JAMES M. DUENOW, Author at Santa Maria Sun

Build roads, not bombs

We are squandering our national fortune on weaponry and troops

by JAMES M. DUENOW July 13, 2011August 17, 2023

The con job goes on. Throughout the Cold War, the CIA and our government consciously misrepresented the military prowess of the Soviet Union, exaggerating their military strength. They did this, of course, to justify a continuation of our obscene military budgets, to continue to feed the fat-and-sassy corporate culture that fed off the military budget. […]

Opinion

More people than me are worried about the gorilla

San Luis Obispo

by JAMES M. DUENOW December 7, 2010June 20, 2024

Those obviously conservative readers who took offense to my Nov. 18 commentary concerning the 500-pound gorilla (the budget of the defense department) obviously missed something. In the article, I cited a quote from Donald Rumsfeld—you know, the Secretary of Defense in the Bush Administration—who in essence said the Pentagon and its costs are among the […]

Opinion

See that 500-pound gorilla?

Reduce military spending to reduce the deficit

by JAMES M. DUENOW November 16, 2010June 8, 2025

We are a small-town coffee klatch: One guy is a tea bagger, two others are very conservative Republicans. Two are moderate something-or-others, and I am the lone progressive. We are talking about the federal budget deficit and the burgeoning national debt. We all agree something has to be done, and it would be immoral to […]