Thank you, John Balentine, for your recent article about Martin Luther King Jr., “a man of honor … a modern saint,” as you called him (“Here’s Something: BLM should be more like MLK,” Jan. 21). I did as you suggested and read some of his speeches, and yes, I was in “absolute awe.” I also […]
Here’s Something
Posted inAmerican Journal, Forecaster Opinion, Lakes Region Weekly
Here’s Something: America shouldn’t be playing along in the Winter Olympics
As the old saying goes, if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself. That’s especially true when leadership fails. And right now, American political leadership is failing on many levels. If the last year hasn’t made it abundantly clear already, President Biden is failing when it comes to causing inflation by […]
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Letter: Balentine fails to note ongoing racial injustices
I’m so glad to see that John Balentine found one Black person he admires in MLK (“Here’s Something: BLM should be more like MLK,” Jan. 21). He did not address the fact that for all Martin Luther King’s inspiring rhetoric and Christian kindness, the strides made six decades ago didn’t lead to permanent justice for […]
Posted inThe Forecaster
Letter: Balentine should cease predictions and make resolutions
Instead of making divinations, Balentine should have used his first column of 2022 to make New Year’s resolutions. One such resolution might have been to abandon the tiresome “own the libs” schtick and adopt a calmer, more reasoned approach. I started to notice patterns in Balentine’s columns. First, he uses inflamed rhetoric. Second, he resorts […]
Posted inAmerican Journal, Forecaster Opinion, Lakes Region Weekly
Here’s Something: BLM should learn to be more like MLK
Martin Luther King Jr., a reverend who charted a colorblind approach to racial injustice, was a man of honor. Read his famous speeches and you will be in absolute awe. Oh, how we need a King now. He’d set race-baiters everywhere straight. He’d tell them to love their fellow, flawed human beings as individuals, not […]
Posted inThe Forecaster
Letter: Magic 8-Ball only predicts Balentine’s bias
The opinion piece published in the Dec. 31, 2021, Forecaster by John Balentine (“Magic 8-Ball illuminates clues to 2022”) was a sophomoric attempt to present his opinions as impartial. His bias comes through, however, in how he presents the questions (I notice he didn’t ask the 8-Ball “Will Trump and his conservative allies ever admit […]
Posted inThe Forecaster
Letter: Don’t fret about climate change; be smart like Balentine
Thank you for printing John Balentine’s Magic 8-Ball column (Here’s Something, Dec. 31). I almost feel like I’m behind it. John, in sync with the smartest man in the world, Donald Trump, asked that, in light of last summer’s record Antarctic cold, “Will climate change proponents finally admit their efforts are nothing but ‘blah, blah, […]
Posted inThe Forecaster
Letter: Magic 8-Ball not needed to see climate change is real
John Balentine suggests in his “Magic 8-Ball” column (Here’s Something, Dec. 30) that one warm half-year in Antarctica magically nullifies more than 100 years of climate data. Dear Mr. B: The thermometer is neither Republican nor Democrat. Putting the numbers on a chart or a graph is apolitical. Satellite data showing shrinkage of the 23,300 […]
Posted inThe Forecaster
Letter: Urging people to vote is democracy, not ‘spraying’
John Balentine opines in Magic 8-Ball (“Here’s Something,” Dec. 30), that “hyping” by the mainstream media of a possible new variant of COVID-19 would somehow be a bad idea, as opposed to denying its existence, à la his pernicious GOP. He also channels Rand Paul’s admission that Democrats win elections by “seeding an area heavy […]
Posted inAmerican Journal, Forecaster Opinion, Lakes Region Weekly
Here’s Something: Magic 8-Ball illuminates clues to 2022
When I worked at Current Publishing, a family of weekly community newspapers that merged with The Forecaster in 2015, one of our best annual newsroom traditions around Jan. 1 was seeking clarity and wisdom from a Magic 8-Ball for the new year. Staffers would come up with questions about news-related topics, and we’d run the […]