OPINION

07/20/2008

Michael Paulson: Why fewer Americans believe in hell than in heaven
Life is hell, or so the expression goes, but for many Americans, the afterlife is looking up.

Rod Dreher: In wartime, small-town solidarity
It's good to be from somewhere. It's better to be from somewhere good.

Jewel Woods: Why do so many have a Man Crush on Barack Obama?
Many men see in him a new version of masculinity that they can identify with and aspire to.

Elizabeth Zierah: The miseries of losing one's sense of smell
Without hesitation, I can say that losing my sense of smell has been more traumatic than adapting to the disabling effects after I had a stroke.

Jim Mitchell: 45 minutes with Nelson Mandela
I think of Nelson Mandela neither as saint nor sinner, but as a remarkable voice of morality whose intonations the world may not have much longer.

Jonathan Karp: The problem with the publishing industry
Too often, we (publishers and authors) are driven by the same concerns as any commercial enterprise: We are manufacturing products for the moment.

Point of Contact: Darwin Payne
Our Q&A with Darwin Payne, retired SMU journalism professor and author of the new Dallas Citizens Council: An Obligation of Leadership.

Talking Points
"It's about to start getting real bad ." – Richard Christopher Whalen, managing director at California-based Institutional Risk Analytics, predicting a wave of bank failures (The New York Times, Wednesday)

07/13/2008

John Staddon: Why stop signs and speed limits make America less safe
The American system of traffic control, with its many signs and stops, and with its specific rules tailored to every bend in the road, has had the unintended consequence of causing more accidents than it prevents.

Shawn Williams: Is anyone proud to live in Dallas?
We are so accustomed to negativity that signs of progress are going unnoticed and underappreciated.

Helene Cooper: Some U.S. foes get to chat; some get the cold shoulder
In April 1959, Fidel Castro, fresh from his victory roll through the streets of Havana, came to the United States on a charm offensive.

Walter E. Williams: The more humans, the better
Contrary to the myths we hear about how overpopulation causes poverty, poor health, unemployment, malnutrition and overcrowding, human beings are the most valuable resource. And the more of them, the better.

Daniel Gross: Neither Obama nor McCain can cure ailing economy
Does the president really have any effect on the short-term direction and performance of the economy? The answer is no, but with two important "buts."

Paul Krugman: If Bush's policies aren't responsible for bad economy, what is?
At the top of my list are three factors: the housing bubble and its aftermath, rising health care costs and soaring raw materials prices.

Talking Points
"I wanna cut his nuts out ." – The Rev. Jesse Jackson, on what he'd like to do to Barack Obama for "talking down" to black people (Fox News Channel, Wednesday)

Point of Contact: David Iglesias
Excerpts of our Q&A with former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias of New Mexico. His book, In Justice: Inside the Scandal that Rocked the Bush Administration , was released in June. A full transcript of this interview appears at dallasnews.com/opinionblog.

07/06/2008

Rod Dreher: Why GOP is losing the working class
In her 2001 memoir of seminary life, Episcopal priest Chloe Breyer expressed befuddlement that the Rikers Island inmates to whom she was ministering mocked her liberal approach to religion.

Jon Katz: My dog has a crush on my ram
I cleared my throat and adopted my most paternal voice. "Lenore," I said, "This isn't going to work.

Peggy Orenstein: Does stress make us sick?
For weeks before a store down the street from where I live in Berkeley opened, it was unclear what it would sell – materially, anyway. Rather than having a sign describing the merchandise, the windows were papered over with foot-high aphorisms in punchy red and white type. "Friends are more important than money." "Jealousy works the opposite way you want it to." True enough, I suppose. But the one that caught my attention was this: "Stress is related to 99 percent of all illness."

Sam Fulwood III: What Barack Obama owes Clarence Thomas
Lately, I've had the most spirited debates with my students and friends, and I always come away feeling like the loser.

Ben Westhoff: My topsy-turvy tangle with Texas toll roads
I visited Dallas, on business, for the first time in March. I enjoyed the local sights, shuttling around the northern suburbs and coming into the city for delicious Tex-Mex and an excellent rock show. The weather was great; everyone was kind.

Talking Points
"What makes this document doubly stunning is that these were techniques to get false confessions . People say we need intelligence, and we do. But we don't need false intelligence." – U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, on news that U.S. interrogation techniques at Guantánamo were taken verbatim from Chinese communist methods used to brainwash American POWs (The New York Times, Wednesday)

Point of Contact: Rep. Dan Branch
Our Q&A with state Rep. Dan Branch, R-Dallas, appointed to the Legislative Budget Board last week. The board, made up of 10 House and Senate members, has responsibility for shaping the state budget and guiding spending priorities.

06/29/2008

Firoozeh Dumas: The persecuted patriot
When I was 7 years old, my family and I moved temporarily to America from Abadan, Iran. My father was an engineer with the National Iranian Oil Co., and he was given a two-year assignment to help an American firm build an oil refinery in Iran.

Talking Points
"There's only one thing different about Barack Obama when it comes to being a Democratic presidential candidate. He's half African-American . ... I haven't heard him have a strong crackdown on economic exploitation in the ghettos. Payday loans, predatory lending, asbestos, lead. What's keeping him from doing that? Is it because he wants to talk white?" – Ralph Nader, independent presidential candidate (Rocky Mountain News, Wednesday)

Point of Contact: William E. Wellman, superintendent of Big Bend National Park
Our Q&A with William E. Wellman, superintendent of Big Bend National Park, about his proposed management of the Christmas Mountains. Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson opposes the transfer, demanding the Park Service change restrictions on guns and hunting.

Azadeh Moaveni: Why ordinary Iranians love the U.S.
On a recent afternoon, while riding a rickety bus down Vali Asr Avenue, Tehran's main thoroughfare, I overheard two women discussing the grim state of Iranian politics. One of them had reached a rather desperate conclusion. "Let the Americans come," she said loudly. "Let them sort things out for us once and for all." Everyone in the women's section of the bus absorbed this casually, and her friend nodded in assent.

Peter Lovenheim: Why I woke up in my neighbor's spare bedroom
BRIGHTON, N.Y. – The alarm on my cellphone rang at 5:50 a.m., and I awoke to find myself in a twin bed in a spare room at my neighbor Lou's house.

The sharp reality when duty calls
This week will be filled with the imagery of the Fourth of July. On Friday, we will stock up on hot dogs, gas up the boats and look up at fireworks, all part of the annual celebration of our nation's birthday.

Steve Lohr: For a good retirement, find work
Bill Neugent, an engineer in McLean, Va., is doing his bit to ease the looming generational financial squeeze as the nation's 75 million baby boomers begin to retire. He's working longer.

Noemie Emery: Obama's real challenge isn't racism; it's elitism
On the way to his rendezvous with destiny, Barack Obama consistently lost white voters, especially of the middle and working classes, to Hillary Clinton – voters variously known as Appalachians or Reagan Democrats, rural voters and white ethnics in the industrial states.

Paul Collins: Has modern life killed the semicolon?
When The Times of London reported in 1837 on two University of Paris law professors dueling with swords, the dispute wasn't over the fine points of the Napoleonic Code. It was over the point-virgule : the semicolon. "The one who contended that the passage in question ought to be concluded by a semicolon was wounded in the arm," noted The Times . "His adversary maintained that it should be a colon."

06/23/2008

Champion of change: Rosa Lopez
Drive along the winding length of Canada Drive near the Trinity River levees, and you'll see mostly rundown homes. Some are precariously balanced on the edge of steep cliffs, in danger of crumbling from the erosion that comes when hard rains force the Trinity River beyond its banks.

06/22/2008

Colleen McCain Nelson: Our city's best hope
Southern Dallas is at once the city's most daunting challenge and its best hope. These are the areas Dallas spent decades desecrating but now must resuscitate.

Sharon Grigsby: How we developed our 'Bridging the Gap' mission
"Bridging Dallas' North-South Gap" is an ongoing campaign by The Dallas Morning News editorial board to help southern Dallas.

Champion of change: Donald Parish
Donald R. Parish, pastor of the True Lee Baptist Church, is helping neighborhood committees across South Dallas clean up streets, rally support for code compliance and help struggling homeowners hold onto their property. He's also a leader in 10 national, regional and local organizations focusing on church, youth and development.

Champion of change: Leroy McClure
Where do old grocery stores go to die? Nowhere, unfortunately. They remain in place, battered and abandoned hulks, daily reminders to passers-by that their neighborhood is on a slow road to decay.

Champion of change: Nick Cordova
As last summer ended, Nick Cordova had seen all the graffiti he wanted to see. The bald, angular 46-year-old and his family had owned the Charco Broiler along Jefferson Boulevard going back to 1963, when his grandfather started the landmark restaurant, the one with Sonny the Steer on top.

Champion of change: Tanya Castro
Decked out in plaid jumpers and navy sweaters, the 3- and 4-year-olds in Tanya Castro's class walk in straight lines, answer questions "yes, ma'am" and "no, ma'am" and even manage to navigate the school cafeteria.

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