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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: Yabba dabba don’t

Texas is the latest state where evolution has caused consternation among school board members. There is no controversy among scientists, which is all that should matter. Anyway, because Texas is such a large market, some textbook publishers adjust to the state’s standards and then market the books nationwide, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Opinion >  Syndicated columns

Smart Bombs: Taking the pledge

The teen birth rate is up slightly for the second year in a row, which reverses a 14-year decline. This has triggered the usual arguments over abstinence-only sex education vs. the more comprehensive version it replaced. The thinking with abstinence-only is this: Tell teens about sex and they’ll have sex. Tell them about contraceptives and they’ll have even more sex. So have them sign a pledge to abstain.
Opinion >  Syndicated columns

Smart Bombs: The oversight blues

If the city of Spokane can ever be bothered with a moment of introspection, it is going to look back on the past three years as a blown opportunity to build trust in law enforcement. Pardon those of us who have grown a bit jaded over the lie about Otto Zehm’s lunge, the omission of the re-breather mask in police accounts, zapped digital photos in the firehouse sex scandal, the sudden discovery of a search warrant after losing a strip-search case in court and the erased 911 tape in the Shonto Pete shooting.
Opinion >  Syndicated columns

Smart bombs: Look beyond earmarks

It seems the smaller a budget item is, the more outrage it provokes. We need a name for this. Backward Budget Bloviation, or something like that. It used to be money for foreign aid or the National Endowment for the Arts that triggered this syndrome. Now, the trendy sliver of the federal budget is earmarks. As you’ll recall, earmarks took center stage in the presidential campaign, as U.S. Sen. John McCain routinely rapped them, while his running mate slinked away from Alaska’s inordinately smelly pile. After President Obama signed the $410 billion omnibus spending bill last week (with all of the correct noises against earmarks), the bold protectors of taxpayer money took the microphones to denounce 1.7 percent of the package.
Opinion >  Syndicated columns

Smart Bombs: It all went ker-plunk

Washington State University professor George Mount spent six years on a climate-research project only to watch it perish when the satellite carrying it crashed into the Indian Ocean. “I couldn’t believe it. Then I went into shock, and then I felt numb,” Mount said.
Opinion >  Syndicated columns

Smart Bombs: education, accountability, pork

Teachers are busy, so they might not have time to weigh in on education issues. Not to worry, the Washington Education Association has them covered. At its Web site, the teachers union denounces various bills being debated in Olympia and provides a form letter for its members to send to lawmakers. All they need to do is plug in their name and location. Say, if students did this, wouldn’t it be cheating? Anyway, the form letter urges lawmakers to focus on funding, not teacher certification, evaluation and compensation.
Opinion >  Syndicated columns

Smart Bombs: Not about the kids

Hope you caught the Sunday article about the same-sex couple who want the same rights that traditional couples have. Our family adopted a great dog from that family. Small world. Anyway, what hit home for me was the reference to the book “Heather Has Two Mommies.” The couple show the book to their daughter’s friends who are curious about their arrangement. Now, I realize some people recoil at that, thinking it unfair to put a child in that position. I guess that depends on your perspective. Two moms are better than none. Two parents are better than one. That girl is fortunate.
Opinion >  Syndicated columns

Smart Bombs: Unhealthy debate

I’m skeptical that President Barack Obama can reach his ambitious goals on the budget deficit and health care, because he can’t meet the former without radical changes to the latter. Powerful forces are arrayed against health care reform and the cost-cutting that will be necessary to deliver broader coverage and a smaller deficit. Fact is, there’s a lot of money to be made off the inefficiency that courses through the U.S. system, and the beneficiaries won’t surrender those profits without a fight. Just take a look at one issue that should be a slam dunk: a move to outcome-based medicine that channels dollars to the most effective treatments. Who could be against that? Well, there are the purveyors of less-effective treatments, but good luck building a marketing strategy around that. So the motto of this defense strategy will be “Stop the Rationing!”