It seems lately that every time I hear more about the congressional health-care push, I find myself remembering Cool Hand Luke. I’m talking about the scene where the warden tells the assembled prisoners that the relationship between himself and Luke is marred by “a failure to communicate.” He feels that, despite his, that is, the warden’s best efforts, he has not been able to communicate important information to Luke. Information that is for Luke’s own good, if he would just take it to heart.

There sure were a lot of people talking about what actually caused the majority party to lose the Massachusetts senate seat to the minority party in the special election last week. In the world of politics, and in the world of odds makers, it was a pretty big deal for Scott Brown to beat Martha Coakley.

Just when you thought all the celebration for the New Year was over – our area chamber of commerce groups have announced plans for several annual chamber festivities in the coming weeks.

I’ve heard a lot of lip service being paid to the need for creation of jobs by the administration and the majority party in congress.

What’s in a name? Everything.
There is a reason companies spend huge sums of money creating and branding themselves. Achieving name-brand recognition is a great thing.

Sometimes all the talk about terrorism gets a little confusing to me. Or maybe I should say the lack of talk about terrorism gets confusing. There seems to be a tendency in the new administration to talk differently than the past administration about the people and organizations that seem bent on killing as many Americans as possible for no other reason than they don’t like our culture, or what they think of as our culture.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve wasted a lot of time with wishful thinking, particularly over the last year. A few examples: Gee, I wish we had term limits. Man, I wish there was some way to actually have a dialogue with my elected representatives. Dang, I wish the people who swear to protect and defend the Constitution actually did it. 

The community does not always like to read or hear about crime in the community.  Unfortunately, we had three homicides – all gang related – in 2009.

The discussions surrounding the federal imposition of mandated health insurance has generated far more than its share of remarkable rhetoric, but some of the most non-germane and amusing instances of it I’ve seen and heard is from a group calling itself Rock the Vote.

Resolution – another word for a declaration, a pledge, a promise, a vow or an oath.  I don’t understand why people wait for the New Year to start to resolve to better themselves.