|
March 31, 2001
Editorials
Remember Afghanistan's women
Under Islam, all depictions of the human form in art are blasphemous, according to Afghanistan's Taleban Islamic militia. For that reason it claimed a religious duty to destroy all of the centuries-old statues in the country.
A rebate has merit
A plan for an immediate $300 rebate for every taxpayer would be fairer and more responsible than the president's proposed $1.6-trillion cut.
Don't repeal runoff primary
The Florida Senate is raking up what ought to stay buried if it is serious about trying to repeal the runoff primary, as President John McKay is hinting. Every previous session that took up the idea wisely dropped it. The governor's elections task force and Secretary of State Katherine Harris, in addressing the tight deadlines for absentee ballots, recommended an earlier first primary instead.
Letters
Don't drain funds from program for land preservation
Last week, the state Senate Appropriations Committee voted to take $100-million in funds from the Florida Preservation 2000 Program to pay the state's share of Everglades restoration in fiscal year 2002. The committee then took the general revenue that had been set aside for the Everglades and allocated it to other government purposes. This action has placed Florida's environment at even greater risk at a time when the state's unique natural systems are under acute stress.
Perspective
Taking jobs, alienating customers
For weeks Americans have been told that the outsourcing of high-tech jobs is good for our economy. So said Greg Mankiw, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers in a recent report signed by President Bush. So, too, writes Thomas Friedman of the New York Times in articles praising the rise of call centers in India used for everything from making airline reservations and reading medical X-ray films to providing tech support for American computer firms.
Philip Gailey: Democrats fall off campaign finance reform wagon
Well, what do you know. Soft money is back, and it's making hypocrites of all those Democrats who fervently championed the McCain-Feingold campaign reform law, not to mention those Republicans who objected to the law's restrictions on issue advocacy.
Bill Maxwell: Who is for the farm worker?
Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is touting legislation to improve the lives of Florida's 300,000-plus farm workers, who endure institutional and systemic injustices each day in our fields and groves and their personal lives.
Robyn E. Blumner: For some defendants, an American gulag
In Bernard Malamud's masterpiece The Fixer, inmate Yakov Bok was subjected to psychological torture in a Soviet gulag through the humiliations of constant shackling and repeated strip searches.
© Copyright 2001 St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.
|
