-
Lies, Damned Lies and George Santos
BY THOMAS L. KNAPP “Of course,” the late P.J. O’Rourke wrote in Parliament of Whores, by way of explaining why government is boring, “politicians don’t tell the truth. … But neither do politicians tell huge, entertaining whoppers: ‘Why, send yours truly to Capitol Hill, and I’ll ship the swag home in boxcar lots. … There’ll…
-
School bullying must stop; everyone must work together
BY DR. GLENN MOLLETTE Four New Jersey teenagers have been charged in connection with the attack of a 14-year-old girl who later took her own life after video of the incident was posted on social media. One juvenile is charged with aggravated assault, two juveniles are charged with conspiracy to commit aggravated assault and one…
-
The house that built me; fond memories of the past
BY KYLE LOVERN Every once in a while, a song comes along that touches you inside. A few years ago one of my favorite country music stars, Miranda Lambert, had a huge hit with “The House That Built Me.” The video shows her visiting the house where she grew up. I can definitely relate to…
-
Tired of hearing about China? Stop the cash flow
BY DR. GLENN MOLLETTE Do you get tired of hearing about China? Now we have floating surveillance balloons over our country. We are yet to know for sure what this is about, but time will tell. China is probably scouting out the next land or business purchase. They may have come up with an easy…
-
Remembering phone booths: They have disappeared from our landscape
BY KYLE LOVERN Phone booths used to be everywhere, but you don’t see them these days. I guess the younger generation wouldn’t even know what one was if they saw it. Heck, they would not even know how to use a rotary-style telephone inside an older booth. The first public coin-operated pay phone appeared in…
-
AI writing tools are the future; educators must adapt or their students will fall behind
BY PHILL BARNETTMOUNTAIN CITIZEN Artificially intelligent writing tools like ChatGPT, based on the latest language models developed by OpenAI, are taking the world of writing by storm. Professionals and amateurs alike can generate pages of written content in seconds. And it’s really good. Scary good. I asked one such tool, Perplexity.ai to write a summary…
-
Classified document stink piles
BY DR. GLENN MOLLETTE An Old Testament story records an overwhelming infestation of frogs throughout Egypt. There was no place in Egypt where frogs were not present in large numbers. The plague was sent in response to Pharoah’s attitude toward the Israelite people who lived in slavery under his rule. When God ended the plague,…
-
Legislative Update: Why lower income taxes?
BY REPRESENTATIVE BOBBY MCCOOL Before I begin this week’s legislative update, I want to thank everyone who took the time to complete my legislative questionnaire. As I read through the responses, I noticed that someone asked, “Why do we want to lower income taxes?” and thought I might answer it in this column. The fact…
-
COVID-19 is mutating and apparently winning, so we need to take preventive measures well beyond vaccinations
BY KEVIN KAVANAGH There is no such thing as “herd immunity” for COVID-19. In this context it is a concept as antiquated as “the Earth is flat.” The theory was based upon the work of William Farr in 1840 who proposed a bell-shaped curve which illustrated the body’s ability to mount a lasting response to…
-
It’s time for the government to release information on UFOs
BY KYLE LOVERN Tennessee Republican congressman Tim Burchett has accused the U.S. government of a “huge cover-up” following a rise in “unidentified aerial phenomena” or UAP, widely known as UFOs (unidentified flying objects). UFOs are not just reported by two guys driving down a country road drinking a six-pack. There used to be a stigma…
