The Buffalo News: Sunday Viewpoints

Sunday Viewpoints

Genetic test can reveal a painful truth: By Jan Jarvis

McCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS

Updated: 11/09/08 8:08 AM; SOUTHLAKE, Texas — Wanda Stutsman was 32 years old and seven months pregnant when she began her first round of chemotherapy. Two months later — exhausted and bald from the chemo — she delivered a healthy son with a full head of hair. But there was little time to dote on him; Stutsman had to move quickly to the next phase of her breast cancer treatment: six weeks of radiation therapy.

Monitor the money: Updated: 11/09/08 8:58 AM; The American financial industry has gotten a lot of juice from the taxpayers recently. It’s time for Washington to put on the squeeze.

Don’t lose the vision: Updated: 11/09/08 7:30 AM; Christian Menn, call your office. There you will find a message from the Peace Bridge Authority, asking you to rework your previously winning design for a new companion bridge over the Niagara River now that the allowable height has been determined. The long-delayed project improving the flow of traffic between the United States and Canada must get moving again.

Blogzerpts / Opinions from buffalonews.com: Updated: 11/09/08 7:30 AM; Excerpts from reader commentary on News staffers’ online blog postings last week. Online comments come from registered users, but — unlike reviewed and verified Everybody’s Column letters — can be posted under pen names.

Stuck on a few fine points: Updated: 11/09/08 7:31 AM; An inquiry comes from Peter E. Demmin in Amherst. He asks, “Are we immune to something, or are we immune from something?” As an exhibit he offers a headline from the Wall Street Journal: “Silicon Valley Finds It’s Not Immune From Credit Crisis.”

How to call the election: By Patrick Reddy

SPECIAL TO THE NEWS

Updated: 11/02/08 9:34 AM; The last two elections have reminded Americans that the Electoral College is decisive, compared with the national popular vote. And for the first time since Bill Clinton coasted to an easy reelection in 1996, the Democrats seem to have an edge state-by-state: the fact that Barack Obama is targeting nearly a dozen Republican states from 2004 while John McCain is going after only two Democratic states speaks volumes.

Cooperate on ECMC deal: Updated: 11/02/08 7:02 AM; The leaders of Erie County and the Great Lakes Health System of Western New York — the new name for the organization overseeing the blending of Kaleida Health and Erie County Medical Center — have similar goals for ECMC but radically different methods of reaching them. This transition in the regional health care system will be unavoidably difficult — but it would be less difficult with cooperation than with conflict.

Target subsidies on the future: Updated: 11/02/08 6:34 AM; Money tossed out of the window tends to get blown backward. You can see a lot more of it in your rearview mirror than you can up ahead.

Blogzerpts / Opinions from buffalonews.com: Updated: 11/02/08 6:34 AM; Excerpts from reader commentary on News staffers’ online blog postings last week. Online comments come from registered users, but — unlike reviewed and verified Everybody’s Column letters — can be posted under pen names.

When less is truly more: ByJamesJ. Kilpatrick

Updated: 11/02/08 6:34 AM; This is a secret, so don’t tell anyone: The most read page in a newspaper is not Page 1. It’s not the sports page or the editorial page. At least among readers above the age of 50, it’s almost always the obituary page. We want to know who has died.

News will cover election live on the Web: Margaret Sullivan EDITOR

Updated: 11/08/08 8:50 AM; No matter how it all turns out, Tuesday is going to be a history-making night.

The Munich Syndrome: By Edward Cuddy

SPECIAL TO THE NEWS

Updated: 10/26/08 7:26 AM; In mid-September 1938, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain arrived at Adolf Hitler’s mountain retreat near Munich in a desperate effort to avoid war with Germany. The Nazi dictator promised peace if only he could acquire Czechoslovakia’s Sudetenland region, and Chamberlain took the bait. That comforting illusion soon evaporated as Germany swallowed the rest of Czechoslovakia, blitzkrieged Poland to ignite World War II and then conquered most of Western Europe.

Changing the perception of Down syndrome: By Colleen Mastony

CHICAGO TRIBUNE

Updated: 10/12/08 7:16 AM; CHICAGO — Every few weeks, Angie Picchi, a 28-year-old with Down syndrome, and her mother, Linda, stand up before another group of doctors. Together, they launch into what they refer to as “The Talk.” Part public-relations push, part sensitivity training, the Picchis touch on the stereotypes and low expectations often associated with Down syndrome.

Margaret Sullivan: Live chats bridge gap between readers, writers: By Margaret Sullivan

Editor

Updated: 10/12/08 3:15 PM; Douglas Turner saw his first newspaper composing room 51 years ago when headlines were still set in a way invented by Gutenberg in 1439.

Idioms are the salt and pepper of speech: ByJamesJ. Kilpatrick

Updated: 10/12/08 7:16 AM; The Court of Peeves, Crotchets & Irks resumes its autumn assizes with a motion from Rebecca Bouldin of Columbus, Ohio. She seeks an injunction against “looking to,” as in, “Our agency is looking to expand our network.” She also asks the court to ban “waiting on,” as in, “We are waiting on him for his answer.”