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Orchids & onions

ORCHID: To Warren City Councilman Greg Thumm, D-at Large, and his brother Augie Thumm for their passionate commitment to preserving a historic surveying marker erected by Gen. Simon Perkins in 1816 in front of what is now the Thumm Bike and Clock Shop in downtown Warren. Sadly, that marker has been hidden from public view since about 1900 when the city filled in the area surrounding it with 18 feet of dirt. Thanks to the generosity of the Dillin Co., which is overseeing a major revitalization plan for the city’s downtown, the marker may soon be visible once again. According to the ...

Commit to cut trend of rising cycle carnage

Over the past two months, roadways in the Mahoning Valley have fast become concrete killing fields for motorcyclists. The proof is in the data: Since August no fewer than six individuals have lost their lives while riding motorcycles in Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties. The fatalities included a 64-year-old Salem man traversing state Route 45 in Lordstown, a 42-year-old Cortland woman who struck horses along state Route 46 in Bazetta, an 18-year-old Youngstown man struck by a vehicle turning into an East Side apartment complex and a 61-year-old Lisbon man hit by a turning ...

The tsunami of campaign ads

You can’t escape them unless you turn off the TV. One after another with barely enough time for commercials hawking adult diapers and a cure for toe fungus they come. They are repetitious and annoying. One candidate promises to lower gas and grocery prices and criticizes the incumbent for not doing so (as if politicians can control the market). Another candidate sits on a toilet, and the ad calls for his socialist opponent to be “flushed.” Still another speaks of improving education. We are already spending record amounts on education so what’s the point? None of the ads I’ve ...

If Hegseth wants to strip military of weirdos, he should resign

Where did this guy come from? How did a TV personality end up leading America’s defense department, especially in a time of war? Donald Trump put Pete Hegseth in charge of the Department of Defense. It’s now officially called the War Department, but I’m not ready to go there. In one of his stranger announcements, Hegseth vowed to rid the U.S. military of “weirdos” and “beardos.” Sure enough, Hegseth does not have a beard, unlike the “beardo” Ulysses S. Grant or his Confederate opponent, Robert E. Lee. As for the weirdo part, well ... the jury’s out for ...

The tyranny of one man’s opinion

Thomas Cromwell was the Lord Chancellor of England for much of the reign of King Henry VIII. He engineered the convictions and executions of many whom Henry wanted out of the way, including his two predecessors in office — one of whom was St. Thomas More — and even the king’s second wife, Queen Anne. When Cromwell’s son Gregory, who became sickened as he watched his father devolving from counselor to monster, learned that an executioner for the queen had been sent for from France a week before her trial, he asked his father what the purpose of her trial was if the king had ...

Remembering false gloom, doom of 1992 elections, and the upcoming midterms

In 1992, Bill Clinton won the presidential election partly on the basis of his campaign’s false accusation that George H. W. Bush had overseen “the worst economic performance since the Great Depression.” Or so claimed Clinton’s running mate Al Gore. James Carville, chief campaign adviser to Clinton/Gore, amplified that message with the constant refrain: “It’s the economy, stupid.” That strategy worked for three reasons. First, third-party candidate Ross Perot siphoned off nearly 19% of the vote. Most of his supporters would otherwise likely have gone to Bush. Perot ...