Daily Archives: Feb. 3, 2007

Open thread

Feb. 3, 20071:04 a.m.

By Phillip Brownlee | Filed under Open thread | Comments (28)

Barack is like Clinton; Hillary is like Gore

Feb. 3, 20071:03 a.m.

“The truly Clintonian figure running for the Democratic nomination is Barack Obama,” Ruth Marcus wrote in a commentary in Friday’s Opinion pages. “The senator from Illinois, it’s struck me lately, seems in many ways more like Bill Clinton than does the senator from New York.”
Marcus noted the superficial similarities, such as their humble backgrounds and absent fathers. But Obama is most like Bill Clinton in his ability and desire to find the middle on issues and in his amazing people skills.
What about Hillary? “If Obama is the Clintonian figure in the race, Hillary Clinton may be Al Gore, more disciplined policy wonk than natural politician,” Marcus wrote. “Like Gore, Hillary Clinton can be more adroit intellectually than politically; both face the challenge, fair or not, of convincing voters of their ‘authenticity.’”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee

By Phillip Brownlee | Filed under Presidential race | Comments (110)

Legislators right to look into Larned hospital

Feb. 3, 20071:02 a.m.

The “inhumane” conditions at Larned State Hospital, as detailed in a Kansas Department of Health and Environment report, included “multiple unsafe, unclean and unsanitary areas,” and frigid and scalding showers.
As we say in our editorial on today’s Opinion page, state lawmakers deserve credit for looking into the problems and trying to look out for these patients, who have serious and dangerous psychiatric conditions.
It’s no comfort that about three-quarters of the violations were in areas that house the sexual predator treatment program. Those patients may not inspire a lot of public sympathy, but their living conditions cannot be such that their constitutional rights are violated.
Posted by Rhonda Holman

By Phillip Brownlee | Filed under Health and safety | Comments (21)

Exposing the dark side of mannequins

Feb. 3, 20071:01 a.m.

As you’ve probably read, the Wichita Police Department is using a mannequin, Officer Dolly, to slow down speeders. My column points to other possible uses for dummies — to give a lively feel to WaterWalk, say, or keep the Wranglers here in Wichita.
Before police go too far down this road, though, they should investigate the national outbreak of mannequin-on-human violence.
Mannequins, it seems, have a dark side.
Posted by Randy Scholfield

By Phillip Brownlee | Filed under Sedgwick County | Comments (12)

Senators have it safer than shoe sellers

Feb. 3, 20071:00 a.m.

Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., mocked cowardly senators last week by saying that, “If you wanted a safe job, go sell shoes.” But Mark Laswell noted in the Wall Street Journal that shoe sellers, not including Al Bundy (in photo), don’t exactly have safe jobs.
“In the past two months alone, according to police reports, robbers have struck several shoe stores across the country. A Payless ShoeSource store in Philadelphia was held up on Jan. 16. At another Payless, in Palm Bay, Fla., near Melbourne, a man with a knife robbed the store on Dec. 26 and then demanded a kiss from a female clerk, police said. (Reader, she kissed him.) At the Boynton Beach Mall in Florida on Christmas Eve, according to police, a gang confrontation in a shoe store turned violent, leaving one victim dead from a gunshot wound. On Dec. 10 at the Shoe Biz store in South Bend, Ind., a man posing as a customer asked about children’s shoes and then threatened to ‘get violent’ unless he was given money. An employee handed over the store’s cash; the man also stole her cell phone. On and on the police blotter goes.”
OK, so maybe senators have it easy in comparison.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee

By Phillip Brownlee | Filed under Iraq | Comments (12)