One hundred and fifty-six years ago today, a president made a visit to a cemetery in Gettysburg, Pa., to commemorate a decisive battle in the War between the States and honor the soldiers who fought it. The speech he delivered was concise and its words will echo as long as there is a United ...
The American Cancer Society designates the third Thursday of November (next Thursday) as The Great American Smokeout — a day to quit smoking or make plans to do so. According to the ACS website, 40 million Americans still smoke cigarettes. While the percentage of American adults who smoke ...
Fidel Castro died three years ago this month. To those of us of a certain age, he was the brutal dictator who brought the world to the brink of World War III with his part in 1962’s Cuban Missile Crisis. He allowed the Soviet Union to install launchers for offensive intercontinental ...
Today we’d like to talk about a report that changed American life for the better. If there was ever a government report or action that changed a nation, it could well be the first surgeon general’s report on smoking issued in 1964. At the time of the report, cigarette commercials ...
Monday we Americans celebrate Veterans Day. The first “Veterans Day Proclamation” was issued on June 1, 1954, by a man who knew the horrors of war, the demands of a peacetime military and had carried the responsibility of sending young Americans to their deaths. President Dwight D. ...
Thirty years ago Saturday, Nov. 9, 1989, a great symbol of the enslavement of a people began to crumble. The German Democratic Republic — the puppet regime of the Soviet Union in East Germany — announced that residents of East Berlin would no longer be restricted from crossing to freedom ...
Memories that are jarred by the trees and the bells and the holly are the best parts of the holiday season. Those holidays past also come swimmingly back when old movies like “It’s a Wonderful Life,” “The Bells of St. Mary’s” and “Miracle on 34th Street” dance across the ...
As we start the holiday period, it’s nice to remember the cardinal rule of the season — ‘tis better to give than receive. Feed My Sheep is the brainchild of Joyce Kawakami, whom we refer to as an angel here a couple of times per year. The goal of the nonprofit is to eliminate poverty ...
Well, it is November already — what we consider the beginning of the holiday season. It is important to remember at this time of year that the true joy of the holidays is in giving. Selecting just the right gift for a loved one and seeing it bring cheer is a special delight this time of ...
“You have been pre-approved for the new Quadruple Miles Anytime Card from DisMasterVis.” As one goes through the 20 or so credit card offerings that pour through the mail every week, something quickly becomes apparent: These companies could reduce the interest rates they charge by a ...
In February of 2017, then-White House political strategist Steve Bannon said he foresaw the major goal of the Trump agenda as “the deconstruction of the administrative state.” A Washington Post story from that month saw Bannon vowing that President Donald Trump would not moderate his ...
Well, here’s a depressing thought: According to an article in The Wall Street Journal titled “Why We Keep Losing Our Keys; Absentminded at Any Age,” the brain’s cognitive functioning peaks at age 20 — and your brain shrinks as you age. If that be true, our brain must be the size of ...
To reiterate, this is an editorial written last year about the slaying of a Washington Post columnist by agents of the government of Saudi Arabia — a regime the Trump administration continues to cozy up to and has committed to sending 2,800 more of our troops to help with their war against ...
On Oct. 24, 2003, a British Airways Concorde flying from John F. Kennedy Airport in New York to London’s Heathrow Airport made the last commercial flight of a supersonic transport. That flight marked 30 years of service for the SST. Unfortunately, the cost of operating the plane made it a ...
One of the great myths in our society is that big is always better than small. It is a particularly dangerous myth when your society is based on capitalism. There is no doubt that completely unregulated growth can lead to the creation of monopolies, duopolies, triopolies and various other ...
Fifty-seven years ago, Monday, Oct. 14, 1962, a U-2 spy plane flying high over the island nation of Cuba took surveillance photographs that showed Soviet missiles capable of delivering nuclear warheads only 90 miles from the United States. Further reconnaissance by U.S. planes confirmed they ...
Monday is one of those sort-of holidays. Title 5 of the United States Code set aside the second Monday of October as Columbus Day. Later, the holiday was renamed and different calendars list it as Discoverers Day or Discoverer’s Day or Discoverers’ Day. You pick. Columbus Day was set aside ...
Well, at the risk once again of sounding like a Luddite and a paranoiac, we grow ever more wary of the unseen presences that follow us around the internet. We’ve written several times about our discomfort with looking at something on the ’net, then seeing an ad for that product on other ...
Two attractive teenagers were strolling in front of Queen Ka‘ahumanu Center a while back. One would have thought it was a romantic moment except the young man was busy texting or playing games on his cellphone and the girl was similarly engaged on hers. They weren’t talking or holding ...
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Everywhere one looks there are flashes of pink to concentrate the message that too many mothers, wives, sisters and daughters still fight the scourge of these diseases every year. The American Cancer Society press website also reminds us that over 3 ...