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Opinion

  • Feed your head don’t starve on...

    By Joe Yates

  • Sequestration is more of an axe...

    We may be a little more than halfway through 2013, but in Washington and state governments across the country, the focus is increasingly on federal actions taken in 2011.
    The issue can be summed up in one word: sequestration.

  • My country doesn’t sound like pop...

     I latched onto music at the same time my interest in literature exploded.

    Everyone has their own taste in music and literature, and each genre serves an individual purpose. I relax listening to Chopin or Nick Drake and rock out to the Rolling Stones or the Black Keys. When it comes to country though, I don’t put on this terrible pop fluff that everyone calls new country. My attendance at the Froggy Field Party 5 confirmed that. 

  • Lessons on leasing learned in...

     

    Over the years, I’ve rented many apartments and a house or two. If I’d known then what I learned Monday night during the Pleasureville City Commission meeting, I surely could’ve gotten a break on my rent.

    For example, any time I’d not spent every day in the place I was renting, my landlord should’ve given me a break.

    I also learned that simply by cleaning the apartment once a week, my landlords could have taken a little more off.

  • Fancy Farm is political junkie’s...

    By Jon Park

     Saturday I traveled to Western Kentucky to a political junkie’s Woodstock—Fancy Farm.

    The St. Jerome Catholic Church Picnic, in Fancy Farm, Kentucky, began in 1880. Happy Chandler is credited for making it the political event it has become known as today, when he visited the picnic in 1931, campaigning for lieutenant governor.  He won that year, and believed Fancy Farm was his good luck charm, so he kept going back.

  • Blueberry picking is an exercise in...

    By Candy Clarke

    Why on earth do we go out on a hot day with mosquitoes buzzing us and tiring ourselves picking berries? It would be so much easier just to purchase them at the grocery store. And it certainly would be less work. Why do we do it? Because they’re blueberries!

    It would be different if it was berry picking for the wonderfully delicious blackberries grown in Kentucky. Never mind the chiggers, the heat, and snakes; blackberries are worth all the inconveniences.

  • Shakers had progressive ideas

    You will find in this week’s issue my one tank trip to Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill.

    Shaker Village isn’t exactly somewhere one would go to for a high-octane night on the town or expect to find anything on the cutting edge. I refute that expectation. Shaker Village gives something new to the visitor each time they visit.

    The Shakers stood on the cutting edge of technology when it came to farming and household goods. We all know that, but the less commonly known cutting edge elements of their culture lies in their society.

  • Television news is here to sell you

    By Joseph Yates

  • Why Trayvon Martin matters

    "Can I ask you a question about the Trayvon Martin thing?”

    Sure.

    “That happened in Florida. Why are they rioting in Los Angeles? Sometimes I think they just like to riot out there.”

    Why? Principle.

    Because had the tables been reversed, the shooter might still be sitting in jail.

    Because racism in this country still is very, very much alive.

    Because a kid went to the convenience store for iced tea and candy and didn’t return home.

  • Is KIPDA report the ghost of...

    By John Parks

    Growing up, my dad subscribed to Popular Mechanics. I loved going through the issues and seeing the things that would be around when I became an adult. The issues predicted things like hover cars, personal jet packs and condos on the moon. I’m still waiting for my jet pack.

    Something that is more startling, and grounded in reality, is what Henry County will look like in the year 2050.

  • Three men and a fish

    By Candy Clarke

    Some stories are just meant to be told. Some grow more outlandish each time they are repeated.  As listeners, we often are left wondering what to believe and what not to believe.

  • Pets and impermanence can teach us...

    By Joseph Yates

     

    “Heaven goes by favor. If it went by merit, you would stay out and your dog would go in.”

    That old saying is attributed to Mark Twain. Obviously, he was never around that trembling, drooling little chihuahua that would perch atop the arm of my aunt’s couch when we would visit, yapping loudly and incessantly at nothing in particular, and irritating everyone (but my aunt) to no end.

  • Rural churches anchor communities

    In this issue, I wrote a story about Port Royal Baptist Church.

    I conducted interviews, collected anecdotes and researched the church’s history.

    What I hope comes out of the story is what a foundation a church can serve in a rural community.

    I don’t dare write a persuasive argument for your attendance, but I write this out of my own gratitude.

    I don’t think I would be the same person I am today without growing up in a church.

    The church served so many purposes in my childhood and my community.

  • When in the course of human events

    By Jon Park

    As I sit to write this, it is July 4, Independence Day. I am reminded that 237 years ago, 56 men who put their John Hancock to a piece of paper, signing what could have been their death warrant.

    Those now famous words: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

    Powerful words.

  • Session legislation went into...

    At the end of each legislative session, there is understandably a lot of discussion about what the General Assembly has passed.

    Although not given as much fanfare, the early to middle part of summer is an important period as well, because – other than those relatively rare cases when there is a specific enactment date or an emergency clause – that is when all legislation actually takes effect. This year, that date fell on June 25.

  • A week out on the water just for...

    Upon returning to our home in North Pole, Ala., after wintering in Henry County; we were invited to go halibut fishing with our friends, Rusty and Marie, on their boat. A week on the water? We hadn’t even unpacked our clothes! It took only a few seconds for me to say yes to the invitation. Really, now, who would hesitate more than a few seconds on an offer like that? A few quick loads of laundry; a night’s sleep and we were good to go.

  • The only thing transparent is us

    Obama’s honeymoon just expired. I might be a little late to the party, but trust me I brought a gift.

    The recent NSA’s circus/scandal with its estranged young bride Eric J. Snowden has even received criticism from of all people Russian President Vladimir Putin. Putin said he didn’t want to deal with the Snowden issue because, “It’s like shearing a piglet — too much squealing, too little wool.”

  • SCOTUS: A solution in a search of a...

    By Joe Yates

     

    How can they be so wrong one day and so right the next? The key here is the word ‘they’—it generally means four versus four, with Justice Anthony Kennedy making the difference.

  • Welcome back to square one

    By Joe Yates

  • What are we teaching our children?

    By Candy Clarke

    No, this isn’t an attack on parents or the school system. It is simply a question loaded with a great deal of concern and based on years of personal observation. As adults, whether or not we are biological parents, we need to ask ourselves some serious questions.