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Dear Annie: Family chat or political forum?

Columns

Dear Annie: My entire extended family is in a group chat together. Sometimes it’s fun, and sometimes it’s useful, but most of the time it’s just noisy. The worst offender is my cousin “Daniel.” At least once a week, he sends political rants, tweets and reels to the chat. It’s wearing on everyone, especially my mom’s side of the family, which sits on the completely opposite end of the political spectrum from him. I don’t know whether to mute it, leave outright or say something. It honestly feels like Daniel enjoys stirring the pot in what used to be a perfectly harmless ...

Americans are right: inflation is not just the Fed’s problem

Columns

Inflation hasn’t gone away — it’s going up. With the midterm elections seven weeks off, that’s a problem for the president and Congress. Voters hate inflation. They don’t much like the cure either, and the cure has two parts. The Federal Reserve raising interest rates, like it just did, is one. The second part is overlooked and in the hands of Congress. Indeed, the Fed can’t bring inflation down for good unless lawmakers show they will back the debt with future fiscal surpluses. That means becoming serious about overspending. The Consumer Price Index shows prices rising by ...

Know the difference between a pacemaker and a defibrillator

Columns

DEAR DR. ROACH: What’s the difference between a pacemaker and a defibrillator? — T.S.B. ANSWER: Both are implantable devices to treat electrical problems of the heart. A pacemaker is a much older device; the first implantable pacemaker was made in 1958. The heart has an electrical system, which coordinates the mechanical activity of the heart so that blood is pumped out efficiently. Each cardiac muscle cell has an intrinsic rhythm, but specialized cells in the right atrium normally act as a pacemaker to the heart. They respond to nerve stimulation from the sympathetic and vagus ...

More threats to the freedom of speech

Columns

The freedom of speech and of the press is not a gift bestowed by a president, Congress or a federal agency. It is a natural right of all persons. The First Amendment does not create that right; it prohibits the government from infringing upon it. The ability to think, speak, write, criticize, ridicule, persuade, offend, dissent and challenge those in government is among the most fundamental preconditions of the exercise of human liberty. It is also indispensable to personal happiness. A person who cannot speak his mind, question authority, express unpopular ideas or tell the government ...

Bit yourself in the butt

Letters to the editor

Jim Hironimus White Hall Darn, isn’t it funny that fuel prices are at an all time high and winter is very near? That programs that helped the poor and middle class have been taken away and food prices and all other prices are at an all time high! Now we can have coal fired electricity generated and pollute the air, but not use solar and wind turbines — which the rest of the world has proven beyond any doubt is far cheaper and does not pollute the earth’s environment! Where are the cheaper fuel prices and food prices and all the other promises that were made by Mr. Trump? ...

The war in Ukraine is becoming very inconvenient for Trump

Columns

One of the challenges with writing about the war in — and on — Ukraine is that so little changes. I don’t mean the fighting on the ground, though even there, when viewed from a distance, it doesn’t look as though much has shifted in a long while. Russia has gained very little territory in the last year (even as it has suffered an estimated half-million Russian casualties over the last 12 months). All of that to gain 0.3% of Ukrainian territory (and net zero gains in the last six months). Though distance can be deceiving, the fighting on the ground has actually been far more ...