page 4 01-04.indd
4–Northern Wyoming Daily News, Worland, Wyo., Saturday, January 4, 2014
Letter to the Editor Policy Letters to the editor are encouraged. We offer the public forum and we want to see it used. The Daily News reserves the right to edit all letters. All letters must be signed and include the author’s home address and phone number. Addresses will not be published but they will be used to verify authorship. No more than 350 words will be allowed. No more than two authors are allowed per letter. The Daily News will not publish poems, anonymous letters, letters signed with pseudonyms or letters with “name withheld by request.” The Daily News will not publish letters that single out commercial businesses for praise, thanks or criticism unless that information is related to an issue of public interest. We offer a forum for expressions of thanks through paid advertising. All letters must be original material. Once a letter is submitted it becomes property of the Daily News. Publication is up to the editorial staff’s discretion. The Daily News reserves the right to change this policy at any time. Letters can be mailed to: Letter to the Editor, Northern Wyoming Daily News, P.O. Box 508, Worland, WY 82401 or emailed to [email protected].
Eyes on the prize A recent report in Variety, based on the latest stats from Nielsen, started with this: “Fox News Channel maintained its grip on the cable-news ratings prize in 2013, drawing more viewers than the combined averages of CNN, MSNBC, and HLN.” It’s become an annual year-end story, one you might not read about in your local paper. The reason that FNC is doing so well, while at the same time some committed left-wing media operations are failing, is a mix of remorse and reality. 63 million Americans voted against Barack Obama last November, many of them convinced Bill O’Reilly that his vision for America was misguided. Also, we now know that many of those who supported the President did so based on false assurances. Did you hear the one about “If you like your plan, you can keep it?” Aside from the Obamacare chaos, the president also faced allegations involving Benghazi, NSA spying, and the IRS’s jihad against conservative groups. So, with a scandal du jour on the menu in 2013, news consumers flocked to agencies that have been a bit skeptical of the president. Obviously, organizations considered to be deep in the tank for Obama are of little use to people worried about their country and their future. In politics, there is always an element of hatred, even in a noble country like the United States. If you are an Obama-hater, you are likely to go where your opinion is reinforced. And if you are neutral on the president but worried that he may be in over his head, you might seek a more skeptical view of the man and his policies. Thus, the rough bumps for president have been deadly for the liberal media that cheer-leaded Mr. Obama to re-election while portraying Mitt Romney as a hybrid of the Grinch and Mr. Potter. I have been a beneficiary of the president’s troubles, as my ratings are through the roof. Folks know that while I respect Barack Obama and do not cheap-shot the president, I am very skeptical of his big government, nanny-state philosophy. Also, my guests represent many points of view, unlike my cable news competition that spins nearly everything as positive in Obama-land. That’s when they are not denigrating their political opponents in the most vile ways. But despite my ratings bonanza, I do not want Barack Obama to fail. I want him to see the light, however unlikely that may be five years into his presidency. This is a great country because most of its citizens are responsible, hard-working people who realize that cradle-to-grave entitlements will ultimately bankrupt the nation. Call me crazy, but I want to persuade the President that his entitlements vision for 300 million Americans is an opium-fueled pipe dream. Self-reliance has made this country great, not food stamps and federal foot massages. So, I will consistently deliver that message to President Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and the rest of the gang who can’t spend straight. I’ll do it in hopes that the profligate progressives will wise up and impose some discipline in the fiscal area. If they do not control federal spending, and if Obamacare continues to careen out of control, they will suffer huge losses in the midterm races that are less than a year away. Until then, here’s looking at you, Mr. Nielsen.
rubes
Rocky Mountain contact high Well, 2014 is starting off to be a weird year. They’re selling recreational pot in Colorado and you can be a homosexual boy scout as of Wednesday. Gays are getting married in Utah. In Utah! In UTAH! The end-timers are reeling –– recalculating the Mayan calendar –– reanalyzing “Revelations” –– rereading the writings of Paul Harvey, Glenn Beck and Nostradamus –– YouTubing the preachings of that “Duck Dynasty” guy. There is little doubt that it will rain toads by March, locusts will eat our pets by June and Obama’s child army will confiscate our guns and women by November. Come 2015 we will be, at best, dust or sulfur or pillars of salt or Kanye West fans or Democrats. At worst we will be placed into an arranged gay marriage and forced by the government to employ illegals to work in our marijuana fields. Our only source of information will be state-run NPR which will ironically play “Fresh Air” on a loop with hidden messages brainwashing us into buying Korean cars, going vegan, listening to reggae and teaching our children to speak Chinese. We’ll even be forced to put the “A” back in ’Merica. This all started when the Denver Broncos cut Tim Tebow. They should have known that would bring God’s wrath in the form of wildfires and floods, which in turn played with the psyche of the average Colorado voter. It was divine conspiracy. How could you do that to Tim, Denver? He even named his dog “Bronco.” In Wyoming we are completely surrounded by insanity. Pot to the south and pot to the north. Gay marriage borders our southwest. In Utah! In UTAH! I won’t even get into South Dakota –– the view makes it impossible to pass the last exit to Gillette. As George Carlin once so eloquently pointed out, Wyoming is conveniently square. We could build a wall that would only require four corner stones. We can keep our positive influences tucked safely in, and keep the negative influences out. We can de-
velop our own form of democracy based solely on the moral teachings of select religious leaders. We can put eagles that survive our wind turbines on our newly-designed flag. If things get really bad, we can always just use the tap water from Pavillion as fuel to heat our homes. We can close ourselves off from the craziness that surrounds us. Envelope ourselves in ourselves like a warm, faBob Vines miliar quilt our grandmother made us when we were little. We can ignore the outside ... it has always been illegal to world and pretend that the smoke pot at a rock concert, clock doesn’t tic and tock. We but it has never been illegal to can sit cozy until we decombreathe deeply. pose. Or we can just relax and consider that up until now, it has always been illegal to smoke pot at a rock concert, but it has never been illegal to breathe deeply. Wyomingites are fiercely protective of state’s rights. We are the first to say that we should “put it on the ballot,” let the voter decide and forget the influence of the federal government (which, by the way, still considers cannabis an illegal drug). With that said, we probably should just stop worrying about Colorado and let the hippies have their fun. Besides, we could learn to enjoy the contact high. Who knows, maybe we could swing a Waffle House out of this deal.
by Leigh Rubin
An aging population can be good for the economy Could an aging population be good for economic growth? I mean, isn’t it an accepted fact that our economy will suffer as more Americans pass age 65 and start sitting around all day, soaking up government benefits? That’s the spiel, but many economists are not buying it. Older workers can fill in the labor gaps caused by falling birthrates. And employers often undervalue their expertise, wrongly assuming that younger is better and cheaper. Meanwhile, most Americans haven’t been savFroma Harrop ing enough to support a 30-year retirement in the style to which they’ve become accustomed. They’ll have to work. But many healthy 60- and 70-year-olds actually want to do some kind of work. The big surprise is that many are starting their own businesses. Contrary to popular myth, the typical entrepreneur is likelier to be over 45 than under 30, according to a Kauffman Foundation study. Sure, those over 65 are using government entitlements. But if they’re also earning money, they’re also paying taxes -- and perhaps employing others. Rather than act as disincentives to work, Medicare and Social Security are giving older Americans the courage to live out their dreams of starting a business. “Now you have a safety net,” Vivek Wadhwa, an expert on entrepreneurship, told me. “You might as well take a risk and start something.” Wadhwa is director of research at the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University. Interestingly, the medical security provided by Obamacare may similarly free younger Americans to take a chance on their own businesses. “Health care has been a detractor from entrepreneurship,” Wadhwa says. Older entrepreneurs do tend toward different kinds of startups than do their juniors. They are “more sensible, more traditional,” according to
Wadhwa. They may buy a franchise or try retail. Younger entrepreneurs are likelier to embark on risky, world-changing ventures. Some older professionals go out and commercialize ideas that took years of training and experience to develop. “In health care, there are no 25-year-old entrepreneurs,” David E. Albert, an Oklahoma City cardiologist and serial inventor, told me. “You are more likely to be in your 40s or 50s.” Albert started his latest company, AliveCor, at age 56. It sells a device that turns a smartphone into a clinical-quality heart monitor. Suppose you’re experiencing chest pains. You can slip an AliveCor box over your iPhone, slap the phone on your chest and instantly send your EKG results to a cardiac specialist through an app. In moments, you can learn whether you need medical attention right away. In one celebrated case, an airline passenger in distress prompted flight attendants to ask over the loudspeaker whether there was a doctor on board. There was one, who, using the box and app, determined that the man was suffering an acute heart attack. The captain made an emergency landing, perhaps saving the passenger’s life. “Your 60s are the opportunity to explore things you’ve always wanted to do, and it may be entrepreneurship,” Albert said. If the kids are gone and the mortgage paid off, you’ve essentially come full circle from when you were young and had few responsibilities. Now pushing 60, Albert says, “I’m pretty sure that I haven’t started my last company.” Lifelong ambition may be a peculiarly American phenomenon. Gallup and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology compared the wellbeing of older Germans, Brits and Americans. They found the Germans healthier and that the British elders had better access to health care. But on “sense of optimism,” Americans left the others in the dust. That’s why Americans may lead the industrialized world in breaking the mold of long, sedentary retirements. What an interesting economic experiment that would be.
Letter to the Editor Policy Letters to the editor are encouraged. We offer the public forum and we want to see it used. The Daily News reserves the right to edit all letters. All letters must be signed and include the author’s home address and phone number. Addresses will not be published but they will be used to verify authorship. No more than 350 words will be allowed. No more than two authors are allowed per letter. The Daily News will not publish poems, anonymous letters, letters signed with pseudonyms or letters with “name withheld by request.” The Daily News will not publish letters that single out commercial businesses for praise, thanks or criticism unless that information is related to an issue of public interest. We offer a forum for expressions of thanks through paid advertising. All letters must be original material. Once a letter is submitted it becomes property of the Daily News. Publication is up to the editorial staff’s discretion. The Daily News reserves the right to change this policy at any time. Letters can be mailed to: Letter to the Editor, Northern Wyoming Daily News, P.O. Box 508, Worland, WY 82401 or emailed to [email protected].
Eyes on the prize A recent report in Variety, based on the latest stats from Nielsen, started with this: “Fox News Channel maintained its grip on the cable-news ratings prize in 2013, drawing more viewers than the combined averages of CNN, MSNBC, and HLN.” It’s become an annual year-end story, one you might not read about in your local paper. The reason that FNC is doing so well, while at the same time some committed left-wing media operations are failing, is a mix of remorse and reality. 63 million Americans voted against Barack Obama last November, many of them convinced Bill O’Reilly that his vision for America was misguided. Also, we now know that many of those who supported the President did so based on false assurances. Did you hear the one about “If you like your plan, you can keep it?” Aside from the Obamacare chaos, the president also faced allegations involving Benghazi, NSA spying, and the IRS’s jihad against conservative groups. So, with a scandal du jour on the menu in 2013, news consumers flocked to agencies that have been a bit skeptical of the president. Obviously, organizations considered to be deep in the tank for Obama are of little use to people worried about their country and their future. In politics, there is always an element of hatred, even in a noble country like the United States. If you are an Obama-hater, you are likely to go where your opinion is reinforced. And if you are neutral on the president but worried that he may be in over his head, you might seek a more skeptical view of the man and his policies. Thus, the rough bumps for president have been deadly for the liberal media that cheer-leaded Mr. Obama to re-election while portraying Mitt Romney as a hybrid of the Grinch and Mr. Potter. I have been a beneficiary of the president’s troubles, as my ratings are through the roof. Folks know that while I respect Barack Obama and do not cheap-shot the president, I am very skeptical of his big government, nanny-state philosophy. Also, my guests represent many points of view, unlike my cable news competition that spins nearly everything as positive in Obama-land. That’s when they are not denigrating their political opponents in the most vile ways. But despite my ratings bonanza, I do not want Barack Obama to fail. I want him to see the light, however unlikely that may be five years into his presidency. This is a great country because most of its citizens are responsible, hard-working people who realize that cradle-to-grave entitlements will ultimately bankrupt the nation. Call me crazy, but I want to persuade the President that his entitlements vision for 300 million Americans is an opium-fueled pipe dream. Self-reliance has made this country great, not food stamps and federal foot massages. So, I will consistently deliver that message to President Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and the rest of the gang who can’t spend straight. I’ll do it in hopes that the profligate progressives will wise up and impose some discipline in the fiscal area. If they do not control federal spending, and if Obamacare continues to careen out of control, they will suffer huge losses in the midterm races that are less than a year away. Until then, here’s looking at you, Mr. Nielsen.
rubes
Rocky Mountain contact high Well, 2014 is starting off to be a weird year. They’re selling recreational pot in Colorado and you can be a homosexual boy scout as of Wednesday. Gays are getting married in Utah. In Utah! In UTAH! The end-timers are reeling –– recalculating the Mayan calendar –– reanalyzing “Revelations” –– rereading the writings of Paul Harvey, Glenn Beck and Nostradamus –– YouTubing the preachings of that “Duck Dynasty” guy. There is little doubt that it will rain toads by March, locusts will eat our pets by June and Obama’s child army will confiscate our guns and women by November. Come 2015 we will be, at best, dust or sulfur or pillars of salt or Kanye West fans or Democrats. At worst we will be placed into an arranged gay marriage and forced by the government to employ illegals to work in our marijuana fields. Our only source of information will be state-run NPR which will ironically play “Fresh Air” on a loop with hidden messages brainwashing us into buying Korean cars, going vegan, listening to reggae and teaching our children to speak Chinese. We’ll even be forced to put the “A” back in ’Merica. This all started when the Denver Broncos cut Tim Tebow. They should have known that would bring God’s wrath in the form of wildfires and floods, which in turn played with the psyche of the average Colorado voter. It was divine conspiracy. How could you do that to Tim, Denver? He even named his dog “Bronco.” In Wyoming we are completely surrounded by insanity. Pot to the south and pot to the north. Gay marriage borders our southwest. In Utah! In UTAH! I won’t even get into South Dakota –– the view makes it impossible to pass the last exit to Gillette. As George Carlin once so eloquently pointed out, Wyoming is conveniently square. We could build a wall that would only require four corner stones. We can keep our positive influences tucked safely in, and keep the negative influences out. We can de-
velop our own form of democracy based solely on the moral teachings of select religious leaders. We can put eagles that survive our wind turbines on our newly-designed flag. If things get really bad, we can always just use the tap water from Pavillion as fuel to heat our homes. We can close ourselves off from the craziness that surrounds us. Envelope ourselves in ourselves like a warm, faBob Vines miliar quilt our grandmother made us when we were little. We can ignore the outside ... it has always been illegal to world and pretend that the smoke pot at a rock concert, clock doesn’t tic and tock. We but it has never been illegal to can sit cozy until we decombreathe deeply. pose. Or we can just relax and consider that up until now, it has always been illegal to smoke pot at a rock concert, but it has never been illegal to breathe deeply. Wyomingites are fiercely protective of state’s rights. We are the first to say that we should “put it on the ballot,” let the voter decide and forget the influence of the federal government (which, by the way, still considers cannabis an illegal drug). With that said, we probably should just stop worrying about Colorado and let the hippies have their fun. Besides, we could learn to enjoy the contact high. Who knows, maybe we could swing a Waffle House out of this deal.
by Leigh Rubin
An aging population can be good for the economy Could an aging population be good for economic growth? I mean, isn’t it an accepted fact that our economy will suffer as more Americans pass age 65 and start sitting around all day, soaking up government benefits? That’s the spiel, but many economists are not buying it. Older workers can fill in the labor gaps caused by falling birthrates. And employers often undervalue their expertise, wrongly assuming that younger is better and cheaper. Meanwhile, most Americans haven’t been savFroma Harrop ing enough to support a 30-year retirement in the style to which they’ve become accustomed. They’ll have to work. But many healthy 60- and 70-year-olds actually want to do some kind of work. The big surprise is that many are starting their own businesses. Contrary to popular myth, the typical entrepreneur is likelier to be over 45 than under 30, according to a Kauffman Foundation study. Sure, those over 65 are using government entitlements. But if they’re also earning money, they’re also paying taxes -- and perhaps employing others. Rather than act as disincentives to work, Medicare and Social Security are giving older Americans the courage to live out their dreams of starting a business. “Now you have a safety net,” Vivek Wadhwa, an expert on entrepreneurship, told me. “You might as well take a risk and start something.” Wadhwa is director of research at the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University. Interestingly, the medical security provided by Obamacare may similarly free younger Americans to take a chance on their own businesses. “Health care has been a detractor from entrepreneurship,” Wadhwa says. Older entrepreneurs do tend toward different kinds of startups than do their juniors. They are “more sensible, more traditional,” according to
Wadhwa. They may buy a franchise or try retail. Younger entrepreneurs are likelier to embark on risky, world-changing ventures. Some older professionals go out and commercialize ideas that took years of training and experience to develop. “In health care, there are no 25-year-old entrepreneurs,” David E. Albert, an Oklahoma City cardiologist and serial inventor, told me. “You are more likely to be in your 40s or 50s.” Albert started his latest company, AliveCor, at age 56. It sells a device that turns a smartphone into a clinical-quality heart monitor. Suppose you’re experiencing chest pains. You can slip an AliveCor box over your iPhone, slap the phone on your chest and instantly send your EKG results to a cardiac specialist through an app. In moments, you can learn whether you need medical attention right away. In one celebrated case, an airline passenger in distress prompted flight attendants to ask over the loudspeaker whether there was a doctor on board. There was one, who, using the box and app, determined that the man was suffering an acute heart attack. The captain made an emergency landing, perhaps saving the passenger’s life. “Your 60s are the opportunity to explore things you’ve always wanted to do, and it may be entrepreneurship,” Albert said. If the kids are gone and the mortgage paid off, you’ve essentially come full circle from when you were young and had few responsibilities. Now pushing 60, Albert says, “I’m pretty sure that I haven’t started my last company.” Lifelong ambition may be a peculiarly American phenomenon. Gallup and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology compared the wellbeing of older Germans, Brits and Americans. They found the Germans healthier and that the British elders had better access to health care. But on “sense of optimism,” Americans left the others in the dust. That’s why Americans may lead the industrialized world in breaking the mold of long, sedentary retirements. What an interesting economic experiment that would be.
