Commentaries

Our nation’s prosperity depends on the education of our students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), yet their proficiency in such subjects is deplorable. Increasingly, our students lack access to rigorous STEM curricula and hands-on STEM activities or avoid them where such challenging courses are still available. No wonder U.S. students rank 17th internationally in […]

The world we are giving our children and grandchildren is in critical condition, wracked by a terrible combination of social, environmental, and economic catastrophes. We must no longer deal with these ongoing calamities in an atomized, piecemeal way as we did during the last century, because, as we are now beginning to recognize, they are […]

I accompanied a Chinese friend to renew her business license at City Hall, where we filled out several forms and were sent to another office a few blocks away to complete more. The clerk at the second office saw my friend’s mailing address is in San Gabriel—not the Santa Maria address of the business—and mentioned […]

The vast majority of wealth and many politicians in our nation are owned by for-profit corporations. But rarely are some aspects of for-profit corporations discussed. Five decades ago, a wise old law professor told his corporations class: “In this class, you will learn how to create a legal person, a person potentially immortal, a person […]

From oil to coal to natural gas and now nuclear power: As one by one the use of these energy sources results in catastrophes, we keep searching for a safe alternative, but even if we champion solar, hydro, wind, ocean waves, wood, and other such renewable energy sources, our insatiable appetite for energy simply can […]

The article by Amy Asman concerning the Lucia Mar TAP education program (“TAP into the future,” March 30) was excellent. Undoubtedly, California cutbacks in school funding resulting from the recent severe decline in state revenue will compound problems in the education of our children. Ultimately, our local community must find ways to improve the education […]

Only very rich individuals and big businesses gain from pitting worker against worker. A diversion tactic such interests have recently employed is to blame unions for the state deficits we are experiencing. A prime example of this twisted logic is the rhetoric of Justin Ruhge (“Public employee benefits are breaking taxpayers,” March 31). He claims […]

“To waste, to destroy, our natural resources … will result in undermining in the days of our children the very prosperity which we ought by right to hand down to them.” So said Pres. Theodore Roosevelt in his seventh message to Congress on Dec. 3, 1907. Propelled by funds doled out by billionaire owners of […]

From Washington to Lompoc, taxpayers are finding they can no longer afford civil service workers with union-negotiated benefits, who in general exceed the income and benefits paid by the private sector for similar responsibilities. Civil service unions are the bane of taxpayers because, unlike private unions, there is no way to control them. In the […]

In the fourth grade, my friend Michael would sneak a pack of Kents from his mother’s carton and, after school, a bunch of us would go to the woods by Nichols Park and light up. We used the code word “Superman” to refer to the Kent cigarettes, with Superman being Clark Kent. I stopped smoking […]

I had my “I’m mad and I’m not gonna take it anymore!” moment last week. The day had started with a high purpose: Representatives from the world’s governments, along with members of non-governmental organizations and global researchers, were meeting at the United Nations to discuss their country’s progress toward eliminating gender inequality. At one session, […]

President Barack Obama’s budget proposal is a major disappointment. It does not deal seriously with massive deficit spending, and in fact proposes another $7 trillion in deficit spending over the life of the budget. It does nothing to address the looming entitlement train wreck. The underlying assumptions regarding economic growth, interest rates, and revenues are […]