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In A Barnum And Maytag World

Today, let us celebrate dirty laundry. But before we do… At least there is one thing most Americans are united on these days: Americans are divided. The State of the Union circus was proof of that. As was the impeachment. As was the Mueller Report. Politics? Economics? Major social issues? This is the Age of Disagreement. A lot of it poisonous. I know, I know. You probably disagree with me on that. Viciously. Seriously, have you lost a few friends over political and social issues the last few years? Do some pals avoid you because you love or hate this president? Or because of the ...

It’s Important To Find The Right Person For The District

As most of the community is aware, last Tuesday Dr. Apthorpe announced publicly his intention to retire at the end of the current school year. For many people in the district and the community, this was not easy news to hear. From a personal standpoint, I enjoy working with Dr. Apthorpe and I have always believed that everything he does, he does with the best interest of our students and the entire district in mind. In that same spirit, I know that is why he informed Mr. Slagle and I of his plans a few weeks ago. Dr. Apthorpe was already doing what he could to put the district in the ...

Preparing For Retirement Often Includes The Use Of An IRA

Question: Do you know anything about the required minimum Distribution changing for my IRA? Answer: I want to say this column is not meant to give financial advice, but I have learned a lot about RMD’s and IRA’s in the last few weeks. I will try to pass along what I have learned. When preparing for retirement, we are trying to save and set aside money for this period of their lives. This process often includes setting up an Individual Retirement Account (IRA). A traditional IRA contribution is pre-tax money set aside in the IRA for later use. This means that the money placed in ...

What Will Stop Google’s Kiddie Predators

How much more evidence do we need to compile before the federal government protects our children and fully deplatforms Google from American public schools? The Silicon Valley behemoth has already admitted it illegally collected children’s personal information on YouTube without parental consent, mines students’ browsing habits and emails, and tracks kids’ locations, audio and search history through Google educational apps and logons that are required for millions of students to participate in public schools. Well, there’s more. Much more. Let us review the most recent ...

Palestinians Should Give Peace Plan A Chance

President Donald Trump’s brilliant plan for Mideast peace has triggered a sandstorm of negativity and deflection from the regular naysayers who attack anything the president says and does. Critics of his recently unveiled peace aimed at resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict should instead scrutinize the document and recognize its merits. This peace plan was carefully crafted over multiple years under the leadership of Jared Kushner, relying heavily on expert economic analysis, intelligence data and security assessments. Kushner deserves credit for preparing this thorough ...

The Common Good Is Best Served By Ignoring It

Developed societies are those in which the common good has been multiplied many times, over a long period of time. It may seem paradoxical that such things happen in spite of virtually all of those societies pretty much ignoring the common good during the period of greatest advancement. Along the same lines, those societies that hold the common good as the ultimate good, in virtually all cases, either don’t develop or decline in prosperity and in the resulting common good. Paradoxes don’t exist in reality, and this is no exception. The common good is nothing but the accumulated ...