Blogzerpts / Opinions from buffalonews.com
Story tools:
Share this story:
Excerpts from reader commentary on News staffers’ online blog postings last week. Online comments come from registered users, but — unlike reviewed and verified Everybody’s Column letters — can be posted under pen names.
•••
Inside the News: Sandra Tan blogged on an accusation by the American Civil Liberties Union that school and police officials overreacted in arresting and charging an 11-year-old middle schooler with “making a terroristic threat,” a school-computer list of students and teachers she said she wanted to kill. That brought several opinions, including this from OPMike:
Teachers and administrators are between a rock and a hard place. React and they get criticized and face a potential lawsuit. Don’t react forcefully enough and a tragedy happens and they get criticized and most certainly face multiple lawsuits.
Times have changed. Boys and girls of this age group have done horrible and terrible things to themselves and to others. School officials did the right thing. The 11-year-old middle schooler is heading to Family Court. Now the court will deal with her and try to work through her problems.
Sooner rather than later this kid will be back in school with all of her personal problems and baggage, and once again the teachers and administrators will be placed right back in a most precarious position.
•••
Outrages & Insights: James Heaney’s blog on Newsday’s reports that the thousands of “threatened” state jobs Gov. David A. Paterson was going to eliminate eventually whittled down to only a couple hundred at risk, led Martin to suggest:
No surprise, the more state employees there are the harder it will be to ever trim their ranks as they all but bribe elected officials.
Don’t expect a property tax cap to ever pass in the state either, just vote with your feet and leave the state as countless New Yorkers have already.
With a weak job market and high taxes it will be a slow and painful death for upstate. Mark asked:
Can we do a prepackaged bankruptcy like Chrysler did, terminate what we don’t need or want and go forward with the rest?
•••
Sabres Edge: A blog by John Vogl on Marek Zagrapan signing a two-year contract with Severstal, possibly bringing an end to his days as a Sabres prospect, led CalgarySabre2 to reason:
Hindsight is always perfect. The draft is a gamble. Even Punch Imlach drafted Morris Titanic and Michel Deziel (1 NHL game played). They are not all going to be Gil Perreault or Jim Schoenfeld.
If you look at any given year, you will find low picks who are still in the NHL and high picks who never made it, and that is true for every team.
•••
Talkin’ TV: Alan Pergament’s blog about the uninspiring last installment of “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” led Dena to observe:
I’ve always thought Leno’s show, for the most part, was a Snoozefest which is why I’ve been a Letterman fan. “The Tonight Show” was never the same after Johnny Carson and never will be again. There’s just no comparison.
•••
Strictly Business: A blog by George Pyle on plans by the GM Tonawanda plant to trim its work force up to 30 percent, and on President Obama’s pledge of $30 billion to GM to help it get out of its mess, brought this comment from Mark:
We have moved . . . from last fall’s “too big to fail” to where we are now, essentially the U. S. taxpayer being the banker because the banks won’t take the risk. A share price of GM down from its recent high of $90 per share to 75 cents per share, employment down from 600,000 to where it is now. Customers were lost when the Chevy Vega, X-cars, Cadillac Cimarron, Pontiac Aztek and the like were being ringed by Accords, Civics and Camrys. Those customers did not come back, and their kids and grandkids are never coming back, in spite of the Chevy Malibu, Cadillac CTS etc., being world class. The story of GM will reach its final line in the fall of 2010, when the Chevy Cruze and Chevy Volt hit the showroom and the marketplace. It can’t be another Chevy Vega or X-car.
Reader comments
Log into MyBuffalo to post a comment
MyBuffalo is the new social network from Buffalo.com. Your MyBuffalo account lets you comment on and rate stories at buffalonews.com. You can also head over to mybuffalo.com to share your blog posts, stories, photos, and videos with the community. Join now or learn more.
Comments have been disabled.
Due to a high volume of submissions that violate The News’ guidelines, commenting is no longer available on this story. If you’d like to share your thoughts on this story, click here to get information on contributing to The News’ opinion pages.