News opinion 2008-06-03 Andanh.com

Sign ordinance would infringe on free speech Tue, 3 Jun 2008 10:48:51 -0500
We agree that seeing campaign signs while driving can be annoying, but we believe a county ordinance to tell people when they can put signs in their own yards would be an infringement on free speech. On Friday, Warren County Sheriff Jerry “Peanuts” Gaines is planning to present an ordinance more strictly limiting not only the size of candidates’ signs, but how long they can stay up before and after an election. This could mean that candidates for the fall election - such as mayoral candidates Elaine Walker and Brian Strow - would have to take their signs down until Oct. 5. That only gives a candidate roughly 30 days to help advertise his/her campaign. We believe that Gaines is well intentioned with his proposal, but we would submit that this is the price we pay for freedom of speech. While we do agree that a lot of these campaign signs go up way too early during the political season, it is private property and people should be able to practice their freedom of expression by placing a sign in their yard whenever they want. We do believe that Gaines’ point that signs should come down five to seven days after the election has merit. At that point, the election is over and there is no need for the signs to still be present. Gaines said that he hasn’t decided what the penalty would be for violating the sign ordinance, but it will probably be a fine per sign, with the candidate being responsible for signs that linger too long after an election. Leaving yard signs up for an extended period after an election reflects laziness, but ultimately the candidate should be responsible. The current ordinance, revised in 2004 and applicable countywide, does have general provisions governing campaign signs, but it is pretty vague. It allows signs to be posted by a candidate immediately after a they have filed for election and to keep them up 30 days after the voting. It is reasonable, we believe, to ban a large yard sign on private property that blocked the view of an intersection and for county government to ban campaign signs on county right of ways. Some of Gaines’ ideas have merit, but a person’s right to display a campaign sign on their property should not be infringed on by the county government.

Politics and church Tue, 3 Jun 2008 10:48:23 -0500
A self-identified African-American caller to a Washington, D.C., radio station characterized the recent anti-Hillary Clinton outburst by the white liberal Chicago priest, Michael Pfleger, as a “minstrel show.” Pfleger, who was preaching “another gospel,” which the authentic gospel warns against, denounced Sen. Clinton for her effrontery and sense of “entitlement” in trying to take the Democratic presidential nomination from a black man, one Barack Obama. Pfleger, who donated $1,500 to the Obama campaign between 1995 and 2001, is indebted to Obama because when Obama was in the Illinois legislature, he, according to the Chicago Tribune, “announced $225,000 in grants to St. Sabina programs.” Three months after the grant was announced, Pfleger donated another $200 to Obama. Obama denounced Pfleger’s comments far more quickly than he separated himself from his former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, but one is known by one’s preferred associations. Obama’s friends and associates have a long history of far-left political and theological positions with which Obama has appeared perfectly comfortable. It makes one wonder if Obama’s denunciations are sincere or if he’s had a politically convenient “conversion.” On Saturday, in what might be considered spiritual and political damage control, Obama announced he has resigned his membership in Trinity United Church of Christ. We have seen conservative preachers and other self-anointed spokesmen for God make fools of themselves by overindulging in politics and other trivialities and now the theological left is getting its chance to rush in where even angels fear to tread for their equal time and deserved mockery. As I watched the video of Pfleger (and Rev. Wright before him), I felt a profound sadness for the congregation, whose members might be enjoying the political equivalent of foreplay, but are being denied preaching that would turn their eyes to another kingdom and another King that could do them far more good than a politician of any color or philosophy. Shakey’s Pizza restaurants used to have among its signs: “Shakey made a deal with the bank. Shakey doesn’t cash checks. The bank doesn’t make pizza.” That is the kind of deal congregations should demand from their politicians and pastors. Politicians shouldn’t do religion and preachers should stay out of partisan politics. If preachers want to do politics, they should resign their ordination and become politicians. And if politicians want to do religion, they should stop running for positions in the lower kingdom, enroll in seminary and become ministers in the Higher Kingdom. The pastor at my church doesn’t do politics. The closest he gets is to pray for the national leadership, as Scripture commands. And before you ask, yes, he did it during all eight years of the Clinton administration. Preaching on politics would divide our congregation, which consists of Democrats, Republicans and Independents. Besides, what’s the point of listening to a political sermon, as if most of us do not already have well-established points of view? We don’t need a clergyman to tell us how to vote. We need a clergyman to reveal God to us. If I want politics on Sunday morning, I can stay home and watch the morning interview shows. Sen. Charles Grassley, Iowa Republican, is investigating “prosperity gospel” preachers who claim you can live like kings if you’ll send them money, thus allowing them to live like kings. One can argue whether government ought to be inserting itself into doctrinal issues in order to save the biblically illiterate from their gullibility. But the Internal Revenue Service must investigate Trinity United Church of Christ to determine whether it has violated its tax-exempt status by allowing its pulpit to be used for political purposes. God can judge the quality of the preaching at Trinity. The IRS should step in and judge the quality of the politics. If Rev. Pfleger’s cardinal, Francis George, won’t go beyond a statement criticizing his inflammatory and bigoted remarks, Pope Benedict XVI should consider disciplinary action. As for Obama’s resignation, he must still explain how he could sit in the church for two decades and be indifferent to such inflammatory rhetoric.

All about Yves Mon, 02 Jun 2008 22:35:00 EST
What does it tell you that this shy, lonely French army washout, who couldn't take the hazing of fellow soldiers and ended up in a mental hospital, managed to survive depression and dependency and built a long, profoundly influential career as a shaper of culture, honored uniquely by the Metropolitan Museum of Art while still alive and inducted into the French Legion of Honor.

City's priorities Mon, 02 Jun 2008 22:35:00 EST
Last week, Mayor Jerry Abramson presented his proposed 2008-2009 budget to the Metro Council. It was not a happy moment. He called it "just one of those years" -- that is, a year when making spending decisions isn't fun.

Credit where it's due Mon, 02 Jun 2008 22:36:00 EST
These people who now want to make a big issue of the two-year legal experience requirement for district judge candidates -- where have you been?

Taxes and tuition Mon, 02 Jun 2008 22:36:00 EST
Crit Luallen's opinion piece on the exorbitant costs of higher education in Kentucky could not be any more relevant. As she notes, Kentucky is among the least educated states in the nation and desperately must catch up. Luallen reports that tuition at our four-year institutions have risen by 96 percent over the past six years, forcing a massive decrease in enrollment.

Family Foundation article on benefits scored Mon, 02 Jun 2008 22:36:00 EST
This is in response to David Edmunds' editorial regarding increasing tuition costs at the University of Louisville. He specifically ties the tuition increase to health care for domestic partners.

An ex-Marine's antiwar sentiments Mon, 02 Jun 2008 22:37:00 EST
You didn't see me at Cave Hill or Zachary Taylor cemeteries on Memorial Day. Nor will you likely see me at Veteran's Day, Fourth of July and other patriotic venues. Heck, it took me almost 30 years to work up the courage to go to the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C.!

The last Doughboy Mon, 02 Jun 2008 22:37:00 EST
Numbers come precisely from the agile mind and nimble tongue of Frank Buckles, who seems bemused to say that 4,734,991 Americans served in the military during America's involvement in the First World War and that 4,734,990 are gone. He is feeling fine, thank you for asking.

What about Robley Rex? Mon, 02 Jun 2008 22:44:00 EST
Before we finished reading the first paragraph in George F. Will's column, we anticipated complaints from Courier-Journal readers about the presence of another living ex-doughboy in Kentucky, 107-year-old Robley Rex of Louisville.

Congress and the next president may collide Mon, 02 Jun 2008 22:38:00 EST
No matter who wins the White House in November, the next president likely will face the most Democratic Congress since 1993, a Congress already accustomed to asserting itself in national security and other areas once viewed as primarily the president's territory.

Where's McClellan's apology? Mon, 02 Jun 2008 22:39:00 EST
Here's what President Bush's press secretary had to say about the latest former administration official to write a book that is sharply critical of the Bush White House:

READERS' VIEWS Tue, 03 Jun 2008 02:03 EDT
SCIENCE DOESN'T WAIT FOR INDISPUTABLE TRUTH

On May 27, Grant Frame's commentary beguiled us with the promise of a serious analysis of the concepts of truth and common belief. Only as we read on did we realize that Frame's real purpose was to debunk global warming as "manufactured" politicking.

For him, the mere case that large numbers of Americans now believe that human activity is creating harmful environmental degradation is irrelevant, and only "indisputable and irrevocable fact" warrants action.

Perhaps dramatic arctic ice melting, increasingly calamitous weather patterns and radical changes in our oceans do not qualify as indisputable fact for Frame, but to require "indisputable" proof as justification for prudent response shows only that Frame knows nothing of the history of human progress through science and reason.

By his criteria, we should run blindfolded across Interstate 75 because we cannot indisputably be sure we would get squashed by a semi.

Public input being built into CentrePointe Tue, 03 Jun 2008 02:03 EDT
Significant design modifications have been made to the CentrePointe development since the project was announced.

We considered all suggestions from local groups and individuals about how the project should be designed. Some have been incorporated in whole or in part; others could not be for various reasons.

In analyzing the recommendations, we considered numerous alternatives. A twin tower scenario was evaluated, but it didn't provide the height that our condominium prospects desired, plus it would look like a duplicate of the Radisson/World Trade Center project.

On the advice of Urban County Council members, we reduced the tower's height from 40 stories to 35 and moved its base deeper into the block to place the tower fully within the podium, with no part of it meeting grade at street level. This made the complex much more street-friendly and the tower much less imposing.

At the suggestion of the Fayette Alliance and others, we analyzed putting the motor court entrance on West Main Street rather than West Vine Street. But doing so would violate the courthouse-overlay recommendation of uninterrupted blocks along Main, "a people street." Also, the block's slope toward Vine would then require the entrance to the below-ground parking decks to be off South Limestone, which the traffic officials discouraged.

New Senate decor: hubris Tue, 03 Jun 2008 02:03 EDT
Even if it's not a huge sum in the scope of the state budget, the Senate's re-do of its Frankfort digs at a time when ordinary Kentuckians feel pinched on all sides is disrespectful to taxpayers.

Senate President David Williams' explanation, dripping with arrogance, didn't make anyone feel any better.

"It's nothing very extravagant," Williams told reporter John Cheves of the 5,250-square-foot remodeling that will create new Senate offices, caucus rooms with kitchens, a press conference room and lounge.

"Each of the senators will have an appropriate office now. We have at least one senator who has a rather small office.''

The horror! The horror!

City shortchanged by state budget Tue, 03 Jun 2008 02:03 EDT
For every $1 in state taxes collected in Lexington, about 80 cents flows back in the form of state services, roads and other amenities.

The taxes generated by Lexington's economic activity effectively subsidize places where there is less economic activity.

That's to be expected. Louisville sees a far lower return than Lexington on its state taxes.

Under the circumstances, though, you would expect that Lexington would at least be entitled to the minimum state services available elsewhere in Kentucky.

But no. Lexington is singled out in the new state budget for what can only be viewed as punishment.

Everybody run! Tue, 03 Jun 2008 08:36 EDT

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