ask that we stop celebrating this holiday. It is another day the postal workers, bank workers and government employees get off. Everyone else still has to work. What next? General Custer day?
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Chavez playbook
FOR those who missed it this past weekend, the Obama administration has taken a page from the Hugo Chavez playbook in Venezuela. Anita Dunn, the White House communications director, said about Fox News, "We're going to treat them the way we would treat an opponent." Fox News is the only network challenging the administration. Therefore, it has been declined any presidential interviews for the remainder of the year. Opposing views, I thought, are in the category of free speech. Welcome to Venezuela.
University smoking
I see many university students smoking wherever they please. You can look at the grounds around entrances to buildings. They are littered with cigarette butts. I think the university should ban smoking on the premises.
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