Author: Peter Galuszka
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Oilfield Reality Check
By Peter Galuszka One has to laugh at just how fantastic the debate over energy has become. Conservatives are trying to make President Barack Obama a goat for not bowing to the propaganda about the Keystone XL pipeline which would take unusually dirty oil from Canadian tar sands all the way to the U.S. Gulf…
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“The Iron Lady”
By Peter Galuszka “The Iron Lady,” a biopic starring Meryl Streep, has brought fresh attention to the policies and philosophies of Margaret Thatcher, the ground-breaking leader who served as Great Britain’s Prime Minister for 11 years – from 1979 to 1990. Always controversial, Thatcher pioneered much of the conservative framework still in play today, such…
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The Ultrasound Abortion
By Peter Galuszka Abortion is always a very unpleasant topic just as it must be horrendous for a woman to be in a position to make such as choice. Still, it is her constitutional right, the law of the land. So, after years of trying, Virginia’s conservative legislators are on the verge of putting themselves,…
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Up to Our Alligators As Area Warms?
By Peter Galuszka Holy magnolia! The area just south of Washington on the Potomac River and all the way north of Baltimore on the shores of Chesapeake Bay have become noticeable warmer over the past 22 years. Consequently, it is possible to grow species of plants in that zone that previously needed warmer, more southerly…
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Does Vlad Have the Right Idea?
By Peter Galuszka As conservatives argue about cutting deficits and keeping low taxes for the rich both in Virginia and nationally, a bigger question is coming up: does Vladimir I. Lenin actually have the answer? Sounds strange, I know, but not if you read Britain’s center-right weekly business newsweekly, The Economist. In a leader titled,…
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Good Move on Uranium
By Peter Galuszka Gov. Robert F. McDonnell has punted on the uranium controversy and that’s a good thing, assuming the General Assembly doesn’t lift the mining ban anyway. There are simply too many unknowns about mining the tract owned by Virginia Uranium near Chatham and the state has no knowledge or regulations about mining the…
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Malodorous Portsmouth
By Peter Galuszka Is there something stinky going on in Portsmouth? It’s a question that has suddenly wafted up when residents of the port city learned that the Virginia Ports Authority has been in secret talks with Canadian-owned PCS Phosphate to put in a plant to melt sulfur pellets for fertilizer production. The same project…
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Good and Bad Capitalism
By Peter Galuszka The Republican presidential primary season has taken on a peculiar wackiness, particularly when free market advocate Next Gingrich takes on front-runner Mitt Romney for his days as a private equity capitalist at Bain Capital. The conservatives amongst us shudder at the very idea that something as precious as finance can be spotlighted (as…
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Thumbsucking, Richmond-style
By Peter Galuszka The incredible, shrinking Richmond Times-Dispatch offers a lot less to read these days. Under the leadership of Publisher Thomas A. Silvestri, many staffers have been fired to boost parent firm Media General’s top line. The effort hasn’t been entirely successful since its stock, once around $65 a share, is now a little better…
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McDonnell’s Campaign Against Public Schools
By Peter Galuszka As much as I hold James A. Bacon Jr., my esteemed fellow blogger, in the deepest of respect, whenever he says that he regards a package of legislation as the best, it’s time to start to switch on the Google. In this case, Jim is patting Gov. Robert F. McDonnell on the…
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Lots on the Virginia Defense Chopping Block
By Peter Galuszka Barack Obama’s nearly $500 billion in budget cuts are certain to impact Virginia. It’s only fair, of course, that if Obama is going to join the chorus of (largely Republican and often hysterical) budget cutters, then the military should be included. After all, we haven’t even begun paying yet for the wars…
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More Hypocrisy from Philip Morris USA
By Peter Galuszka Tobacco has always been a powerful industry in Virginia since the days of the Jamestown colony. It is no less influential today as Henrico County-based Philip Morris USA and its parent firm, Altria, constantly play shell games about the hazards of their products. Just before Christmas, and right in time for the 2012 election year,…
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Virginia: Mother of Bad Ideas
By Peter Galuszka The Mother of Presidents is back at it again. Through some legal quirk — typical for the Old Dominion — only Mitt Romney and Ron Paul will be on the ballot for the March 6 Republican primary. Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry did not meet the state’s onerous requirement for 10,000 petition signatures…
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The Dangers of Creeping College Privatization
By Peter Galuszka Virginia residents have long enjoyed a special advantage with higher education. Tuition at some of the country’s best-rated public universities — the University of Virginia, the College of William and Mary and Virginia Tech — is relatively modest. The schools offer a great deal for parents and students compared with nationally ranked…
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Merry Christmas, Amazon.com!
By Peter Galuszka Christmas, regretfully, is forced, propagandized consumerism under the guide of market capitalism, albeit in new forms. One is digital sales, of which Amazon is dominant. Amazon also is about to become a big player in Virginia since it will open distribution centers in Chesterfield and Dinwiddie that will cost $135 million and employ…