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No affordability when government spends

The latest political rage is the “Affordability Crisis” – which basically means inflation is eating away at your paycheck. Ironically, the people who most loudly proclaim the Affordability Crisis are usually the ones who caused the problem in the first place by supporting over-spending and over-regulation by the Government. They also think the answer is (curiously) more spending and more regulation. Under President Joe Biden, inflation averaged over 5% per year, with one year being over 9%. By comparison, Trump 47 reduced it to 2.7%, but still more must be done to reverse the ...

Chautauqua Gorge a winter treat

CHAUTAUQUA GORGE STATE FOREST — It’s one thing to see the Chautauqua Gorge in the summertime. It’s another thing entirely to see it in the wintertime. If you haven’t seen it in the wintertime, you might consider putting it on your list. It’s spectacular. Just spectacular. High walls along the deeper parts of the gorge surround snow-covered pines and hardwoods. In the middle of a sunny afternoon, the blue sky is overhead. Later, as the sun sets, the sky turns dark blue and the brightest stars begin to fill the sky. More stars join them as the sky turns dark blue, then ...

Surviving Olympic glories of past

The Olympics have barely begun and I’m almost comatose. Coverage from Milan and Cortina during the afternoon, prime time, and late night have my eyeballs operating in the glued position. Holy biathlon. I’d forgotten how many events are covered. For the first time though, while watching these Olympic Games, I realized that I don’t envy any of the beautiful young athletes anymore. I absolutely, positively cannot imagine attempting any of those death-defying sports. Every surface they challenge is hard. My firm mattress is as far as my imagination can take me. Either they are ...

Minnesota quite culpable for current mess

Minnesota — a state that has given America outstanding personages like movie legend Judy Garland, authors F. Scott Fitzgerald and Sinclair Lewis, 2024 Baseball Hall of Fame inductee Joe Mauer, Charles Schulz the creator of Peanuts and influential vice presidents and senators Hubert Humphry and Walter Mondale — has descended into a clown show marked by corruption and continuous demonstrations, headed by Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey that must have Hubert and Walter spinning in their graves. Leaders of The Democratic, Farm, Labor Party had apparently both ignored ...

Heritage closing needs some compassion

I hope that if you are reading this, you or your loved ones never need to live in a nursing home. I hope you are never forced to make that agonizing decision for your mom or dad, or find yourself in a hospital bed waiting for a skilled nursing bed to open up while the world feels like it is closing in. But for many, that day comes. As someone who has dedicated 26 years of my life to working at Heritage, I feel compelled to address the disheartening negativity and public criticism directed at our staff and management following the news of the Heritage Village closure in Gerry. It is ...

Speaking truth to power

This year, our President, Donald Trump, decided to go to Davos, Switzerland for the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum. While there he gave his usual, off-the-cuff grievance speech about how Europe and most of the rest of the world was falling behind, and how, under his leadership, America was the best of all nations and was charging ahead. There were some lines in his speech that people laughed at, but, in general, President Trump gave his usual meandering political stump speech, the kind that he typically performs at the rallies he has for his base in this ...