The Platform http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform The Platform: Take a stand on any issue; agree with or fire back at Post-Dispatch opinions. Sun, 08 Nov 2009 04:07:39 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.5 en 1 The Platform http://images.stltoday.com/stltoday/images/yahoo/stl_pd_logo.jpg http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform 143 50 STLtoday.com Costly new drugs: A crisis for one family, a quandry for U.S. http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/published-editorials/2009/11/costly-new-drugs-a-crisis-for-one-family-a-quandry-for-us/ http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/published-editorials/2009/11/costly-new-drugs-a-crisis-for-one-family-a-quandry-for-us/#comments Sat, 07 Nov 2009 03:03:09 +0000 Editorial Board http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/?p=8503 Dan Callahan

Dan Callahan

It began with a little black spot on Dan Callahan’s lower lip. He didn’t think it was anything to worry about. His doctor thought it was cancer.
The doctor was right.
It was neurotropic melanoma, a very rare — and very…

]]> http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/published-editorials/2009/11/costly-new-drugs-a-crisis-for-one-family-a-quandry-for-us/feed/ Matson’s view: Fort Hood http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/cartoon/2009/11/matsons-view-fort-hood/ http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/cartoon/2009/11/matsons-view-fort-hood/#comments Sat, 07 Nov 2009 03:00:06 +0000 R.J. Matson http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/?p=8498

]]> http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/cartoon/2009/11/matsons-view-fort-hood/feed/ Pain of joblessness now to last for many years http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/uncategorized/2009/11/pain-of-joblessness-now-to-last-for-many-future-years/ http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/uncategorized/2009/11/pain-of-joblessness-now-to-last-for-many-future-years/#comments Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:06:25 +0000 Gilbert Bailon http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/?p=8475 To no one’s great surprise, the national unemployment rate today exceeded 10 percent for the first time since 1983. It was another crushing, if symbolic, blow to the psyche of American workers.

The just-announced 10.2 national unemployment rate partly was fueled by…

]]> http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/uncategorized/2009/11/pain-of-joblessness-now-to-last-for-many-future-years/feed/ Slay personally apologizes for homeless incident http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/editorial-writers-notebooks/2009/11/slay-personally-apologies-for-homeless-incident/ http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/editorial-writers-notebooks/2009/11/slay-personally-apologies-for-homeless-incident/#comments Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:09:03 +0000 Eddie Roth http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/?p=8481 Photo by Fielder Williams Strain

Photo by Fielder Williams Strain

From the mayor’s blog:

Yesterday was a low point in the City’s hospitality. Badly supervised City employees callously destroyed the possessions of some homeless people who had chosen to camp illegally and for a extended period of…

]]> http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/editorial-writers-notebooks/2009/11/slay-personally-apologies-for-homeless-incident/feed/ Public confidence and the “blue wall of silence” http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/published-editorials/2009/11/public-confidence-and-the-blue-wall-of-silence/ http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/published-editorials/2009/11/public-confidence-and-the-blue-wall-of-silence/#comments Fri, 06 Nov 2009 03:01:03 +0000 Editorial Board http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/?p=8467 R.J. Matson/Post-Dispatch

R.J. Matson/Post-Dispatch

In the past 11 months, nine current or former St. Louis police officers have been charged with federal or state crimes. Four others have been publicly charged by the department with falsifying search warrant information or police reports.

Federal authorities…

]]> http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/published-editorials/2009/11/public-confidence-and-the-blue-wall-of-silence/feed/ The view from the window: trashing the homeless http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/published-editorials/2009/11/the-view-from-the-window-trashing-the-homeless/ http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/published-editorials/2009/11/the-view-from-the-window-trashing-the-homeless/#comments Fri, 06 Nov 2009 03:00:01 +0000 Editorial Board http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/?p=8463 Beautiful Interco Plaza. (Photo by Urban Review St. Louis)

Beautiful Interco Plaza. (Photo by Urban Review St. Louis)

From the windows of our offices Thursday morning, we watched as St. Louis Park Rangers and a bright orange city garbage truck destroyed a makeshift homeless camp across Dr. Martin Luther King Drive…

]]> http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/published-editorials/2009/11/the-view-from-the-window-trashing-the-homeless/feed/ History holds lessons for public health insurance option http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/published-editorials/2009/11/history-holds-lessons-for-public-health-insurance-option/ http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/published-editorials/2009/11/history-holds-lessons-for-public-health-insurance-option/#comments Thu, 05 Nov 2009 03:01:34 +0000 Editorial Board http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/?p=8449 Protesters demand health reform at a rally outside Blue Cross headquarters in Los Angles

Protesters demand health reform at a rally outside Blue Cross headquarters in Los Angles last month.

Nothing about health care reform has inspired more overheated rhetoric than the so-called public option.
Opponents say it would unleash a government juggernaut against which no…

]]> http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/published-editorials/2009/11/history-holds-lessons-for-public-health-insurance-option/feed/ Weatherman-in-chief http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/published-editorials/2009/11/weatherman-in-chief/ http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/published-editorials/2009/11/weatherman-in-chief/#comments Thu, 05 Nov 2009 03:00:43 +0000 Editorial Board http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/?p=8442 www.obama-weather.com

www.obama-weather.com

With Republican gains in Tuesday’s off-year elections, President Barack Obama doesn’t need a weatherman to tell him which way the winds are blowing. Luckily the president is now his own weatherman.

Just type www.obama-weather.com into your browser and up pops an avatar…

]]> http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/published-editorials/2009/11/weatherman-in-chief/feed/ Matson’s View: Bogie’s lament. http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/cartoon/2009/11/matsons-view-bogies-lament/ http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/cartoon/2009/11/matsons-view-bogies-lament/#comments Thu, 05 Nov 2009 02:59:10 +0000 R.J. Matson http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/?p=8451 R.J. Matson/Post-Dispatch

R.J. Matson/Post-Dispatch

]]> http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/cartoon/2009/11/matsons-view-bogies-lament/feed/ Fierce advocacy is surest way to improve college access http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/published-editorials/2009/11/fierce-advocacy-is-surest-way-to-improve-college-access/ http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/published-editorials/2009/11/fierce-advocacy-is-surest-way-to-improve-college-access/#comments Wed, 04 Nov 2009 03:00:34 +0000 Editorial Board http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/?p=8431 Mark Wrighton of Washington University, Elizabeth Stroble of Webster University, Zelema Harris of the St. Louis Community College system, and Brady Deaton of the University of Missouri-Columbia discuss college affordability at a conference organized at COCA by the Scholarship Foundation of St. Louis. Photo by Dan Donovan

Mark Wrighton of Washington University, Elizabeth Stroble of Webster University, Zelema Harris of the St. Louis Community College system, and Brady Deaton of the University of Missouri-Columbia discuss college affordability at a conference organized by the Scholarship Foundation of St.…

]]> http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/published-editorials/2009/11/fierce-advocacy-is-surest-way-to-improve-college-access/feed/ Matson’ view: Taking tax exemption to the mat http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/cartoon/2009/11/matson-view-taking-tax-exemption-to-the-mat/ http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/cartoon/2009/11/matson-view-taking-tax-exemption-to-the-mat/#comments Wed, 04 Nov 2009 02:58:22 +0000 R.J. Matson http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/?p=8437

]]> http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/cartoon/2009/11/matson-view-taking-tax-exemption-to-the-mat/feed/ Seeking a less catastrophic way to cool global warming http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/published-editorials/2009/11/seeking-a-less-catastrophic-way-to-cool-global-warming/ http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/published-editorials/2009/11/seeking-a-less-catastrophic-way-to-cool-global-warming/#comments Tue, 03 Nov 2009 03:01:56 +0000 Editorial Board http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/?p=8411 Phorusrhacos longissimus roamed part of what is now Argentina during the Middle Miocene.

Who wants a drumstick? The six-foot-tall phorusrhacos longissimus roamed what is now Argentina during the Middle Miocene.

People often talk as if warming temperatures are the only evidence of human-induced global climate change. But the amount of carbon dioxide in the…

]]> http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/published-editorials/2009/11/seeking-a-less-catastrophic-way-to-cool-global-warming/feed/ Friends don’t let friends drive drunk. The legal system does. http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/published-editorials/2009/11/friends-dont-let-friends-drive-drunk-the-legal-system-does/ http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/published-editorials/2009/11/friends-dont-let-friends-drive-drunk-the-legal-system-does/#comments Tue, 03 Nov 2009 03:01:24 +0000 Editorial Board http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/?p=8408 In Sunday’s third installment of a Post-Dispatch series on loopholes in Missouri’s drunk driving laws, we learned that the state law that mandates a one year-suspension of driving privileges for drivers who refuse to take a breathalyzer test often is a joke.

In…

]]> http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/published-editorials/2009/11/friends-dont-let-friends-drive-drunk-the-legal-system-does/feed/ Matson’s View: Smoke gets in your ayes. http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/cartoon/2009/11/matsons-view-smoke-gets-in-your-ayes/ http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/cartoon/2009/11/matsons-view-smoke-gets-in-your-ayes/#comments Tue, 03 Nov 2009 02:59:11 +0000 R.J. Matson http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/?p=8427 R.J. Matson/Post-Dispatch

R.J. Matson/Post-Dispatch

]]> http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/cartoon/2009/11/matsons-view-smoke-gets-in-your-ayes/feed/ Health Care: The German Perspective http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/editorial-writers-notebooks/2009/11/health-care-the-german-perspective/ http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/editorial-writers-notebooks/2009/11/health-care-the-german-perspective/#comments Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:19:38 +0000 John G. Carlton http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/?p=8398 Not a socialist.

Otto von Bismarck: Not socialist.

Forget all this nonsense about socialized health care. The first head of state to propose a national health system was at the other end of the political spectrum. His name: Otto von Bismarck.

The system established by…

]]> http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/editorial-writers-notebooks/2009/11/health-care-the-german-perspective/feed/ Honor students: The Wash U Six http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/published-editorials/2009/11/the-wash-u-six/ http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/published-editorials/2009/11/the-wash-u-six/#comments Mon, 02 Nov 2009 02:00:17 +0000 Editorial Board http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/?p=8381 WU Senior Class Treasurer Regis Murayi speaks at a news conference, along with Senior Class President Fernando Cutz and the five other students alleging racial discrimation by the Original Mothers bar. (Matt Mitgang | Student Life)

WU Senior Class Treasurer Regis Murayi speaks at a news conference, along with Senior Class President Fernando Cutz and the five other students alleging racial discrimation by the Original Mothers bar. (Matt Mitgang | Student Life)

For all of Chicagoland’s storied toughness,…

]]> http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/published-editorials/2009/11/the-wash-u-six/feed/ Sharing responsibility for health care costs http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/published-editorials/2009/11/sharing-responsibility-for-health-care-costs/ http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/published-editorials/2009/11/sharing-responsibility-for-health-care-costs/#comments Mon, 02 Nov 2009 02:00:13 +0000 Editorial Board http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/?p=8387 House Democrats unveiled a sweeping health care reform bill last Thursday built on shared responsibility.
Individuals would have to buy health insurance for themselves and their families.
Taxpayers would subsidize coverage for those unable to afford it on their own.
Employers would have…

]]> http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/published-editorials/2009/11/sharing-responsibility-for-health-care-costs/feed/ The way it is: Budget cuts move Missouri south. http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/published-editorials/2009/10/the-way-it-is-budget-cuts-move-missouri-south/ http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/published-editorials/2009/10/the-way-it-is-budget-cuts-move-missouri-south/#comments Sat, 31 Oct 2009 02:01:23 +0000 Editorial Board http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/?p=8365 R.J. Matson/Post-Dispatch

R.J. Matson/Post-Dispatch

Last week, Gov. Jay Nixon whacked another $203.7 million from the state’s budget. He’d already cut $385 million in July, and vetoed another $105 million when he signed the $23 billion budget in June.

The governor really had no choice.…

]]> http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/published-editorials/2009/10/the-way-it-is-budget-cuts-move-missouri-south/feed/ EPA ruling might mean a cleaner Mississippi River http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/published-editorials/2009/10/epa-ruling-might-mean-a-cleaner-mississippi-river/ http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/published-editorials/2009/10/epa-ruling-might-mean-a-cleaner-mississippi-river/#comments Sat, 31 Oct 2009 02:00:08 +0000 Editorial Board http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/?p=8373 Water skiing on the Mississippi River

Water skiing on the Mississippi River

It takes more than 200 pages of dense, legalistic language to detail the intricacies of the federal Clean Water Act. But the bottom line is simple: Federal and state governments must protect lakes, streams and…

]]> http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/published-editorials/2009/10/epa-ruling-might-mean-a-cleaner-mississippi-river/feed/ Pile-it program: Pig manure turned into oil http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/published-editorials/2009/10/pile-it-program-pig-manure-turned-into-oil/ http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/published-editorials/2009/10/pile-it-program-pig-manure-turned-into-oil/#comments Fri, 30 Oct 2009 22:08:53 +0000 Editorial Board http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/?p=8361 Yanhui Zhang of the University of Illinois, father of pig manure-to-oil technology. (Tom Roberts/AP)

Yanhui Zhang of the University of Illinois, father of pig manure-to-oil technology. (Tom Roberts/AP)

he legendary streets of El Dorado were said to be paved with gold. Now we learn that the roads in Missouri one day may be paved with…

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