AnnotatedOpinions.com

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]  

Let’s end the War on Drugs [Atlanta Journal-Constitution]

Growth, at last [Chicago Tribune]

Too Little of a Good Thing: The Obama stimulus plan is helping, but it not nearly enough. Unless something changes, high unemployment will continue for years to come. [New York Times]

Six Tests for Equality and Fairness: Political battles in six jurisdictions could have a profound impact on whether the United States will extend the right to marry to same-sex couples. [New York Times]

So what if they promote it? Let’s suppose, for a moment, that conservative critics are correct: Gay educators want to “promote homosexuality” in American schools. [Philadelphia Inquirer]

Police these pills and powders: Congress should give the FDA the power it now lacks to regulate the dietary supplements industry. [Boston Globe]

Don’t count illegal immigrants? That doesn’t add up [LA Times]

‘Public option’ politics: The government-run option is a good compromise, but lawmakers avoided dealing with its true cost. [LA Times]

What’s next for health care: The battle now is not about whether to pass a bill, it’s over how to define the product. [Washington Post]

Adrift in an ocean of complexity: The important work of being informed about public issues has been crowded out of our lives at the very time that big money has found a way to insinuate itself into nearly every cavity of government. [Boston Globe]

Saving the news [Chicago Tribune]

The Court and Your Savings: Congress wisely put limits on the ability of mutual funds to overcharge investors. The Supreme Court needs to give the law the power that Congress intended. [New York Times]

Superpowers with super problems: Most Russians are peculiarly willing to accept their place. This is a horrifying idea to most Americans, who have deeply absorbed our sense of a Jeffersonian democracy. [Boston Globe]

Afghanistan’s drug war: The farmers aren’t the enemy – Opium cultivation and heroin production fuel corruption and aid the Taliban, but targeting the growers isn’t the answer. [LA Times]

Inside Iran’s opposition: Even if its leaders supplant the current regime, the biggest changes might be of style. [Washington Post]

Our sense of troubled normalcy returns: One year after the financial panic was at full bore the US economy is more shackled than ever to a military budget, which is money spent, for all its benefits, on death. [Boston Globe]

We’re killing communication: At 78 years old, I can authoritatively say that ‘talking’ isn’t what it used to be [USA Today]

The Shepard Fairey-AP case: A clearer picture: The dispute over the popular Obama poster gives the courts a chance to better explain what is fair use of creative works. [LA Times]

Cape Wind: The Wampanoag tribes’ attempt to block a clean energy project off the Massachusetts coast should be rejected by the responsible federal and state officials. [New York Times]

Wind power might blow a hole in bird populations: Some species will not nest near the turbines, while eagles, hawks and migratory flocks can be cut down by the spinning blades. [LA Times]

Shale game: A boom in natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania will ease energy demands and boost the state economy. But there’s reason to be concerned that environmental regulators won’t be able to keep up with this new gold rush. [Philadelphia Inquirer]

Science, faith used to be allies: Tellingly, President Obama’s pick to head the National Institutes of Health — Francis Collins — touts this symbiotic relationship today. In recent years, some Americans have come to view science and religion as consistent antagonists, butting heads over everything from the origin of the cosmos to when human life begins (abortion) and when it ends (euthanasia). [USA
Today]  

As Baucus bill skimps, health reform suffers: Many young, healthy people will forego insurance and pay the penalty, leaving their families unprotected and depriving the insurance industry of the younger, healthier people it needs in order to accept those with preexisting conditions. It’s a flawed bill that needs to be improved on the Senate floor. [Boston Globe]

Insurers push back: Lawmakers will have to address the issues of policy affordability and penalties for not buying coverage. [LA Times]

Fix Baucus’ health reform Rx: Three big changes Democrats must make for the bill to work [New York Daily News]

Fight obesity by taxing calories: It’s time to fight back against the corn peddlers who are making our children fat. [USA Today]

When in doubt, move fast against terror suspects: The New York police are getting heat for arresting a prominent terrorism suspect before the FBI could unravel all the strands of his plot. But the evidence suggests the police were right to move quickly. [Boston Globe]

Ohio’s botched executions: Lethal injection proves, in several cases, to cross the line into cruel and unusual punishment. [LA Times]

That Promised Financial Reform: For lawmakers to deliver robust financial reform to protect the American public, they must resist the lobbying power of the banking industry. [New York Times]

Who’ll Curb Wall Street? The folks who keep the profits and give us the risk are winning a battle against reform. [Washington Post]

Keeping the aircraft carrier fleet afloat: Before recommending the Navy reduce the number of carriers, the Pentagon should consider the unique contributions they make to national security. [Boston Globe]

President Barack Obama has to decide whether gays and lesbians will be allowed to serve openly in the military. [Chicago Tribune]

Give them a break: Larger VA problems persist [Houston Chronicle]

A Clearer Look at Drilling: The Obama administration must further its promise to take a sensible approach to energy exploration by protecting the Arctic. [New York Times]

Petulance and Peace Prize [Chicago Tribune]

Are women unhappier? Don’t make me laugh: A study says women have become steadily more miserable since 1972, causing some to point a finger at feminism. But the research doesn’t pass the giggle test. [LA Times]

Enough With the Firsts: Elinor Ostrom’s Nobel in economics reminds us how many ceilings have yet to be cracked. [Washington Post]

One Protection for Prisoners: To shackle female prisoners while they give birth is barbaric and may be unconstitutional. [New York Times]

Why too thin isn’t ‘in’ [USA Today]

Author’s pen is mightier than China’s sword: Nurmuhemmet Yasin’s “The Wild Pigeon” is clearly a political allegory, a short story about dignity, integrity, and pride in the face of cultural and territorial erasure. Those who love stories and poems and plays and essays, should urge China to free him. [Boston Globe]

My mother and sister, prisoners of China’s Communist Party: The U.S. must put pressure on Beijing to end its brutal persecution of Falun Gong adherents. [LA Times]

That Karzai conundrum – We’re likely stuck with the Afghan president, but perhaps we can change his behavior: Sometime this week, we may learn who the president of Afghanistan is. Or we may not. Imagine: As President Obama wrestles with whether to send more troops to fight the Afghan Taliban, it’s still unclear whether the sitting president, Hamid Karzai, won the majority required to avoid a runoff. [Philadelphia Inquirer]

Excesses of private equity put mattress firm on death bed: The government should adjust the federal dividend tax rate to give buyout firms an incentive to stay invested in companies longer, rather than quickly ducking out after paying their investors. [Boston Globe]

How many soldiers? Political opponents of President Obama are trying to convince the public that he is retreating from his stated goal to stop Afghanistan from again becoming a base for terrorists who target the United States. [Philadelphia Inquirer]

Making the case for a ‘public option’ [Chicago Tribune]

The Baucus Conundrum: The Baucus health care bill has weaknesses, but a version of it is likely to pass, so members of Congress should get engaged and fight to make it better. [New York Times]

Taxing ‘Cadillac’ plans [Chicago Tribune]

Waste Not, Want Not: The Key to Reducing Costs [Washington Post]

Another Kind of Foreclosure Crisis: The foreclosure crisis is exacerbated by a shortage of lawyers for at-risk homeowners. Lawmakers need to provide money and legislation to make legal options more accessible. [New York Times]

Same old, same old for women on the verge: Any day now, women are expected to overtake men in the American workforce. Sadly, the wage gap hasn’t closed. Women working full time now make 77 cents for every dollar men earn, which is just about where the ratio was in 1993. [Boston Globe]

The price of overdraft protection: Consumers may not realize they’re using the short-term loans, which can run up substantial fees. [LA Times]

The Texas two-step on gay divorce: One of the strange side effects of the patchwork of gay-straight laws governing marriage is their impact on ending marriage. And there is something charming about watching conservative politicians in Texas trying so ardently to preserve one same-sex marriage. [Boston Globe]

Why We March: Let’s no longer pretend that civil rights do not include rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans. [Washington Post]

The Uneducated American: Education in America, suffering for years, is about to get much worse thanks to cuts caused by the financial crisis. [New York Times]

Distinguishing bad pictures from bad acts: By Craig Green This week, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in what could be a landmark free-speech case, United States v. Stevens. Like most free-speech cases, Stevens involves expression that is easy to dislike. [Philadelphia Inquirer]

Protect the Atlantic bluefin tuna: Commercial overfishing has slashed the population of this ocean giant. [LA Times]

Benefits of swine flu vaccine greatly exceed the risks [USA Today]

The Law and Silvio Berlusconi: By overturning a law granting Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi immunity from prosecution, Italy’s high court made a decision that is good for Italian democracy. [New York Times]

End the Honduras standoff: Prolonging the crisis does nothing but push the country closer to instability and economic problems. [LA Times]

Bringing Syria in from the cold: The Obama administration’s smart strategy to reconfigure the Middle East chessboard. [Boston Globe]

The New Energy Politics: Though young and vulnerable, two freshman House members push cap-and-trade. [Washington Post]

The U.S. in Iraq: An economics lesson: Going forward, the debacle hopefully has taught us to set aside money for our veterans, crack down on fraud and be honest about the costs of war. [LA Times]

Dishonoring our troops: Backlog of vets’ claims shameful Houston leads nation in shameful backlog of veterans’ benefit claims. [Houston Chronicle]

A Win for Bank Customers: Congress should support the Obama administration’s proposal to create a new agency to regulate consumer finance. [New York Times]

Going slowly on gay rights: President Obama extended an olive branch to gay-rights activists this week who are upset that he hasn’t moved fast enough on issues important to them. [Philadelphia
Inquirer]

The Race Issue: Are we in the ‘post racial age’ or is the Supreme Court jumping the gun? [Washington Post]

A bare minimum of student privacy [Chicago Tribune]

China is the key to North Korea: If Beijing threatened to cut off trade, it could persuade Pyongyang to give up on nuclear weapons. There are ways President Obama can help make that happen. [LA Times]

The Overhead Rack: A new bill that limits the size of luggage on airplanes is a simple but smart idea to enforce carry-on rules at the security checkpoint, not on the plane. [New York Times]

The recession is making us sick: “Recession obesity” is the term du
jour for the unhealthy side effects. [Boston Globe]

Forget subprime; loan given to a loved one can haunt longest [Atlanta
Journal-Constitution]

Unhealthy numbers: Bankruptcies, uncontrolled costs argue convincingly for health-care reform [Houston Chronicle]

The Supreme Court’s DNA ruling: Wrong on rights: Themajority opinion by five conservative justice belittles the protections of
the Bill of Rights. [LA Times]

Unparalleled and Denied: It is appalling that the Supreme Court ruled against post-conviction DNA testing that might prove a prisoner’s
innocence. [New York Times]

How not to help Iranians: The popular uprising in Iran is no reason for President Obama to fan the flames. [Boston Globe]

Fragile at the Core: The Iranian elections have stirred a whirlwind that will lead, someday, to the regime’s collapse. [New York Times]

Raw Politics: Unarmed Iranians defying soldiers with guns — the stuff of which revolutions are made. [Washington Post]

Another predictable Supreme Court: As the Senate is poised to confirm Obama’s creditable nominee, let’s pause to consider the many jurists who were not nominated to the court. [Boston Globe]

Enviro monster mash: Cap-and-trade [Chicago Tribune]

Immigration: It’s Time: As illegal immigrants wait for a legalization bill, they are suffering under unjust laws and corrupt policing that routinely suppresses their rights. [New York Times]

Colombia’s refusal to extradite guerrilla leader is the correct call: Even though Americans were allegedly among his captives, Martin Sombra’s countrymen need to see him face justice in their own country. [LA Times]

Gays in the Military: Let the Evidence Speak [Washington Post]

North Korea’s Threats: The new sanctions adopted by the United Nations Security Council must be enforced if there is any chance of deterring more dangerous actions by North Korea. [New York Times]

Follow the money in Rx debate [Atlanta Journal-Constitution]

Netanyahu’s juggling act: His sudden acceptance of a Palestinian state is less than it appears. [Boston Globe]

Should U.S. deny citizenship to children of illegal immigrants? Two views [Atlanta Journal-Constitution]

The devil and the FDA: As Congress and President Obama move closer toward bringing tobacco products under federal oversight for the first time, they have to wonder if they’re also making a pact with the devil. [Philadelphia Inquirer]

Malpractice and Health Care Reform: President Obama’s promise to
help doctors limit their vulnerability to malpractice lawsuits is a
reasonable offer, but only if malpractice reform is done carefully. [New York Times]

Obama’s restraint on Iran: The Obama White House seems to be taking a page from the first President Bush’s 1989 playbook. [Boston Globe]

Decline of the American male: The recession has been particularly unkind to men and has larger implications for their health, safety and well-being. The Obama administration should address this disparity. [USA Today]

Obama’s gay rights gap: The president has done precious little to advance gay rights, despite campaign promises. [LA Times]

The hurdles to expanded healthcare: One came Monday in the form of a Congressional Budget Office analysis. [Boston Globe]

Iran’s election opens generational fissure: The split between younger Iranians and their revolutionary or religious elders presents risks to the nation and the reason. [LA Times]

Governor’s decision to reject stimulus puts Texas on hook [Houston Chronicle]

Pilots and Fatigue: Federal officials need to rewrite the decades-old rules that govern how long pilots can fly before they rest. [New York Times]

Iran election letdown: Sometimes you want something so badly that you convince yourself it is within your grasp even when, in truth, it remains elusive. [Philadelphia Inquirer]

Ahmadinejad’s coup d’etat: Obama’s offer to negotiate with the Islamic republic must stand, even if Ahmadinejad remains as president.
The nuclear issue is that important. [Boston Globe]

What now on Iran? Though the validity of its presidential election is in doubt, a hard-line stance by the U.S. seems counterproductive. [LA
Times]

 Iran’s leaders caught in storm they created [Chicago Tribune]

What Do Iranians Want? We can’t know precisely what different parts of the society think. [Washington Post]

Obama’s choice is not to choose on Iran [LA Times]

A Bad Call on Gay Rights: In the presidential campaign, President Obama declared that he would work to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act. Now, the administration appears to be defending it. [New York Times]

In regulating tobacco, Congress overcomes industry’s pack of lies [Houston Chronicle]

Texting is not talking: The communication method du jour has a downside for teenagers — and not just for their thumbs and their parents’ wallets. [Boston Globe]

The permanent recession: It’s no secret that America’s educational system doesn’t stack up well with the rest of the world. What’s not as front and center is that this underachieving has a dramatic economic toll, too. [USA Today]

Freedom on a small island with a big heart [Boston Globe]

Climate Trap: If China and the United States cannot agree on a common climate change strategy, atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide are likely to reach potentially disastrous levels. [New York
Times]

When diabetics would prefer AIDS [Boston Globe]

Curing cancer is within our grasp [Atlanta Journal-Constitution]

A Prop. 8 win-win: By substituting ‘civil union’ for ‘marriage’ in state law, both sides could live happily ever after. [LA Times]

The Publishing Judge: The deterrent value of Judge Ricardo M. Urbina’s approach of sentencing the guilty to write books is questionable. [New York Times]

The Return of Capitalism: It’s the most productive economic engine we’ve yet invented — despite the flaws. [Washington
Post]

Half-Baked Alaska: Sarah Palin still isn’t ready for the Big Game Hunt of national politics. [Washington Post]

A legal shootout over the right to own a gun: Conflicting court opinions gun may result in linking the 2nd Amendment with the 14th. [LA Times]

The Ban on Gays in the Military: Washington needs to move forward on eliminating the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that is unfair to gay men and women, as well as damaging to the military. [New York Times]

Humane Capitalism: Is Obama going against a global tide by pushing social democratic capitalism? [Washington Post]

Bill puts tobacco under FDA supervision: Although not perfect, the legislation would subject the industry to the regulatory control of the Food and Drug Administration. [LA Times]

Air crash connections: At first glance, three recent airline accidents appear to have little in common. [USA Today]

Truth in Teaching: Education reform will go nowhere until the states are forced to revamp corrupt teacher evaluation systems. [New York Times]

No Quota Queen: Sotomayor didn’t just choose sides based on race in the firefighters’ case. [Washington Post]

Pawns of Pyongyang: North Korea’s imprisonment of two American journalists poses a diplomatic challenge for the U.S. [LA Times]

Pay Pals: Senator Christopher Dodd should go after, not cozy up to, the payday-loan industry for its egregious exploitation of people’s desperation. [New York Times]

In Kenya, A marvelous story of perseverance [Chicago Tribune]

Cheney Lost to Bush: President Obama and Dick Cheney dueled at the dais over nitty-gritty details of American anti-terror policy. [New York Times]

Age of Umbrage: Does it really matter if Miss California is behind the times on gay marriage? [Washington Post]

The Real Path to Security: President Obama was exactly right when he said Americans do not have to choose between security and their democratic values. [New York Times]

GOP’s Downward Spiral: Republicans try to rename Democrats, but they’re the ones with an identity crisis. [Washington Post]

Betting on a strategist: Israeli-American relations [Chicago Tribune]

India’s elections: A welcome vote for growth and prosperity in the world’s most populous democracy [Houston Chronicle]