The Opinion Blog

THURSDAY OPEN FORUM: What's on your mind?

Post comments below on any issue you want. The only limitations: the ground rules listed at the left and your own imagination. I'll reply when appropriate. Have fun. dc

(If you wish your comment to be considered for publication in the newspaper, copy it into an e-mail and send it to opinions@thesunnews.com. Please add your address and phone number to the e-mail so we can contact you for verification. The size limit for letters is 150 words.)

Burn baby, burn?

Today's editorial notes that the next big Horry County fire could be much harder to control:

When things are going well, we tend to become oblivious to the connection to the taxes we pay and the public services we get in return. Last week, however, this connection became startlingly clear with the horrendous wildfires that vaporized about 70 homes and blackened nearly 20,000 acres between the waterway and S.C. 90 - a fire that remains a threat today. Were it not for the timely help of S.C. Forestry Commission firefighters and their equipment, and firefighters and equipment from other S.C. and N.C. venues, the damage well might have been worse.

TUESDAY OPEN FORUM: What's on your mind?

Post comments below on any issue you want. The only limitations: the ground rules listed at the left and your own imagination. I'll reply when appropriate. Have fun. dc

(If you wish your comment to be considered for publication in the newspaper, copy it into an e-mail and send it to opinions@thesunnews.com. Please add your address and phone number to the e-mail so we can contact you for verification. The size limit for letters is 150 words.)

Life for dc after Opinion Blog, newspapers

Friends: I may be retiring from The Sun News at the end of this week, but that doesn't mean my journalistic work life is over. I'll probably be doing something of an ink-stained-wretch nature (even if the "ink" is pixels) -- but I don't yet know what that will be or when I'll be doing it. I have found it impossible both to wind up my job at the newspaper, and as proprietor of Opinion Blog, and to plan for the future. My poor brain just won't allow it.

WEEKEND OPEN FORUM: What's on your mind?

Post comments below on any issue you want. The only limitations: the ground rules listed at the left and your own imagination. I'll reply when appropriate. Have fun. dc

(If you wish your comment to be considered for publication in the newspaper, copy it into an e-mail and send it to opinions@thesunnews.com. Please add your address and phone number to the e-mail so we can contact you for verification. The size limit for letters is 150 words.)

THE FUTURE OF OPINION BLOG: A report

Friends: Today begins my last week as The Sun News editorial page editor -- and as the proprietor of Opinion Blog. Beginning next week, the reporter whom management has designated to write editorials in my stead, Robert Morris, will also begin writing Opinion Blog.

Robert is well suited to this week, as he's keenly interested in the world, writes well and has a sharp wit. And because he's young enough to be my son, he will bring a more youthful perspective to the work -- which I am sure some of you will find refreshing.

I've enjoyed running the blog the past two years and will miss regular interaction with blog participants. I wish you all the best.

dc

WEDNESDAY OPEN FORUM: What's on your mind?

Post comments below on any issue you want. The only limitations: the ground rules listed at the left and your own imagination. I'll reply when appropriate. Have fun. dc

(If you wish your comment to be considered for publication in the newspaper, copy it into an e-mail and send it to opinions@thesunnews.com. Please add your address and phone number to the e-mail so we can contact you for verification. The size limit for letters is 150 words.)

GOP leader: Federal judge must override legislative will

Today's editorial points out the irony in an S.C. GOP county chairman's federal-court lawsuit to overturn open primaries in South Carolina:

Frustrated that S.C. legislators won't do his party's bidding, an S.C. party chairman this week asked a federal court to end open primary elections. A Republican would never dream of accomplishing by lawsuit what can't be accomplished via political action in the legislature, right? So the guy must be a Democrat, right?

TUESDAY OPEN FORUM: What's on your mind?

Post comments below on any issue you want. The only limitations: the ground rules listed at the left and your own imagination. I'll reply when appropriate. Have fun. dc

(If you wish your comment to be considered for publication in the newspaper, copy it into an e-mail and send it to opinions@thesunnews.com. Please add your address and phone number to the e-mail so we can contact you for verification. The size limit for letters is 150 words.)

The curious math of Strand golf marketing

Today's editorial asks whether it's really fair to ask Myrtle Beach residents to subsidize golf marketing for golf courses across the Grand Strand:

When legislators act in haste to meet some perceived need, they invariably make decisions that are hard to defend. The proposed 1-cent-per-dollar Myrtle Beach sales-tax increase for tourism marketing is a case in point.

The revenue, some of which tourists would pay, will supplement the marketing budgets of the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce and Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday. Especially on the Golf Holiday side, the benefit of that spending will stretch far beyond Myrtle Beach city limits.