AnnotatedOpinions.com

Reform or Else: Those concerned with fiscal responsibility should be worried about what will happen if proposed health care legislation doesn’t pass. [New York Times]

With reforms pending, recent drug-industry price hikes raise suspicions [Houston Chronicle]

Good News on Premiums: The Congressional Budget Office’s analysis shows that tens of millions of uninsured Americans can be covered without driving up costs for everyone else. [New York Times]

If a war’s worth fighting, isn’t it worth paying for? Congress has raised taxes to fund most of our fighting, but since 9/11 the war bills have been piling up. The Share the Sacrifice Act would change that. [LA Times]

The Analytic Mode: We should embrace the analytical governing style of President Obama, and learn to live without the passion and clarity of his presidential campaign. [New York Times]

GOP folds its big tent: The focus of the Republican “unity” movement seems less ideological than personal: a blind animus toward Obama and all who would cooperate with him. [Boston Globe]

The NFL’s head case [Chicago Tribune]

Dangerous Work: Congress should fix holes in legislation intended to protect whistle-blowers at public companies from being penalized for reporting wrongdoing. [New York Times]

A bad omen in Dubai: The lack of alarm is alarming. [Washington Post]

Xenophobia: Switzerland vs. minarets – An odd ban in Switzerland on an expression of Islamic architecture shows the need for enlightened politicians around the world to defend the principle of pluralism. [Boston Globe]

Needed for Mideast peace: a sense of urgency: Arab and Israeli leaders are convinced that President Obama is in more of a hurry than they are, so they are content to have him do the heavy lifting. [LA Times]

A new momentum for Afghanistan: This is an alliance effort, and the strategy is clear, says the secretary general of NATO. [Washington Post]

Veterans and gun safety: Legislation to loosen restrictions on buying guns by mentally unstable veterans is misguided. [LA Times]

Hispanic farmers deserve justice, too [USA Today]

Facts and figures, myths and mantras: “Truthiness” has exploded alongside a new media that is decidedly not mainstream. It’s now possible to find a group somewhere in Googleland that will agree with anything. [Boston Globe]  

Celebrity affairs: Whose marital transgressions would really surprise you? [Chicago Tribune]

Can Comcast connect? In buying NBC Universal, it must find new ways to court consumers who have many media choices. [LA Times]

Why? Because it’s up there: Missions to the moon and beyond cost little compared with often- intangible benefits. [Philadelphia Inquirer]

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Editorial Note: This feature, “What They Are Saying” will be discontinued on Monday, December 7, 2009 so that we can bring you more annotated opinions.

Despite some questions, Obama’s Afghan policy is sound Given time, his strategy should work. But will there be time, and what about ‘winning’? [LA Times]

Afghanistan: Did Obama really say that? [Chicago Tribune]

Afghanistan: Now let’s win it; Republicans, Democrats and independents, it’s time to get behind our troops – and our commander in chief. [USA Today]

A Goldilocks strategy: Obama bought himself time on Afghanistan, but there will be hell to pay if his policy fails. [Washington Post]

Health reform must go forward: Defenders of the status quo in health care would gladly allow the need to vet President Obama’s Afghanistan plan to drain precious energy from the health-care fight. [Boston Globe]

Climate of suspicion [Chicago Tribune]

Trading with Ecuador: Washington must resist efforts by Chevron to interfere with a Andean trade agreement. [LA Times]

Too risky to regulate? Not with proper verification [Boston Globe]

The Job Summit: Once job creation has the priority status it deserves, the next step is to build on proven programs and add new ones to address the scale and nature of joblessness. [New York Times]

‘Yes’ to a second stimulus: State and local governments are draining federal dollars, deepening the U.S.’s decline. [Washington Post]

Cracking Cuba [LA Times]

Framers envisioned separation: Rep. Patrick Kennedy’s support for legal abortion has earned him the wrath of the Catholic bishop of Providence, R.I., Thomas Tobin [Philadelphia Inquirer]

Tiger Woods pleas for privacy, and he has a point [Atlanta Journal-Constitution]

Taking one for the team: The National Football League needs to move beyond its incremental steps to combat player brain injuries. [Philadelphia Inquirer]

Concussions: Kurt Warner’s courage - Arizona Cardinal Kurt Warner did something courageous last Sunday. He admitted he was too shaken up to play. [Boston Globe]

Neglected Warriors: Far greater candor in Washington is needed about all the factors and risks that can drive soldiers to commit suicide. [New York Times]

‘Reality’ and the White House crashers [LA Times]

How to get around Karzai: Good governors and ministers may help us succeed in spite of the Afghan president. [Philadelphia Inquirer]

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Editorial Note: This feature, “What They Are Saying” will be discontinued on Monday, December 7, 2009 so that we can bring you more annotated opinions.

·       A show of resolve [Chicago Tribune]

·      The reality of Afghanistan: We will not remake Afghan society
nor create a recognizable democracy there. [LA Times]

·       The Afghanistan Speech: President Obama needs to tell the
American people how he intends to pay for the war and how he will decide when Afghanistan will be able to stand on its own. [New York Times] 

·     More means less: President Obama’s decision to send more soldiers to Afghanistan amounts to the best of several risky options. [Philadelphia Inquirer]

·      Obama’s get-in, get-out plan faces harsh Afghan realities: But carefully crafted strategy offers a reasonable prospect for success. [USA Today]

·      Afghanistan: How long until we know? Whether President Obama’s new strategy is working should become quite clear within two years. [USA Today]

·      Surge, then leave: Obama made the right decision — even if it will make everyone a little unhappy. [Washington Post]

Accounting for the costs of war [Atlanta Journal-Constitution]

Climategate: Dissent on ice – You don’t have to be a climate change
skeptic to be appalled by the exchange of e-mails from top scientists. [Boston Globe]

Fame and its new upper crust [Chicago Tribune]

We need a new women’s health movement [LA Times]

Advertising: We sue harder? [Boston Globe]

What the U.S. can achieve in Afghanistan, despite Karzai: Washington can compensate for his failings by persuading him to choose strong, principled Cabinet ministers and delegate authority to them. [LA
Times]

Look beyond Iran’s posturing [Boston Globe]

Iran’s military dictatorship [Washington Post]

Swiss ban on minarets is pure discrimination: Sunday’s referendum is a reminder that cultural anxieties can be inflamed even in the most tolerant country. [LA Times]

Health-care fatigue: A desultory debate of rote talking points and cheap demagoguery. [Washington Post]

Woods: Breaking gossip a bore [Chicago Tribune]

Crash and don’t tell: Tiger Woods is the refreshing converse of the
loathsome White House party-crashers. [Washington Post]

Collisions with the future: The world’s grandest science experiment is up and running again – no thanks to a bird. [Philadelphia Inquirer]

More and more, the truth of Christmas is put to the test [Chicago Tribune]

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Editorial Note: This feature, “What They Are Saying” will be discontinued on Monday, December 7, 2009 so that we can bring you more annotated opinions.

• Thanksgiving fare [USA Today]
• United we gather: Thank goodness for Thanksgiving: A break from divisions [Chicago Tribune]
• ‘I have never cooked a turkey’ [Chicago Tribune]
• You Say Potato, I Say Yam: A starring ingredient on many Thanksgiving tables is a reminder of our national history. [New York Times]
• No complaint? No thanks [Chicago Tribune]

State Courts at the Tipping Point: State budget cuts are impeding core court functions, forcing court closures and narrowing of access to justice. [New York Times]

Race haunts politics: Will it ever be OK to go there without name-calling? [Chicago Tribune]

A home remedy: Paid sick leave could help deter spread of swine flu [Houston Chronicle]

Reform isn’t illegal: Congress has every authority to force every American to buy health insurance. [Washington Post]

False Alarm on Abortion? What is being overlooked in the abortion debate is the other benefits that expanded health insurance coverage could bring to women’s reproductive health. [New York Times]

A pro athlete’s lament: U.S. health care discriminates [USA Today]

Europe’s bland new leaders: Last week, Europe’s presidents and prime ministers finally had the chance to select an EU president and a foreign minister. [Boston Globe]

Who’s watching Glenn Beck? [LA Times]

Rhode Island bishop errs in targeting Patrick Kennedy: Bishop Thoms J. Tobin is within his rights to ask Representative Patrick Kennedy to refrain from seeking Holy Communion. Yet the standard to which the bishop is holding Kennedy for his views on abortion is unfair. [Boston Globe]

Keeping Personal Data Private: There are many important issues competing for Congress’s attention, but passing a law to keep people’s personal information safe should rank high on the list. [New York Times]

Concussions: Colleges should follow the pros – If the House Judiciary Committee can humble the National Football League into taking concussions more seriously, then it should reconvene to admonish the National Collegiate Athletic Association. [Boston Globe]

Sisters in arms: Remembering women who count their beatings in the once-fair country of Zimbabwe. [Washington Post]

The struggle after the fight: Pakistan can’t just kick out the Taliban. It must rebuild its tribal areas, too. [Philadelphia Inquirer]

Mahmoud Abbas, the Mideast’s big loser: A reported deal for an Israeli-Palestinian prisoner swap has benefits for all involved, except the weakened Palestinian Authority leader. [LA Times]

Caring for the elderly: It’s ironic that at a time when thousands of Americans are struggling to find appropriate care for their failing parents, the field of geriatric medicine appears to be vanishing. [Boston Globe]

Don’t Forget the Gulf States: Unless Congress acts quickly, more than 6,000 housing units for poor families might never get built in the Katrina-ravaged Gulf states. [New York Times]

Her love of ‘little plants’ lives on [USA Today]

To befriend or unfriend, that is the question [Chicago Tribune]

Health care polling reveals uncertainty [Chicago Tribune]

Health-care rationing: The honest solution to an out-of-control system. [Washington Post]

Obama’s Afghanistan strategy must be more than more troops: A plan that doesn’t also deal with the Karzai problem and economic development is doomed to failure. [LA Times]

Lonely superpowerdom: Obama may soon discover that there are no allies with which to work. [Washington Post]

Signs of Hope: The U.S. has the intellectual resources and expertise to lead in the development of clean energy. It just needs the will to make it happen. [New York Times]

Biotech bills give drugmakers too many years of exclusivity: The long-awaited Biotech bills emerging from the House and Senate give too many years of exclusivity to the original makers of biotech drugs [Boston Globe]

No ‘No More Wilderness’: The interior secretary, Ken Salazar, should reclaim the authority to identify wilderness study areas and protect them. [New York Times]

What do scientists think about religion? Members of the scientific community are often seen as doubting Thomases, but the reality is more complex. Even Charles Darwin may have made room for God. [LA Times]

An Obama gray: Where is the man who once demonstrated keen moral clarity? [Washington Post]

Turkey and the Kurds: Turkey’s plan to grant long-denied rights to its Kurdish minority, despite opposition from nationalist politicians, is a show of courage and good sense. [New York Times]  

The relentless ghost of Christmas future: In this holiday season, Charles Dickens would find that his own little ghost story, ”A Christmas Carol,” is still very much alive. [Boston Globe]

Television: Two standards, or too racy? There’s beauty in restraint. [Boston Globe]

The NFL tackles concussions: There’s nothing like being compared negatively to the tobacco industry to get a business’ attention. And so it is with the NFL. [USA Today]  

Weighing the benefits of a mammography: Although we all would like to think that public health pronouncements are the unmitigated truth about any issue, rarely is that the case. [LA Times]

Giving thanks in secular, holy ways: At Thanksgiving, the secular and religious impulses, usually taken to be antagonists, salute each other respect. [Boston Globe]

Ft. Hood and the bugaboo of ‘political correctness’: Look deeper at a killer and what do you usually find? An angry, crazy person. [LA Times]

The Church and the Capital: Washington lawmakers should negotiate the language of a same-sex marriage bill with the Catholic archdiocese without selling out same-sex couples. [New York Times]

Free speech: It’s the ACLU’s deal: For Americans liberal and  conservative, the organization continues to support their right to speak. [LA Times]

For American savers, the mattress beckons: Banks pay microscopic interest even as they recover. [Philadelphia Inquirer]

The Phantom Menace: The scare stories from Wall Street seem to be intimidating Washington from doing more to rescue the economy. [New York Times]

What the Pilgrims really sought: Their trip to the New World wasn’t about tolerance or diversity. It was about purity. [USA Today]

Tim DeChristopher’s wild legal ride: He disrupted an oil and gas lease auction last year by posing as a buyer. Now a judge has rejected his last-ditch defense strategy. [LA Times]  

Crunching the numbers on bioenergy rules: The right rules will encourage the development of fast-growing grasses and trees that can greatly increase the amount of carbon absorbed by plants on marginal land. [Boston Globe]

Hot times: As a crucial climate change conference nears, more evidence of a warming globe [Houston Chronicle]

Obama needs to feel the heat: The melting arctic ice is unimpressed with his climate-change efforts. [Washington Post]

A green future for old buildings: Many existing buildings, especially those built before World War II, embody environmental and energy-conscious design. [Boston Globe]  

GPS and Privacy Rights: A federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., should rule that police need a warrant before putting a GPS device on a suspect’s car. [New York Times]

Heal thyself: The slow reaction by the Department of Veterans Affairs to a flawed cancer-treatment program in Philadelphia suggests an agency that would rather forget its mistakes than learn from them. [Philadelphia Inquirer]  

Afghanistan Plan C: Obama tries to think his way around the all-in-or-all-out dilemma. [Washington Post]

In El Salvador, a grim reflection, and a glimmer of hope: The president has bestowed the country’s highest honor on six Jesuit priests massacred 20 years ago, more evidence that peaceful change is possible, if slow to come. [LA Times]

India and us: South Asia is a tar pit filled with failed and dysfunctional states, save for one. [Washington Post]  

Slang from the mouths of babes [Chicago Tribune]

From vinyl to digital, my obsession lives on: Technology has made the pursuit of our pleasures much easier. But in so doing, I often wonder if it has made them less sacred. [Boston Globe]

A Luddite in the library: Search engines are all well and good, but sometimes the best place to find something is a library. [LA Times]  

Myths and mammograms: Why you don’t need to fear the new screening guidelines. [Washington Post]

Testing our patients: The aim of medicine is, above all else, to do no harm. But one must wonder if that will be the case with a new medical recommendation on the detection of breast cancer. [Philadelphia Inquirer]

Breast cancer debate must strike a balance: My parents are complete opposites. My father is deeply rational, a chemist by trade and a man of science. My mother is more emotional, artistic and swayed by the power of one. She is whom advertisers had in mind when they invented the testimonial. [USA Today]

We can deliver health reform: The bills under discussion will put us on a path to a high-quality, low-cost system. [Washington Post]

Holder’s reasonable decision: Some of the prominent criticisms are exaggerated. [Washington Post]

Terrorism’s war of ideas: The concept of justice is a key battlefield and a way to show we practice what we preach. [Washington Post]

Iran’s iron fist [Chicago Tribune]

Cuba’s isolation begets abuses: Congress should heed those who have argued that free movement between the United States and Cuba offers the best chance of spreading democratic values and emboldening dissidents in the island nation. [Boston Globe]

Paper money that works for the blind [Chicago Tribune]

The end of sprawl: The phenomenon of sprawl has passed into history [Atlanta Journal-Constitution]

GOP now the Party of `Noooooooooo!’ [Chicago Tribune]

Iraq’s Election Law Morass: American officials need to help resolve the impasse over election laws in Iraq, and Iraqis must learn how to forge reliable compromises. [New York Times]

Lipstick on a rogue: Even women who are profoundly tired of the fact that we have to be overqualified to win are turned off by a celebrity pol who still will not admit she was wildly underqualified. [Boston Globe]

Sarah Palin doesn’t fit the ‘Rogue’ title [USA Today]

Fixing the music royalties system: Songwriters get royalties but not recording artists. Bills now being considered should pay performers fairly, protect against abuses by powerful industry players and promote the availability of music. [LA Times]

A Gift to Credit Card Companies: A Senate bill to move up the effective date of the law protecting consumers from predatory actions by the credit card industry should have become law already. [New York Times]

Clipping Bernanke’s wings: Why the Fed needs its independence from Congress. [Washington Post]

Homophobia and AIDS funding can’t coexist: The U.S. sends millions of dollars in relief money to Uganda, which is considering a draconian law aimed at homosexuals. [LA Times]

Choosing the public they school: Charters exclude the unlucky students whose parents can’t be bothered. [Philadelphia Inquirer]

The Wrong Side of History: Attempts to discredit the health reform proposals now before Congress resemble the flawed arguments made in the 1960s. [New York Times]

Lieberman and others should allow vote on health care [Atlanta Journal-Constitution]

The Breast Brouhaha [New York Times]

Taking a hit on health care? Why, that’s women’s work [Boston Globe]

A new mammogram Rx [Chicago Tribune]

Immigrants and the HPV vaccine: A flawed prescription: The U.S. finally saw the light and dropped its requirement that girls and women seeking a green card be vaccinated against the virus that causes cervical cancer. [LA Times]

The best of bad options: more troops, but not 40,000 [Boston Globe]

Mr. Obama’s Task: To move forward in Afghanistan, President Obama needs to explain the stakes, the aim of the war, the costs and his definition of success. [New York Times]

Afghans want Obama to hold Karzai’s feet to the fire: Additional troops and resources should be conditional on the cleaning up of Afghanistan’s government. [LA Times]

To succeed in Afghanistan, we must fail: The Afghan government must take responsibility for its own survival. [LA Times]

Asking questions: Congressmen are getting cranky about the work of a new independent House ethics board [Philadelphia Inquirer]

Sarah Palin and the conservative descent [Chicago Tribune]

GOP’s procedural torture: Stall tactics are making the Democrats look foolish, ineffectual and incompetent. [Washington Post]

Bailouts revisited [USA Today]

A shield for the public [Chicago Tribune]

Fort Hood shooting hearing is too little, too soon: Sen. Joe Lieberman’s rushed Senate inquiry is unlikely to provide any answers. [LA Times]

In Palestine, a ray of light: A state-building plan that deserves the endorsement of the U.S. [Washington Post]

Operating over the limit: Surgical residents at teaching hospitals are putting themselves and patients at risk by being forced to work shifts of 30 straight hours or more. [Boston Globe]

Civilian courts can fight terrorists too [Chicago Tribune]

Why We Should Put Jihad on Trial: If the Khalid Shaikh Mohammed trial provides a propaganda platform for anybody, it will be for our side. [New York Times]

Toward a federal ’shield law’ for journalists: A Senate bill is flawed but it’s better than the status quo. [LA Times]

Abortion fallacies: I’m opposed to the Stupak amendment, but it’s not worth killing health reform over. [Washington Post]

Health reform’s conservative roots: The health care reform option being considered in Congress bears a striking resemblance to the one created by the conservative 19th century German chancellor Otto von Bismarck. [Boston Globe]

Hunger in the United States: For President Obama to achieve his goal of wiping out child hunger by 2015, Congress needs to make federal nutrition programs a priority. [New York Times]

Sarah Palin’s lack of leadership shows in ‘Going Rogue’: The former Republican vice presidential candidate’s memoir instead illustrates what comes so easily to her: pointing fingers. [LA Times]

Church, state and gay marriage: The Council of the District of Columbia is right to stand firm against the Catholic Church on the issue of same-sex marriage. [LA Times]

That mess with China: Many said a trade pact would end the trade imbalance. The opposite occurred. [Washington Post]

Can we retrain terrorists? Rehabilitating jihadis is controversial and difficult. But we may have to consider it. [Philadelphia Inquirer]

Another Round of Regulatory Reform: If senators really want strong financial reform, they must not give into lobbies trying to weaken the plan as it makes its way through the legislative process. [New York Times]

Can we boldly go? Maybe someone should stick a copy of The Right Stuff into the DVD player tomorrow night on President Obama’s long flight back from his mission to Asia. [Philadelphia Inquirer]

The Drug Industry Cashes In: Given the drug industry’s last-minute price increases, the Senate should abandon its deal with the industry and impose tougher demands. [New York Times]

Don’t forget renters – again: Now that the $8,000 federal tax credit for home buyers has been extended, it’s time for Congress and the president to move quickly on another front: providing resources to develop rental housing for low-income Americans. [Philadelphia Inquirer]