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Posts tagged: Idaho Opinion
I don’t know about you, but I’m not interested in having a Socratic dialogue with strangers about my family’s spiritual beliefs, be they atheist or Zoroastrian. Ain’t nobody’s business but my own. 
Seen through the generous lens of my bi-focals, the ice cream girls were being kind-hearted and friendly. Seen though my less-generous lens, these girls - children themselves - were trying to chum new recruits into their church. And what do new recruits bring to church? In addition to energy and enthusiasm, they bring $5 and $10 bills for the collection basket. Some of that money may go to further the church’s good work, and some of it may go to reupholster the pastor’s Porsche. If you don’t believe me, ask a few of Jim Bakker’s, or Jimmy Swaggart’s, or Ted Haggard’s former congregants. The world is full of hustlers, with magazine salesmen at my door, credit card come-ons in the mail and robocalls on my phone. Fairly or not, I lump evangelicals in with other worldly annoyances/William Brock, Moscow-Pullman Daily News. More here.
Question: Do you get annoyed when someone tries to share their faith with you?
Football coaches have to live with Monday morning quarterbacking. It’s all part of the unwritten job description. Since the post-game Thursday night - when Boise State’s much-anticipated season opener degenerated into the Punch Bowl - BSU coach Chris Petersen has been dealing with plenty of second-guessing. Not about play-calling or pregame preparation, but about team discipline. The criticism is off the mark. And in the face of national scrutiny, Petersen is standing by his decision and sticking to his principles. Good for him/Idaho Statesman Editorial Board. More here.
Question: Will this college-football tempest in a teapot go away with another round of games this weekend? Or will it linger for the season?
By now, it ought to be clear that Rammell is a buffoon. He’s also an easy target for past foes, 
such as Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, and current opponents such as Gov. C. L. (Butch) Otter. But what about the woman in Twin Falls whose “Obama tag” comment provoked Rammell’s idiotic response? Where’s the public condemnation for that? Was there sweeping criticism of a northern Idaho man who put up a sign “free public hanging” after Obama had been elected? Better handled was the incident in which grade-school children in eastern Idaho chanted “assassinate Obama,” but there was virtually nothing said about a public school teacher who declared Obama’s election signaled the death of democracy in this country/Marty Trillhaase, Lewiston Tribune. More here.
Question: Where do you draw the line between legitimate criticism of the president and his administration — and comments that are racist and threatening?
In an age where any public display of bipartisanship is rare and forced, Idaho’s two House 
members comfortably checked their affiliations at the door. Given this summer’s town hall debates over health care - which Simpson described, tongue in cheek, as “rambunctious” - a civil discussion is nothing to take for granted. Not when the takeaway point was identical. Simpson and Minnick share a must-have: Health care reform must include cost containment. That can mean increased use of health care paraprofessionals, as Minnick suggested. Or tort reform, as Simpson advocated. Or weaning the health care profession off of “defensive” procedures, as both congressmen support. But cost containment is a reasonable starting point to refocus this rancorous debate/Idaho Statesman. More here.
Question: Are you concerned/delighted that Idaho’s two congressmen appear to model bipartisanship in looking for an answer to the health care dilemma?
I wish I knew more about nonprofit health insurance companies/co-ops, but as someone who’s 
paying a massive premium to stay on Group Health’s rolls, I know remarkably little. I will say this, though: the people praising Group Health are basically on the money. It doesn’t come cheap, but this is American medicine here. I’ve run into only a few people who complain about GH, but most docs I’ve been to have been delighted when they found out the entity with which I am insured. I have a lot of half-baked theories as to why I’ve had such a good experience with them, but it can’t hurt that they approve almost anything a doctor orders/Sara Anderson, F-Words. More here. H/T: Treasured Valley
Question: What has been your experience in getting reimbursed by your health insurance company?
A favorite philosophical question often asked is, “Why does your average teacher earn a little 
more than one percent of what Alex Rodriguez does in a year?” There’s a simple market-based explanation for this. Alex Rodriguez can play the game of baseball like few other people and his services come at a premium in a free market. However, Alex Rodriguez would earn far less if only the Major League Players were represented by the National Education Association and they applied the same principles of labor to the Major Leagues that they do to education/Adam’s Blog. More here.
Question: Would you prefer that a union like the NEA represented sports stars like Alex Rodriquez, to keep their pay in check, or that the free market system continued to hold sway?
Please, people. Get over it. Barack Obama won the election and he is a natural-born U.S. 
citizen. So for all of you who are holding out some sort of hope that the Supreme Court will deliver you from evil, overturn the 2008 presidential election and install John McCain to his rightful place as leader of the free world, it isn’t going to happen. Besides, if Obama were somehow removed from office, Joe Biden would take his place and Biden would be far worse than Obama if only because of the wide gulf between Biden’s opinion of his own intellect and reality. And by clinging to the belief that Obama is not a natural-born U.S. citizen, “birthers,” as Obama doubters are known, actually do harm to the cause of turning the socialists out of power/Michael Costello, Lewiston Tribune. More here.
Question: Are you a ‘birther;?
At the Lewiston Tribune, new Opinion Editor Marty Trillhaase has launched a Friday feature called “Cheers & Jeers.” In it, Trillhaase writes short snippets re: individuals or organizations who deserve a shout out for good work the previous week or a kick in the pants for poor performance. Fox News analyst Lt. Col. Ralph Peters, for example, gets a Jeer for speculating that Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl might be a deserter, giving the Taliban more fuel to torture the Hailey, Idaho, soldier with. The Moscow City Council won a Cheer for unanimously voting to ban cigarette smoking in town taverns and private clubs. You can read Marty’s column here.
Question: Who deserves a Cheer of a Jeer in your Inland Northwest community?
Last Wednesday, in the basement at Red Feather Lounge in downtown Boise, one of the most 
well-known anti-Semitic neo-Nazis alive today held a book signing. News editor Nathaniel Hoffman and I crashed the party and were escorted out, but before I left, I videotaped everyone in the room. The dozen people who paid money to hear David Irving (pictured) speak looked just like the kind of people you’d expect to see sitting at the table next to you on the restaurant’s patio. Or the kind of people sitting next to you in church. Hoffman had the only shaved head in the room. No swastika bearing T-shirts. Young, old and in between, they were Holocaust deniers and white supremacists who looked just like every other white person in Boise/Rachael Daigel, Boise Weekly. More here.
Question: Which Idaho town is the most liberal?
There has been no Attack of the Killer Tantrum — at least not yet. (I was nervous that by making this admission, the crying sessions would return. Hopefully knocking on wood will prevent such a change in luck. I also have my fingers and toes crossed, just for good measure.) I don’t know what happened. A few short days ago, it seemed anything and everything would set off a screaming session — a dropped spoon, dressing Kellan in plaid shorts instead of red ones…even snacktime. I couldn’t even turn his mood around with the promise of swimming at a local pool. It was that bad. Lately, nearly every response I get from Kellan is “Okay, Mommy” or “Ohhhh! Okay!”/Shannon, Anchor Mommy. More here.
Werk is promising to push two bills that will play well with fellow cyclists. He is backing a bill 
requiring motorists to maintain a three-foot buffer when they pass cyclists — an idea that has been adopted in several other states, and has been embraced by local cycling enthusiasts such as Boise attorney Kurt Holzer. Werk also wants to push a bill making it illegal to harass or throw objects at cyclists. By the same token, Werk wants to slap an additional $50 fine on cyclists who violate the rules of the road. A tough medicine, and yes, it’s punitive. But as a cyclist and occasional cycle commuter, I have no problem with it/Kevin Richert, Idaho Statesman. More here.
Question: Do you want to see bicyclists fined $50 for violating rules of the road?
Idaho’s governor race for 2010 is beginning to fill, after its fashion. We don’t know for sure if 
the incumbent Republican, C.L. “Butch” Otter, will run (though the weight of opinion is that he will), and there aren’t any Democratic contenders emerging (some being talked about quietly, but no serious movement yet). But. There’s independent Jana Kemp, who has previously served as a Republican legislator (albeit a relatively moderate one). And among the Republicans Rex Rammell, who ran for the Senate last cycle as an independent, and (apparently) Pro-Life Richardson, who has run for office before too. Not a crew of political giant-killers, but an interesting gumbo. And now, some added spice: Sharon Ullman (pictured), the Ada County commissioner, who told the Idaho Statesman today that she plans to run/Randy Stapilus, Ridenbaugh Press. More here. Adam’s Blog comment here.
Question: Do you want Repub governor Butch Otter to seek re-election?
Community college leaders across the country are keeping an eye on Michigan today. President Barack Obama will be speaking at Macomb Community College, near Detroit, and the theme will be two-year colleges and job creation. Speculation, fueled by a column Obama wrote for the Washington Post, is that he’ll call for unprecedented federal spending on community colleges. How could the leaders of two-year schools not salivate? Even as they struggle with budget slashing imposed by ailing legislatures, enrollment demand soars among cost-conscious high school students and displaced workers looking for new skills/SR. More here.
Question: Has a community college played a key role in the secondary education of you or your family?
There are, within my industry, at least two schools of thought regarding journalists and social 
media. Some of my colleagues really want to maintain a personal place on a site such as Facebook — a no-sources-allowed page where they can communicate freely with friends and co-workers. I can understand that point of view. But as readers of this blog already know, I’ve taken the opposite approach. I’ve decided to take a much more open approach, opening my social media sites pretty much to all comers. This explains why my Facebook friends list is populated by — among others — my mother, my teen-age sons, one of my college roommates, dozens of past and current newsroom colleagues and at least a dozen elected officials/Kevin Richert, Idaho Statesman. More here.
Question: Should journalists seek to interact with readers via the social media?
Whom do members of Idaho’s House Revenue and Taxation Committee think they represent, anyway? It sure isn’t Idaho’s Main Street retailers, who must collect the state’s 6 percent sales tax on every sale they make while most online and catalog retailers collect nothing. The retailers know this puts them at a competitive disadvantage. For that reason, the Idaho Retailers Association has always strongly supported the Streamlined Sales Tax Project through which 22 other states are working to capture tax dollars that are supposed to be paid by Idahoans making purchases, but for online or other distant sales almost never are/Jim Fisher, Lewiston Tribune. More here.
Question: Should the Idaho Legislature make it easier to collect sales tax from Idahoans purchasing items online?
D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.
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