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Gary Crooks

This individual is no longer an employee with The Spokesman-Review.

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Opinion >  Syndicated columns

Smart Bombs: Skeptics getting warmer

Chicken Little has often been invoked by skeptics of global warming. They even recommend a book called “The Sky’s Not Falling! Why It’s OK to Chill About Global Warming.” It’s by – and I’m not making this up – Holly Fretwell. It echoes many conservatives’ beliefs that the government need not take charge. It also is critical of what it deems the scary exaggerations screamed by environmentalists and politicians. That’s all very interesting in light of the debate over the costs of the cap-and-trade bill being debated in Congress. In April, Republicans twisted the study of an MIT economist to produce the whopper that the legislation would cost every household about $3,100. They dubbed this the light switch tax. John Reilly, the MIT economist, protested, saying it would be more like $79. Still, some dim bulbs continued to tout the bogus number.
Opinion >  Syndicated columns

Smart Bombs: Real fathers know best

I like an uplifting speech, and nobody does lofty like President Barack Obama. But a few more real-world touches might help him connect with everyday Americans. Here are some excerpts from his Father’s Day proclamation: “The journey of fatherhood provides unique and lasting joys. Cradling a baby in his arms, a father experiences the miracle of life and an unbreakable bond.”
Opinion

Washington state officials’ exercise maps out discrimination

Sometimes you have to abuse an intern to make a point. The Washington secretary of state’s office wondered how long it would take to read the Referendum 71 petition. The state says petitions must address all areas of law they would overturn. The “everything but marriage” bill ran 114 pages. To get all of that on a single page, backers had to shrink the size of the type, supersize the paper and print on the front and back. When unfolded, it looks like the world’s wordiest highway map.
Opinion >  Syndicated columns

Smart Bombs: Misdiagnosing the illness

When last we met, I wrote about the “public option,” wherein government would offer health insurance (as it does with Medicare) as an alternative to all of the private plans that are available. The idea is to help force prices down. This prompted classy correspondence from literally tens of readers. Let’s examine the chief complaints. Are you sick? When has government ever reduced the price of anything?
Opinion >  Syndicated columns

Smart Bombs: Some healthy competition

A routine taunt of public school critics is that the government is afraid to compete with private schools, thus it fights off plans that would allow taxpayer money to follow students to the schools of their choice. This point ignores the fact that we’d never get apples-to-apples comparisons, because private schools could be selective. Public schools would still have to take all comers, including those students who require more attention and thus are more expensive to teach.
Opinion

Let her rulings speak

If you are new to our country and have tuned in to news coverage of Sonia Sotomayor, my condolences. You probably think the main task of Supreme Court justices is to deliver speeches. Your confusion is understandable given the intense focus on the nominee’s oratory. The Washington Post recently reviewed 84 of her trips to the lectern. The most controversial speech was delivered eight years ago in Berkeley, Calif., in which she said: “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.”