What would you pay to fight global warming?

The following editorial appeared in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Wednesday, July 1:

For the first time, someone has put a price on what Americans are willing to pay to protect their children and grandchildren from the effects of global warming: $18.75 a month.

Honduras poses test of U.S. foreign policy

'I made a mistake' excuse getting flimsier by the minute

I have a proposal.
Next time some politician goes before the cameras with his figurative pants down around his metaphoric ankles and says, "I made a mistake," let's form a mob and drag him from the podium. You bring the lanterns, I'll bring the pitchforks.
South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford is, of course, the latest. Having bought plane tickets, told his staff he would be away hiking the Appalachian Trail, left his wife and kids behind and flown to Argentina to rendezvous with his paramour, he apologized by saying he'd made a mistake.

My plan for consolidating the Twin Cities

Consolidation is dead. Politicians did not kill it, administrative staff did not terminate it, but in truth it died of loneliness, with only a small portion of the population ever caring about what might or might not happen. The Auburn City Council may have voted to end the commission on joint services, but in fact only a vocal few ever gave their opinion or sought out a councilor with ideas during its years in existence.

Pork — it's for everyone, including Obama

There's an old joke about a fantastic three-legged pig and a farmer. It comes in many versions. In some tellings, the pig saves the farmer's life. In another, it can talk. The punch line always comes after a visitor asks, "So how come he only has three legs?"
"Because," the farmer explains, "you don't want to eat a pig like that all at once."
More and more, it seems the Obama administration has just that attitude toward the economic crisis: doling out pork for as long as possible.

Troop withdrawal in Iraq means drastic change

By Trudy Rubin
The Philadelphia Inquirer

While Americans were glued to the Iran drama, we arrived at a critical turning point in Iraq.
The United States Monday withdrew its combat troops, with a few exceptions, from Iraqi cities, in accordance with a security agreement with Iraqis signed in November. (All U.S. troops are supposed to be out of Iraq by the end of 2011.)

Fame, celebrity aren't the important things

"How fevered is the man who cannot look
Upon his mortal days with temperate blood,
Who vexes all the leaves of his life's book,
And robs his fair name of its maidenhood...";

So wrote English poet John Keats in "On Fame."

Accepting the paradox that was Michael Jackson

Sometimes, death is a blindside hit.
When it comes at the end of a long life as it did last week for 86-year-old Ed McMahon, you are saddened by it but not particularly surprised. When it comes after a debilitating illness, as it did last week for 62-year-old Farrah Fawcett, you have time to brace yourself against it.
But sometimes, death is lightning from a clear blue sky, a car that runs the red light, ice cold water dumped on you from behind. That's how it was last week when Michael Jackson died.

Obama's line on health insurance fails the straight-face test

President Barack Obama knows health-care policy. Give him an hour and a half to hold forth, as ABC News obligingly did at a town-hall meeting, and he will invariably impress with his fluidity.

Getting off the grid, and loving it?

As you read this, I am somewhere in rural China, probably disoriented, perhaps eating a fish eye, and certainly not paying attention to the news. This column was the last thing I wrote before embarking on what's become an all-too-rare experiment in human life: I decided to see what will happen when I go fully off the grid.

Obama cannot maintain straight line on Iran

There was a noticeable change in the climate during President Obama's Tuesday news conference that had nothing to do with the heat and humidity, the excuse given for moving the event indoors from the Rose Garden. Those Chicago boys (and girls) know all about cold winters, but if they think 80 degrees and partly cloudy is hot, wait until August when the three H's — hot (95 degrees), humid (95 percent) and hazy — take over.

Anyone know what a 'homosexual demon' looks like?

To Manifested Glory Ministries of Bridgeport, Conn.:
Perhaps you wouldn't mind telling me what a "homosexual demon" looks like. I will confess that until last week, I had no idea demons even had sexual orientations. Or, for that matter, sex. Then I happened upon a video that is making the rounds online. It depicts members of your congregation conducting what can only be described as the "gay exorcism" of a 16-year-old boy.

All should be fair at the balloon festival

As a member of the Great Falls Balloon Festival board of directors, I am one of 14 people entrusted by the people of Lewiston-Auburn, and surrounding towns, to operate the festival.

I'm writing for myself, not the board, who are some of the most honest and decent people I've ever met. They donate their time so many thousands of people can attend and enjoy the festival each year.

Media proclaim honeymoon period has now ended

Huzzah! Thanks to a few pointed questions from the press corps at a White House news conference, the long Obama captivity of the media is at an end. The Hotline, an inside-the-Beltway tip sheet, proclaimed June 23 "The Day the Love Ended."

Without U.S. help, Iranians learn to stand on their own

The drama in Iran marks a turning point in Middle East history — precisely because the United States has chosen, so far, not to intervene.
The Republican politicians charging President Obama with failing to defend Iranian "freedom" have totally missed the significance of what happened last week in Tehran.

Spending and achievement not necessarily connected

Some people have certain presumptions — for example, that government is better suited to handling problems than individuals or private entities. And then there are the accompanying assumptions that government, for those who have faith in its supposedly superior capabilities, will always produce the desired outcome.

'Neda moment' shows promise of networking

Maybe you were there when Neda died.
If you were, you saw a tragedy, of course, a 26-year-old Iranian protester gunned down in the streets. But I am convinced you also saw the future — a profound change in the way you and I will henceforth comprehend the world.

A chance to tweak, or a chance to transform

Most of the great advances we remember involve re-imagination and dreams, not merely tweaks and tinkers. The Wright Brothers' plane wasn't a newfangled horse and buggy, Einstein's theories weren't a simple update of old physics, and Edison's creations didn't aspire to make a brighter-burning wax candle. It's been the same thing in politics.

Downsizing in America starts with government

Downsizing in America starts with government
There are perhaps dozens of small towns and failing neighborhoods beginning to resemble ghost towns. We've all seen them if we get off the Interstate and drive down state or county roads, once-thriving Main streets or into blighted neighborhoods.

States leading the way with politics of change

Colorado's Bill Ritter (D) is a typical swing-state governor in these most atypical times: overly cautious, predictably equivocal - you know the type. Upon getting himself elected in 2006, he promised to pass legislation that "provides every Coloradan with access to some basic form of health insurance and health care by 2010." One year later, with America gorging on a presidential hoopla, Ritter backed off the pledge because, as the Denver Post reported, he believes America should wait for President Obama to act.

Campaign promises sink in the ocean of reality

Campaign promises wither away in the heat of reality
Though not (yet) having children of my own, I often consider what my future offspring won't know about and will find humorous. I fantasize that they will have no idea what gasoline-powered cars or private health insurance policies are. But I also worry they will guffaw in disbelief when I tell them politicians once knew that breaking campaign promises without explanation had consequences.

On same-sex marriage, look to Iowa

The thinking of the plains is an outline for Maine lawmakers to follow.

In a recent unanimous decision, Iowa's Supreme Court nullified that state's ban on same-sex marriage, ruling "the exclusion of gay and lesbian people from the institution of civil marriage does not substantially further any important governmental objective."

Nothing to love about that dirty water

Memories can be short. It was only a generation ago that Maine's waters were in serious trouble. In 1970, the Androscoggin River was labeled by Newsweek as one of the 10 most polluted rivers in the nation, placing it in the infamous company of the Cuyahoga River, which was so contaminated, it caught fire. Fumes from the Presumpscot River caused paint to peel off nearby homes. Boaters and anglers were told to stay away from a polluted Casco Bay.

In Iran, resolutions spark fear of U.S. attack

During a recent trip to Iran, where I have lived and have traveled to regularly for 40 years to conduct research on rural political and social change, colleagues and friends repeatedly asked me when the United States would attack their country.

Court overrules choice of teen and his parents

A 16-year-old Virginia boy who suffers from Hodgkin's disease has been told by a state judge he must report to a hospital and accept treatment deemed necessary by his doctors. The boy and his parents have chosen to pursue alternative treatment. It consists of a sugar-free, organic diet and herbal supplements supervised by a clinic in Mexico.

On July 21, juvenile court Judge Jesse E.