Opinion Line Extra (Feb. 9)

Cam Newton, the Carolina Panthers’ quarterback, was not ready for prime time.

The Super Bowl: the most conspicuous example of how corporate executives write off their entertainments and perks as “business expenses.” Since their corporations now have political benefits as “people,” corporations need to be taxed on their income – just like real people, and not just on profits.

America’s corporate tax rate is high. But when corporations pay their actual tax, “their effective tax rate,” it is one of the lowest in the modern industrialized world.

Student debt is a real problem. Common sense screams for more accountability, just as was needed with the unsecured mortgage crisis. The worthless college education that costs a fortune has only benefited the unholy cabal consisting of public education, unions and foolish politicians. So let’s make this worthless pile of warmth free.

Martin Shkreli, former CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, smirked his way through a congressional hearing. He raised the price of lifesaving drugs by thousands of dollars simply because he could. Karma will some day wipe the smile off of this pariah.

The cost of developing a new drug can be more than a billion dollars. If either Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton makes it to the White House and starts beating up on pharmaceutical companies as the next scapegoats, we simply will not have any new drugs.

So America leads big nations in gun deaths. Take Detroit, Chicago, the District of Columbia, Baltimore and New Orleans out of the equation and we drop to near the bottom.

I see a lot of comments about Rep. Mike Pompeo being a good guy because he attended West Point. Do not forget that one of the greatest traitors of all time was a West Point graduate, Robert E. Lee.

Let’s see prison time for burglaries. What a concept. That should be a given. We actually trust these laws for our safety. Break in my house and don’t worry about prison. You won’t live to see it.

Attention, Gov. Sam Brownback and the Kansas Legislature: The definition of insanity is doing the same thing time and again and expecting a different result.

How did the disastrous Brownback economic snowball ever start rolling in a state as flat as Kansas? It could only be because powerful backers are behind it pushing, and the only way to stop it is for commonsense citizens to join together, get in front of it and push back.

While Gregg Marshall is to be congratulated on his accomplishment of 221 wins, it came against nothing competition. Ralph Miller’s came against much tougher competition in a much stronger Missouri Valley Conference. If Wichita State wants to be a viable program, it must leave the MVC for newer ground and tougher competition.

This story was originally published February 8, 2016 at 6:03 PM with the headline "Opinion Line Extra (Feb. 9)."