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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Matter of Opinion archive for April 2008

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 30, 2008

Bloomsday: Don't try this at home

The effort is already under way to make sure the streets are clear for Bloomsday this Sunday. Love it or hate it, Bloomsday is a unique international claim to fame for Spokane. I heard about it long before I became a resident.Do you run/walk Bloomsday?…

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TUESDAY, APRIL 29, 2008

The commute at 4-7

I'm expanding our "Drive at 5" loose thread to fit April's Travel Green initiative. In the effort to relieve traffic congestion and unnecessary fuel-burning, compressed and alternative work schedules are one option.I'm not sure I want to relieve traffic congestion. I might like a slightly…

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Poverty and abuse?

Jim Camden's report of the media poll conducted in Spokane and Kootenai Counties found that most people believe there is a link between poverty and child abuse and neglect. But child advocates warn that that link should not be simplistic. All types of abuse are…

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Gas tax holiday

Too bad there isn't a tax on pandering. McCain and Clinton are advocating a gas-tax holiday over the summer. Obama is not. Opinion surveys have shown that the faltering economy and high gas prices are the top concerns of voters across the country, edging out…

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MONDAY, APRIL 28, 2008

Newcomers: What's your definition?

We're working on a dialogues project about the future of Spokane. We plan on interviewing natives of Spokane as well as some newcomers to see how they envision Spokane's future.But we have a dilemma: What constitutes a newcomer to Spokane? Is it someone who has…

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Guilt by Association

Here's how I vented my frustration with how this has become a daily staple of campaign coverage.Here's Stanley Fish's more erudite take.This denouncing and renouncing game is simply not serious. It is a media-staged theater, produced not in response to genuine concerns – no one…

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One of these things is not like the other

Today's editorial disagrees with the cookie cutter approach recently announced in No Child Left Behind: the requirement that minorities and low-income students, which are often statistically behind the curve in graduation rates, graduate at the same rate as every other group, at the risk of…

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SUNDAY, APRIL 27, 2008

Difficult choices

Sunday's Spokesman-Review tells of a musician who's expected to die in the Seattle area, possibly within days, without a liver transplant. He's been turned down as a candidate at least partly because he's used medical marijuana, which his doctor permits. Knowing that much, what's your…

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FRIDAY, APRIL 25, 2008

Ban Playboy from military installations?

Turn-ons: The First Amendment. Common sense. History.Turn-offs: Virtuecrats trying to control what the troops read.Concerned that the military is selling pornography in exchange stores in spite of a ban, one lawmaker has introduced a bill to clean up the matter.“Our troops should not see their…

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THURSDAY, APRIL 24, 2008


WEDNESDAY, APRIL 23, 2008

TUESDAY, APRIL 22, 2008

No school librarians

What if your school district announced that all librarians would be gone in three years and would be replaced by "resource specialists"? That's what is happening in Mesa, Ariz. Here's an article about that. A total of 87 positions will be eliminated. Replacing them will…

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Police ombudsman roundup

Here's Sunday's article on what experts throughout the West think of the Spokane proposal. In this oped, Breean Beggs of the Center for Justice says the Spokane plan has serious shortcomings.In last Sunday's editorial, we noted areas of the proposal that concerned us.UPDATE: Bringing this…

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MONDAY, APRIL 21, 2008

Pentagon spinners

Interesting article in the New York Times about the administration's media campaign in the run-up to the war. They granted access to military analysts they felt would repeat the proper talking points. Those who criticized the war effort were frozen out.Plus, many of the analysts…

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Monday's Loose Thread

Getting pretty fed up with the white stuff, if you catch my drift. Along with the cold weather, you can bank on seasonal affective disorder. One of the nasty side effects is an addiction to puns. It's snow joke.So, what's on your mind on this…

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SUNDAY, APRIL 20, 2008

Sunday editorials

The Bush administration has rendered itself irrelevant on climate change in setitng loose targets without any direct calls for action. Best to start over in 2009, in Our View.We urge citizens to get involved in the city's meetings on bicyling to ensure that we go…

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FRIDAY, APRIL 18, 2008

Friday Pope Factoid

From Chris Bellitto's book 101 Questions & Answers on Popes and the Papacy.Question 35: Did a pope really condemn Galileo for saying the earth revolves around the sun?Excerpt from answer: Kind of. The issue was less about astronomy and science than authority. The pope in…

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Let the sun shine

Friday's editorial calls on federal Judge Edward Lodge to resist whatever inclination he has to exclude the public from certain sensitive portions of confessed murderer Joseph Duncan's penalty hearings in Boise.

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THURSDAY, APRIL 17, 2008

Sick Around the World

Anybody see the Frontline special on how health care works in other countries? It was on Tuesday night. I missed it, but will be recording the Sunday 2 a.m. rerun. You can also watch it on your computer by taking the above link.It looked at…

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Right you are

Harvard law professor Mary Ann Glendon wrote in her excellent book "Rights Talk" that an obsession with individual rights undermines social cohesion. An example:"For, in its simple American form, the language of rights is the language of no compromise. The winner takes all and the…

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You can count on it

"Math is hard." -- BarbieEven school districts would agree, given their difficulty in coming up with consistent answers to problems involving statistical analysis. For more, read Thursday's editorial.

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A Matter of Opinion is really a matter of three opinions – those held by the people responsible for the opinion pages of The Spokesman-Review. Check in regularly to find out what they’re up to, what they think and where they differ and to joust with them if you want.



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