Opinion Line (March 22)

If we had only known sooner all it would take in Ferguson, Mo., was a Starbucks on every block.

When I started working I had nothing. After 35 years of steady employment, I still have most of it left.

The American workers can blame only themselves for losing their jobs to outsourcing overseas – absenteeism, laziness, poor work ethic, no loyalty.

Where are all of you who used to claim the economy had turned around? Retail sales, housing starts and everything else is down, including trust in this government. This is the worst supposed recovery ever.

If the current bills to restrict unions and against the blue-collar workers in the Statehouse aren’t enough proof that the goal of the GOP is and always has been the destruction of the middle class, then the people of Kansas deserve what we get.

We don’t need any public schools in Kansas, because everything you need to know is either in the Good Book or on Facebook.

The insanity that has engulfed state government, like Vesuvius and Pompeii, has proved one thing: There isn’t now, nor was there ever, any amount of excess fat in recent budgets capable of justifying tax cuts. None. What we’re losing to their butchery is lean muscle.

It is ludicrous to think that Kansans have already paid for Medicaid expansion through their federal income taxes. Has anyone noticed our annual federal deficit of half a trillion dollars? Nothing has been paid for. It’s deficit spending.

This retired widow just filed and paid my Kansas income tax. I am glad to do so for the services the state has provided. But it chaps my hide to know 300,000 other Kansans getting the same services are paying nothing. Kansas has become a plutocracy.

That’s it. Pick out a 50-inch TV. Go to pay. Open the wallet. Get out the cash. Ah, there it is – your Vision card. Plenty of money for your wants. But that’s to be expected, since the public is buying your necessities.

What’s next for Obama? “Dancing With the Stars”?

Benjamin Netanyahu is still trusted by Israelis to lead in a crisis with Iran and ISIS. The USA saw his leadership when he visited and showed the resolve unseen from our president. Elect a truthful man of Netanyahu’s caliber in 2016. Ben Carson, Ted Cruz and Tom Cotton have merit.

We have but to wait and see if Obama and Netanyahu’s good-cop/bad-cop ploy results in a favorable nuclear containment agreement with Iran.

Chase the ghost all you want. We are never going to see the Eisenhower days again.

I cringed at seeing Kansans supporting WSU sitting like lumps in Omaha. Cheering KU was beyond them, certainly. Applauding great basketball is nonpartisan, by the way.

Regarding KU playing Washburn and Emporia: Those are preseason games, all played in Lawrence, and help the smaller schools raise funds. I doubt WSU wants to be included in that group. I would like to see KU and WSU play yearly, but Bill Self knows best.

This story was originally published March 21, 2015 at 7:03 PM with the headline "Opinion Line (March 22)."