In 2016, I dissented. I said that, even though I had been an elected Republican, I could not support Donald Trump for president. I found him to be an amoral man and an unprincipled politician. I was and remain horrified by Christian voters who rally to the man as some sort of savior and twist ...
Dear Dietitian, My friend is always on the latest health kick, so now she is taking probiotics every day and swears she feels so much better. She keeps bugging me to take them too, but I priced them at the drugstore, and they are expensive. Are they worth it? Sharon Dear ...
Politics is not brain surgery; it’s not that complicated. Politics is about addition, not subtraction. Show me a political party that is openly seeking and welcoming “converts” to its side and is finding common ground and I’ll show you a growing, healthy and, yes, winning political ...
Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s insistence that she is Native American has drawn racial taunts from President Donald Trump, who frequently refers to her as “Pocahontas,” as well as reprimands from tribal leaders, who note that tribes themselves determine tribal membership. She has frequently said ...
This seems like the winter that doesn’t end, so I invited some friends and neighbors in for lunch between snow storms. I debated making the Cheeseburger Macaroni or the Lasagna Roll Ups, so I made both. Cheeseburger Macaroni 8 oz. uncooked small elbow macaroni 1 lb. ground beef 1 ...
Regarding the ‘Guest column: Sometimes tragedy happens and no one is to blame’ from Marshalltown Police Chief Mike Tupper — thank you. Thank you for having courage to speak frankly to us about the Brown family tragedy. Thank you for directly confronting the pain of this reality with ...
One year ago, a momentous tragedy shook the United States. Seventeen students and staff were shot and killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. on Feb. 14, 2018. It was not the first time such a tragedy had happened and it wouldn’t be the last time. Since the Parkland ...
Check the Sunday opinion section each week to see how some residents answered the question of the week. Sound Off is compiled and written by Ashlyn Ruiz, a junior at MHS.
A few words about the Trail of Tears and other jokes. Granted, the Trail of Tears would hardly seem a laughing matter. To the contrary, as recounted by History.com, it was an ordeal of robbery, mass relocation and death growing out of what white Americans of the 19th century saw as their ...
People say that suicides are on the increase, they say there is one cause. Here is another reason — people should have more compassion, understanding, acceptance for others, listen to what people say and pay attention to what you hear and don’t believe everything. There are two sides to ...
Donald Trump can’t win in 2020 but the Democrats can lose, and they seem determined to give it their best shot. Straight-line predictions are the undoing of every pundit and prognosticator. But it seems safe to say that if present trends hold, President Trump has no path to winning a ...
Both of America’s great national parties are coalitions. But it is the Democratic Party that never ceases to celebrate diversity — racial, religious, ethnic, cultural — as its own and as America’s “greatest strength.” Understandably so, for the party is home to a multitude of ...
I would not rise up in support of abortion, but I will rise up in support of the truth. Last Sunday on TV an untruth was stated and I, at first believed it and it made me ill — and even at age 91 was ready to march to Washington D.C. in protest. It was stated New York voted a mother could ...
To the best of my recollection, on Jan. 26 I attended the town hall meeting Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) held in Primghar. King noticed me taking copious notes and asked I attend three more public forums. Here’s my envisioned and visualized journey. On Feb. 2 we met Sen. Charles Grassley ...
Our outside temperature gauge told me it was -21 degrees at 2 a.m.— the time I usually get up to read and write. I could hear the wind howling outside and the house popping and banging (frost quakes?), like pond ice cracking under the weight of too many skaters. The wind-chill factor had to ...
“What’s your pleasure practice?” my friend Lynn asked. We were sitting in a cafe having coffee together. And by “together,” I mean I was drinking coffee, which practically landed on her lap after she asked this question and it went out my nose and across the table. Otherwise, Lynn ...
This column has tackled some pretty important topics over the years: ranging from home improvement and relationship advice to most recently the scourge that is the selfie stick. Today we continue in pursuit of issues that define this generation. I’m talking, of course, about underwear. I ...
Gas prices are starting to climb again, hitting drivers at the pump. After dropping to a three-year low recently, prices rebounded by over 30 cents per gallon. Oil prices have been climbing as well, pulled higher by concerns that U.S. sanctions on Venezuela are restricting that nation’s ...
“From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs!” — Karl Marx Norman Thomas was not easily discouraged. Running for president in 1932, three years into the shattering, terrifying Depression, which seemed to many to be a systemic crisis of capitalism, Thomas, who ...
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s now infamous talking points on the Green New Deal are the most unintentionally honest explanation of the neo-socialism now gripping the Democratic Party. Too honest, apparently. After her office sent the “FAQ” to NPR, The Washington Post and other news ...