New Haven Independent

Opinion | December 28, 2009

What's Next

by Steve Kalb | December 28, 2009 8:29 AM | Permalink

With this year all but behind us let's throw caution and good sense to the wind and try and guess what next year will be like. Last year's 2009 crystal ball was pretty cloudy. I managed to hit only a couple and completely missed on a few, most notably the collapse of the banking and financial system.

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Opinion | December 15, 2009

Greetings

by Steve Kalb | December 15, 2009 11:12 AM | Permalink

A few years ago I thought for sure that by now I would be writing the epitaph of paper greeting cards. It seemed all too obvious that they would be replaced by the flood of e-cards which seemingly show up in my email box around every holiday and birthday. E-cards are free, and everyone loves free.

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Opinion | December 2, 2009

More Bang, Less Bucks

by Steve Kalb | December 2, 2009 11:53 AM | Permalink

If the eyeball counters are right, about 195 million Americans found their way to malls and stores over the long holiday weekend.

That is up 23 million from last year. But if a National Retail Federation survey is right then all that traffic didn't mean much. Even though traffic was up, the average person spent $30 less than last year.

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Opinion | November 16, 2009

Bring 'Em Back Alive

by Steve Kalb | November 16, 2009 10:26 AM | Permalink

(Opinon) In a stunningly brilliant move, the Obama Administration has decided to do the unthinkable. It wants actually to bring terrorists to justice.

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Opinion | November 13, 2009

Why Democrats Watch Fox News

by Paul Bass | November 13, 2009 7:13 AM | Permalink

The following opinion article, about lessons of the aftermath of a New London eminent domain case that went to the Supreme Court, originally appeared in condensed form on the New York Times website. (Click here to read the latest news development that prompted the Times to solicit a range of opinion articles on the subject.)

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Opinion | November 6, 2009

Sick & Tired

by Steve Kalb | November 6, 2009 8:55 AM | Permalink

It is too bad U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman wasn't on line with me at the drugstore last week. Being there might have changed his opinion of the "public option" in our current health care debate.

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Opinion | October 19, 2009

Elect Whom?

by Steve Kalb | October 19, 2009 10:38 AM | Permalink

Election day is near, and there are campaign signs growing everywhere.

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Opinion | October 9, 2009

Txt-me-ltr

by Steve Kalb | October 9, 2009 10:02 AM | Permalink

Eighteen states and the District of Columbia have banned texting while driving. You know -- the insane act of typing into a keyboard one-half the size of a pack of Marlboros all the while piloting 2500-plus pounds of steel and plastic down the road at speeds upwards of 65 miles per hour.

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Opinion | September 21, 2009

McThought

by Steve Kalb | September 21, 2009 2:30 PM | Permalink

It had to happen sooner or later. The rush to be "first" with news completely supplanted any thought about being "accurate."

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Opinion | September 17, 2009

How Foreclosure Really Works

by Staff | September 17, 2009 9:00 PM | Permalink

By Andy Ross

On August 8th, 2009, the Wall Street Journal published an opinion piece titled "How to Save an Underwater Mortgage" that was penned by Martin Feldstein - despite the fact that is was fraught with egregious errors and irresponsibly misleading information the Wall Street Journal did not publish the letter I sent to them setting the record straight.

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Opinion | September 7, 2009

Rell Veto Abets Swine Flu

by Steve Kalb | September 7, 2009 8:46 PM | Permalink

The nation's hospitals are gearing up for 1.8 million cases of H1N1 related hospital admissions this fall into next spring.

From colleges to day care centers in every city, town and hamlet from Miami to Minneapolis, San Francisco to Bar Harbor, the message is to keep the sick away from the healthy and do everything possible to stop the spread of the disease.

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Opinion | September 7, 2009

Long-Term Care: Grandma at 97

by Josiah Brown | September 7, 2009 7:39 PM | Permalink

Promoting health reform, President Obama observed, "I just lost my grandmother last year. I know what it's like to watch somebody you love who's aging deteriorate, and have to struggle with that."

My grandmother is 97. Widowed for a quarter century, she has endured broken hips and limbs, bouts of pneumonia, the loss of much of her hearing and sight, and the surgical savaging of her face to remove skin cancers. She left her home ten years ago, residing since in nursing facilities. These hardships suggest strength of character but cannot capture her life. Her experiences also evoke the challenge of providing long-term care amid debate over health costs, coverage, and quality.

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Opinion | August 24, 2009

A Taxing Situation

by Steve Kalb | August 24, 2009 10:26 AM | Permalink

With no new discussions in sight, Connecticut remains one of the two states that been unable to fashion a tax and spending package for the coming year.

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Opinion | August 10, 2009

Just Turn It Off

by Steve Kalb | August 10, 2009 10:07 AM | Permalink

It took me a day or so to figure out why the pictures of town hall meetings turning into town brawls bothered me so much. It wasn't just that public discourse had been hijacked by a loud few. It was the realization that politics and governance have been reduced to "winning" and "losing." And if democracy happens to be the loser, well, no one is thinking that far ahead.

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Opinion | July 26, 2009

Find Me A Doc

by Steve Kalb | July 26, 2009 9:20 PM | Permalink

I should know better than to try and watch TV at 2 in the morning. The dial is littered with people trying to sell me everything from exercise machines to something that will "cleanse my colon" to the secret of making millions on the internet.

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Opinion | July 6, 2009

Good Riddance

by Steve Kalb | July 6, 2009 9:30 AM | Permalink

It is a good thing John McCain and Sarah Palin didn't get elected. Not just because Palin is the poster child for the intellectually challenged, but because she is no better than a spoiled child.

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Opinion | June 22, 2009

They Call This Stuff The News

by Steve Kalb | June 22, 2009 4:18 PM | Permalink

There was real news this past weekend, and the networks along with most of the cable channels stayed home.

If you had hoped to turn on the TV to find out what was some call an uprising and others an insurrection in Iran, your choices were pretty much limited to two of the cable noise networks: CNN and FOX.

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Opinion | June 8, 2009

Drunken Logic

by Steve Kalb | June 8, 2009 11:24 AM | Permalink

Amazingly, Connecticut remains one of the seven states in the U.S. where people can drive around with an open bottle of alcohol nearby, so long as they are not drinking it. Or not seen drinking it.

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Opinion | May 26, 2009

Execute This

by Steve Kalb | May 26, 2009 7:47 AM | Permalink

I was thrilled when I heard that the legislature voted to abolish the death penalty in Connecticut. I have a unique perspective on this whole "kill-the-killers" mentality.

I watched the state do it.

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Opinion | May 11, 2009

Competitive Edge

by Steve Kalb | May 11, 2009 8:30 AM | Permalink

Almost any idiot can tell you that 12.2 cents is more than 10.4 cents. (Actually, 12.2 cents is 14.7 percent more than 10.4 cents.)

That is unless you are a legislator in Hartford, who voted (mostly on party lines) late last month to re-regulate the state's electric rates so that you and I can pay the 12.2 cents per kilowatt for electricity rather than around 10.4.

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