Edith Frederickson loves to smoke. In fact, the 72-year-old Belmont, California resident has been smoking for some 50 years in bars, restaurants, airplanes, trains, indoors and out. However, two weeks ago the good citizens of Belmont enacted perhaps the toughest antismoking law in the country by banning smoking in all apartment buildings. The result:  Edith will no longer be able...

The first time I became aware that the plane was in trouble I looked out the window and realized that the ground was coming up quickly. The oxygen masks dropped, and the pilot announced, “Yes, we want you all to put your oxygen masks on!” Flight attendants quickly went about helping passengers remain in their seats and put on their...

Jack Cafferty is CNN’s resident grouch. Five days a week, Cafferty has a segment on CNN’s Situation Room that frequents the three-hour program with questions to viewers; questions that cut-to-the-chase of all things political and cultural. In examining some of the details of President Obama’s stimulus package, Jack asks, “How does getting people to stop smoking stimulate the economy?” Or this, “[Republicans]...

Philosophy’s Age of Reason began in the 1600’s marked by such notables as Thomas Hobbes, René Descartes, Baruch Spinoza, John Locke, even the astronomer Galileo. However, four-hundred additional years of empirical and physical knowledge seem to have no affect on individuals who cling to the religious notion that God alone has the power to heal the sick. According to a report in...

Heavy snow fell the night before the inauguration. On Friday, January 20, 1961, I sat in my seventh grade homeroom class while the teacher rolled in a black and white television and announced that we would all be watching history take place today.  (Me, I always liked a good excuse to watch TV.) What I was unprepared for was how...

On Tuesday, January 20, 2009, Barack Obama becomes the 44th President of the United States. With the possible exception of Franklin Roosevelt, probably the only other person to face such a staggering high level of expectations was Babe Ruth following his purchase by the New York Yankees in 1919 for the equally staggering sum of $200,000.  (Roosevelt only cost $75,000...

The events surrounding Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich’s decision to appoint a replacement to the United States Senate seat previously held by President-elect Barack Obama grows denser and unnecessarily more controversial. The New York Times reported (Jan. 1) that Gov. Blagojevich “…had an emissary make a call on the Dec. 24 to Danny K. Davis, a Democratic representative and longtime African-American...

Tenzin Gyatso is the fourteenth Dalai Lama of Tibet. He is both head of state (in exile) and the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people. He is admired and esteemed worldwide as a man who has championed policies of nonviolence. His consistent compassionate nonviolence, even in the face of great aggression, led to his receiving the Nobel Prize for Peace in...

Digging deeper into the write-in responses from the Capps/Zogby Poll entitled, What Americans Expect from the Next President and Congress, I was struck by the direct, sometimes blunt language and emotion from Americans. In response to what qualities the country needs most from the next president, most offered a list of traits, many more took the time to put forth their own...

We’ve all heard the expression, “Let the punishment fit the crime”?  Well, for one Colorado judge it couldn’t be more apt! “After seeing so many people return for repeat noise offending,” Reuters news service reported, “Paul Sacco, a judge at Fort Lipton Municipal Court, will punish them by playing music they can’t stand for a full hour.” Who did judge...