Justin Vernold
- Justin Vernold
-
-
Three battles to know in U.S. history
Like most Americans, I find myself every year on June 6 thinking of the brave and heroic efforts made in 1944, when the D-Day landings by Allied forces in Normandy first breached the walls of Adolf Hitler's so-called "Fortress Europe."
- I can't make up my mind on the death penalty If there's a silver lining from three of the most horrific crimes in recent memory, it's that we have the perpetrators in custody.
- How safe has the Afghan war left us? It's hard to see any way we could have avoided Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks. We couldn't, after all, just leave al-Qaida ensconced in the country's hinterlands while Taliban chief Mullah Mohammed Omar sheltered its leaders. But in the back of our minds, we all probably had the same nagging worry: that regardless of how the Afghanistan effort went, it could never make the U.S. completely secure from terrorism.
- Stop with the 'admit no evil' hush money With the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling in 2010 ushering in a new era of money in politics, it's becoming more common to see elected officials turn a blind eye to malfeasance by well-connected crooks. But some recent court cases, where a few fastidious judges have attempted to knock unrepentant Wall Street snakes down a few pegs, offer hope that maybe our judiciary is still interested in truth and justice.
-
I overheard you discussing your favorite books
"How marvelous books are, crossing worlds and centuries, defeating ignorance and, finally, cruel time itself." ― Gore Vidal, "Julian"
- What exactly do you mean when you say tyranny? Given how often the Second Amendment has been cited since the Dec. 14 massacre in Newtown, Conn., one can't help but wish our founding fathers had elaborated a bit more on what they meant by: "A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."
- Who would you visit if you had a time machine? One of the little treats for a history buff working at a daily newspaper is the "Today in History" nugget we run on Page 2 each day. It's always neat when a little event and quote can take you back in time, even if this time-traveling occurs only in your head. But for me, that's never sufficient. As odd as this might sound, I'd do almost anything for a time machine.
- We always find enough funds for bread, circuses
-
Dodging fire in no-man's-land on gun control
For any human being, an event as shocking and poignant as the Dec. 14 shooting of 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., is bound to evoke a range of reactions, from the visceral to the contemplative.
-
Win the minds,and the hearts should follow
I’ve always found politics interesting, and as a newspaper editor it’s impossible to avoid paying attention to the topic. But I wouldn’t label myself a political junkie. Our world is so large, and our national politics so small, that it seems futile to invest an inordinate amount of emotion in something so degenerate and discouraging.
-
Brinkmanship at the edge of the fiscal cliff
If you were hoping last week's elections might lessen the odds of a high-stakes game of chicken over the economy-wrecking "fiscal cliff" of tax hikes and spending cuts set for Jan. 1, don't hold your breath.
- Hey, lobbyist, leave them kids alone!
-
For health care, doesn't the U.S. deserve better?
As the son of a licensed nurse practitioner, it strikes a nerve every time I read stories about our health care system leaving patients out in the cold.
-
Set your biases aside, or find some other profession
The principle of objectivity is so deeply imbued in the ethics of journalism that it’s common to hear the topic mentioned frequently around the newsroom.
-
Is tolerance for each others' beliefs too much to ask?
After two years of legal wrangling, a 12,000-square-foot mosque opened Aug. 10 in Murfreesboro, Tenn., a city that has 104,000 people and 140 churches but only one mosque.
-
There's a gray area between 'job creator' and 'welfare queen'
In an era of bruised American pride, it's not uncommon these days to see political pundits make alarmist predictions of the country's imminent doom. But American Enterprise Institute scholar Arthur Herman raised the bar for overwrought hysteria with his July op-ed titled "America's Coming Civil War -- Makers vs. Takers."
-
There's a gray area between 'job creator' and 'welfare queen'
In an era of bruised American pride, it's not uncommon these days to see political pundits make alarmist predictions of the country's imminent doom. But American Enterprise Institute scholar Arthur Herman raised the bar for overwrought hysteria with his July op-ed titled "America's Coming Civil War -- Makers vs. Takers."
-
You furnish the pictures, and I'll use my judgment
As a copy editor and member of The Daily Star's editorial board, most of my day-to-day work consists of writing and editing. But a large part of my day is also spent deciding how to use photos and graphics -- or "art," in journalism slang -- to illustrate stories that appear on our state, national, world and business pages. I take this part of my job very seriously, and most readers are probably unaware of how much thinking this process entails.
-
'The decline and fall' has a familiar ring
At the end of the 20th century, America still basked in the glow of emerging as the last superpower standing after the Soviet Union's collapse. But with 9/11, divisive war, economic malaise and political dysfunction marring the last decade, many in foreign policy circles have begun to wonder how much longer America will be regarded worldwide as preeminent.
-
'The decline and fall' has a familiar ring
At the end of the 20th century, America still basked in the glow of emerging as the last superpower standing after the Soviet Union's collapse. But with 9/11, divisive war, economic malaise and political dysfunction marring the last decade, many in foreign policy circles have begun to wonder how much longer America will be regarded worldwide as preeminent.
-
Three battles to know in U.S. history
