TheBakersfieldCalifornian.com

Recent Stories

1. SOUNDING BOARD: Hero or traitor? Snowden's outing of NSA snooping could be either

   Saturday, Jun 15 2013 11:00 PM

   Edward Snowden, who outed himself as the person who leaked to the press that the National Security Agency was secretly monitoring citizens' and foreigners' phone and Internet activities, has turned the discussion of privacy vs. security on its ear. Is Snowden, a 29-year-old, self-described "whistleblower" a hero or a traitor? Or is it more complicated than that?

   We asked members of The Californian's Sounding board for their thoughts. Here are some of their responses:  

   The definition of hero and traitor, like the history books, are written by the winners, so Snowden's tagline will be determined by those who prevail in this debate. Certainly those exposed by his leaks will contend that he is a traitor, because they presumably believe...

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2. WILL COGGIN: California's Prop. 2 shouldn't dictate farming practices to the rest of country

   The Californian recently editorialized against a farm bill amendment from Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, that is meant to stop one state from interfering in interstate farm commerce ("Pass the farm bill, but without this harmful amendment," June...
3. 

   JAMES LACY: Howard Jarvis, the man in the cheap suit

   In the mid-1970s, when I was a law student at Pepperdine and California state chairman of a conservative volunteer group, the Young Americans for Freedom, we began to get visits at the YAF offices from a brusque older gentleman named...
4. 

   FDR's D-Day prayer

   On June 6, 1944, 160,000 Allied troops landed on the heavily fortified beaches of Normandy. Their mission: Liberate France from the Nazis' four-year-long occupation and gain a foothold for a march on Berlin from the west. Some 4,414 Allied...
5. 

   CONNECTING CALIFORNIA: How can we do better? Revitalize our inner flake

   As a rule, Californians shouldn't have too many East Coast friends, and we should never listen too closely to the ones we do have. East Coasters know little about California but fancy they know a lot. In their eyes, we are sun-bathing,...

6. PAUL SAILER: Memorial Day remembrance -- A life lost at Famosa's air strip

   On a cool, rainy day in the spring of 2012, I joined an elderly woman and her niece and nephew at a rural cemetery in north central Iowa, not far from the Minnesota state line. She was the surviving sibling of Aviation Cadet Glenn McKean,...

7. KIM TSO: Why Proposition 30 funding was too little too late

   While Gov. Jerry Brown and his fellow Democrats are arguing about a new funding formula for dividing up some school dollars, parents like me are still scratching our heads over why, despite the passage of the temporary tax initiative...
9. 

   CARMELLA GUTIERREZ: Taking care of Mom close to home

   Many of us know what it's like to see a loved one grow older. We see the joys that a grandparent experiences, but also the hardships that come with health issues and becoming more dependent on others. Often, we ride the "roller coaster of...
10. 

    CONNECTING CALIFORNIA: You'll need to be tough, high school graduates

    To the distinguished California Public High School Class of 2013: I'm sorry James Franco canceled at the last minute. I'm even sorrier you wound up getting me as your substitute commencement speaker, but I was offered gas money plus a...

11. DOUGLAS BORER: On expanding freedom in Mideast, be careful what you wish for, Mr. Bush

    At the opening of his new presidential library in Dallas last week, George W. Bush offered the phrase "we expanded freedom" to sum up his legacy. I say to those who agree: "Be careful what you wish for." Freedom is a fine evocative word,...

12. SOUNDING BOARD: Big Brother is our friend, in some cases

    We're being watched -- by the IRS and by private business, on the street and in the solitude of our own homes. Is comprehensive surveillance, both online and in the flesh, worth the price of Americans' privacy? Or does a world full of...

13. SOUNDING BOARD: People must draw line on government surveillance

    America is a watched nation. Our lives are monitored daily, from street-corner surveillance cameras to law enforcement drones. Much of this surveillance is done in the name of security, but many people find ongoing surveillance creepy and...

14. SOUNDING BOARD: '1984' scenario in our future seems unlikely

    America is a watched nation. Our lives are monitored daily, from street-corner surveillance cameras to law enforcement drones. Much of this surveillance is done in the name of security, but many people find ongoing surveillance creepy and...