07/03/2009

Thomas Jefferson and the American symphony
Anyone who seriously contemplates the meaning and history of America on this Independence Day will also, of necessity, contemplate the life of Thomas Jefferson, who crafted the incandescent words of the Declaration of Independence more than 200 years ago and set a new nation on its perilous and uncertain way.

Gov. Sanford enters ‘The Twilight Zone’
We had our stock political sex-scandal editorial all but ready to go when South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford admitted last week to committing adultery with Maria Belen Chapur, a sultry South American television reporter now destined to be dubbed the Argentine Firecracker II (See Mills, Wilbur D., Dem.-Ark.).

07/02/2009

Russia folds ’em; pass the vodka
Call it Dostoevsky’s Revenge: Russia has closed down every gambling casino in the country, leaving vodka as the only palliative remedy for the cold Russian winters and the repressive Russian government.

07/01/2009

Two cheers for a little contrariness
We are all for amity and cooperation when it comes to city government, but we cannot help but admire the official who stands up in the face of overwhelming odds and says, “Wait a minute…!”

06/30/2009

Other Voices: Reform state secrets doctrine
No president should be trusted to be the sole arbiter of what evidence can and cannot be introduced in court. But that’s essentially what has been happening for four decades in cases that touch on national security matters.

06/29/2009

Other Voices: The debt tsunami
The Congressional Budget Office has a tough job: to provide America’s lawmakers with a reality check on their tax and spending plans. Not surprisingly, the CBO’s projections are not always received cheerfully. Both President Obama and leading congressional Democrats were less than thrilled when the CBO estimated that the costs of universal health coverage would be much higher than advertised. To be sure, projecting the cost of legislation involves making assumptions and constructing models that may or may not prove accurate 10 years down the road. Nonetheless, the CBO, with its tradition of scholarly independence, is the best available arbiter, and Congress must heed its numbers — like them or not.

06/27/2009

Other Voices: Strip searches and the law
A Supreme Court majority ruled Thursday that the 2003 in-school strip search of a 13-year-old student violated her constitutional rights against unreasonable search or seizure.

Big hearts and growing feet
Cooper Creek United Methodist Church is asking area residents to lend a hand by helping put shoes on children’s feet. The church, at 5209 Mingo Road in Denton, will hold its 10th annual Sneaker Sunday tomorrow to raise money that will be used to purchase shoes for children in need. Members hope to make Sunday’s event the most successful effort ever. They have planned a silent auction, cakewalk and live music, with the fun starting at noon and ending at 4 p.m.

06/26/2009

Projecting hope through stories
Frank Capra was young once, and Steven Spielberg had to get his start somewhere. Capra, as film buffs know, directed some of the most popular Hollywood movies of the 1930s and 1940s, including It’s a Wonderful Life, which was named one of the best films ever made by the American Film Institute. During World War II, Capra produced and directed or co-directed several documentaries, including the award-winning Why We Fight series.

06/25/2009

Connecting the past and future
Texans have been avoiding the necessity of developing an efficient mass transit system for so long that the cure may soon be more painful than the disease.

06/24/2009

Harsh anti-smoking tactics worth a shot
Do warning labels discourage people from smoking? That question occurred to us Tuesday morning as we read about President Obama signing what has been proclaimed “the nation’s toughest anti-smoking law,” which supporters feel will give the U.S. Food and Drug Administration much-needed muscle to regulate tobacco products.

06/23/2009

Heart-warming thirst-quenchers
Kids and lemonade stands are as common to Texas summers as sizzling sidewalks, but one local stand available to quench residents’ thirst has an added ingredient.

06/22/2009

Other Voices: Innocents lost
A majority of the Supreme Court ruled last week that prisoners do not have a constitutional right to post-conviction DNA testing. The decision was based in large part on the assertion that federal judicial intervention was unnecessary because the great majority of state legislatures already had passed laws to give prisoners adequate access to the revolutionary technology. The majority’s argument has merit, but the decision in District Attorney’s Office vs. Osborne was nonetheless wrong.

06/20/2009

Dads gets smarter as kids mature
Most of us can identify with the old saying about fathers that’s generally attributed to Mark Twain. Anyone who has ever been 14 probably felt like his or her dad was the most ignorant person on earth.

Other Voices: The memo that roared
The federal government faces unprecedented challenges over the next few years. An aging workforce, more than one-third of which will be eligible to retire within five years, must tackle a bewildering array of issues.

06/19/2009

Dad might enjoy trip to airshow
It’s the kind of photograph that people tend to remember. An American sailor embraces a young woman who is dressed in a white nurse’s uniform.

06/18/2009

New book offers insight into city
We can’t wait to grab a copy of Images of America: Denton, the new book being produced by the Denton County Historical Commission.

06/17/2009

Through a glass brightly at UNT
Research at the University of North Texas into the properties of something called bioactive glass is one of the reasons it is exciting to live in a college town.

06/16/2009

Did Ahmadinejad overplay his hand?
It is beginning to appear now that the machinations of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to win another term in office were so overt, clumsy and brutal as to force a powerful former ally to launch an investigation into his methods.

06/15/2009

Our own eternal ‘Road’ movie
Pay no attention to what all those orange barrels and roadblock sawhorses seem to be telling you on Loop 288 between Interstate 35E and McKinney Street. They do not mean that the loop widening project is the same mind-numbing, ire-inducing, engine-overheating experience that it has been since the mind of man runneth not to the contrary, although it seems that is what they mean, since the driving experience on the Loop is essentially the same today as it was in 2006, when the first radiator boiled over while waiting to make a left turn into a Popeye’s chicken joint.

06/14/2009

Feeding the body; nourishing the soul
We have had several occasions in the past to comment here on the role food plays in holding the fragile seams together in the fabric of our society. Food itself is simply a stark necessity of life, like water and air, but the act of feeding our fellow man — the careful, loving preparation of it, the joy and laughter in the sharing of it — is one of the blessings of this life.

06/13/2009

Tom Harpool’s verdant garden
Tom Harpool was a man who kept his hands in the soil. Whether he was overseeing his small family farm, repotting plants in his commercial nursery, tending the garden in his yard or making sure Denton’s literal and figurative roots were carefully tended and strengthened, Harpool spent his life making things grow.

06/12/2009

Serve 12 years, sit out one
Denton’s Term Limits Charter Review Committee came up with a final product Wednesday. It doesn’t limit terms, but it does provide a time-out for anyone who has served 12 consecutive years.

06/11/2009

Friendly is fine; diligent is better
The design firm that was supposed to have delivered a completed plan on May 1 for the Denton County Transportation Authority’s downtown transit center still hasn’t coughed it up, but the city of Denton’s transportation director says that’s fine with him.

06/10/2009

As Krum Turns:The saga continues
The Krum City Council has appointed replacements for the two council members who resigned in a huff last week, and some people are shocked — shocked! — that the new appointees are political allies of the mayor and council majority.

06/09/2009

Bring on the cattle prods!
American Airlines has figured out a way to cram 160 seats into a 148-seat airplane. The airline now stands to make more money, and some sadistic idea man within the company is due for a fat bonus.

06/08/2009

Stealth technology vs. the Big Bang
Some scientific and technological advancements burst like a nova into the lay consciousness, but most worm their way in gradually, so that we are not particularly aware of them until we are already making use of them.

06/07/2009

Teachers let the mules out
Another high school graduation has come and gone, and if Page 5A of Saturday’s paper is any indication, we are awash with bright young graduates eager to tackle higher education — and the world.

06/06/2009

Gingham dogs 3, calico cats 2
In 1886, a man named L.L. Finley agreed to sell 200 acres to the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway for what would become the town of Krum. As far as we can determine, that may have been the last time anybody in Krum ever agreed about anything.

06/05/2009

Farewell to a Denton institution
Denton’s Piggly Wiggly stores were more than just supermarkets with a funny name. They were institutions, like Evers Hardware or Russell’s Department Store. After June 13, Denton’s last two Piggly Wigglys will have gone the way of Evers and Russell’s, the victim of changing times and a tough economy.

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