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The Cost of War, Part 2

Dugan Barr — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 12:00:35 +0000

A recent question for my radio spot was: “According to one estimate, nearly 40 percent of the 700,000 troops involved in the first Gulf War now qualify for disability. Do you feel enough is being done to accommodate the much…

The Cost of War, Part 1

Dugan Barr — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 12:17:14 +0000

Recently I was asked for a radio spot the following question: Given the concern about federal spending in budgets, bailouts and economic stimulus, should we also be concerned that the estimated cost of the Iraq War will end up being…

California Legislature, Part 2

Dugan Barr — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 13:49:59 +0000

Should California have a part-time rather than full-time legislature in an effort to reshape politics in Sacramento?

No. that is not the problem. The problem is that we have a bunch of legislators who are either short-timers or newbies. The first…

California Legislature, Part I

Dugan Barr — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 13:44:59 +0000

One explanation given for the trouble they’ve had getting work done in Sacramento is that state legislators don’t know what they’re doing. Should term limits be abolished in order to have more experienced representation?

Term limits are one third of the…

Why Big Drug Companies Are Sitting Pretty

Dugan Barr — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 14:05:41 +0000

I don’t get it — why is there not more open criticism of big drug companies as part of the health care debate? They’ve offered up to $150 billion in lower drug costs and to give Medicare a “discount” but…

Let’s Call This ‘The Year of Living Intelligently’

Dugan Barr — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 13:10:26 +0000

Commentary

Is this the year “twenty-ten” or “two-thousand-ten”?

Is the emergency number “nine-eleven” or “nine-one-one?” If you are dealing with a kid, it better be 9-1-1. There have been cases where small children have been unable to call because they could not…

Should Online Commenters Be Allowed Anonymity?

Dugan Barr — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 15:16:35 +0000

More and more courts are allowing the unmasking of the identity of online writers and commenters in various kinds of legal cases, including defamation. Free speech violation, or holding people accountable?

I can think of no reason why people should be…

Father and Son Tour Oregon’s Wine Country

Dugan Barr — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:24:29 +0000

My son Ben and I had been trying for several years to do a boys weekend out without success. He has a busy IT business, and I have a law practice. Finally, instead of trying to find an event that…

Birther Bullroar and Other Stupidity

Dugan Barr — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 12:11:19 +0000

I am continually amazed and dumbfounded at the willingness of some people to insist in clinging to ridiculous non-issues instead of trying to engage in a real discussion of what is going on in this country.

At the head of this…

On Outsourcing Redding Services

Dugan Barr — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 13:17:56 +0000

Commentary

Should the city of Redding move forward with privatizing many or most civic functions except for police and fire? I think this is one of those sounds-good ideas that will not stand up to specific scrutiny.

The idea, as I understand it,…

Public Health Care, Private Health Care — Where Are We Better Off?

Dugan Barr — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 12:11:10 +0000

Full disclosure: I qualified for Medicare a year and a half ago. I had a terrible time with that. Everybody knows I am not disabled and I certainly am not old enough for Medicare. Sure, I was born in 1942,…

Refusing to Talk Honestly about Health Care

Dugan Barr — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 12:00:22 +0000

Part 1

Very few people in the public arena seem willing and able (it is hard to tell which) to engage in an honest, responsible debate about the pros and cons of publicly funded health care in America. The conversation is…

Why California is Broke

Dugan Barr — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 11:00:42 +0000

The state of California is the eighth largest economy in the world, just behind France and Italy, and ahead of Spain and Canada. That fact in and of itself is amazing, California being only one of 50 states in this…

Redding Loses a True Civil Servant

Dugan Barr — Sat, 30 May 2009 15:25:20 +0000

Larry Morgon is retiring from the city of Redding. He has been a tireless advocate for the entire effort to revitalize and re-grow the downtown. In late 1994, early 1995, the Redding Redevelopment Agency created a focus group to explore…

Why Can’t I Find a Lawyer to Represent My Medical Malpractice Case? Part 2

Dugan Barr — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 13:28:16 +0000

Part 2. How the Deck is Stacked

All the issues I mentioned in Part 1: The Basic Issues are made much worse and much harder by some really stupid legislation passed in California in the middle 1970s.
At that time there was a…

Why Can’t I Find a Lawyer to Represent Me in My Medical Malpractice Case? Part 1

Dugan Barr — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 12:37:33 +0000

PART 1. THE BASIC ISSUES

In my office, we get many, many calls about medical malpractice claims. That fact is pretty startling because of another fact: the level of medical practice in Shasta County California is, quite frankly, very good. Sure,…

Why Obama can’t pick Clinton

Dugan Barr — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 17:09:36 +0000

President-elect Barack Obama cannot appoint Sen. Hillary Clinton as his secretary of state. Frankly, I think Sen. Clinton would do a good job. But her husband, President Bill Clinton, is too much of a liability.

I’m sad to say this, because I am,…

How to get a rest from the rest of the campaign season

Dugan Barr — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 15:00:51 +0000

The year was 1960. I was in my first year in college. The presidential election was fewer than 30 days away. The reaction was: “Why can’t we just vote no?”

The debates had gone on and were still to come. The…

Please, vote against the Pauline-Wally-doodle all the day!

Dugan Barr — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 04:50:39 +0000

One of the problems that we have in this country is that we seem to treat elections like some kind of sporting event. We sign up for a team, and then mindlessly cheer the people on that team to victory.…

2 crises facing California

Dugan Barr — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 00:19:14 +0000

California is facing at least two economic crises. The budget is one, and health care is the other.

The budget is the fault of two groups: the politicians we elect and the people who elect them. We seem to demand that…

Dugan Barr: Way-cool coffeemaker

Dugan Barr — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 06:45:57 +0000

First, a disclaimer. I do not have any stock or other financial interest in the product I am about to describe. I stumbled onto it while in France last spring and thought it was the coolest thing I had seen…

Trip to Northern Ireland offered insight, inspiration

Dugan Barr — Fri, 02 May 2008 06:19:53 +0000

BELFAST — If you are at the end of your rope about how screwed up the world is, if you think that it has become hopeless and that there will never be peace in this world, you need to go to Northern…

No one is accountable, By Dugan Barr

Dugan Barr — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 04:22:29 +0000

What do we need to do to get our country back on track economically? The first thing we need to do is to recognize that we have a willful family member with an unlimited credit card who is entirely out of control. That family member is the Pentagon. In the guise of protecting the country, it is undermining the very basis of our economic freedom by throwing money away. If our economy collapses, we are at the mercy of people who do not have the milk of human kindness in any vein.

The Pay Cut You Don’t Know AboutBy Dugan Barr

Dugan Barr — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 05:05:52 +0000

In the last seven years, every American worker has gotten a huge pay cut. Nobody talks about it, but it is there, and it is the result of the way this country has been mismanaged. The dollars you are paid have…

Short-term economics is costly in the long run By Dugan Barr

Dugan Barr — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 07:32:43 +0000

Cons outweigh pros of north state inmate proposals By Dugan Barr

Dugan Barr — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 05:47:24 +0000

Two recent developments regarding California’s overcrowded prisons could have a tremendous effect on the north state and need to be carefully considered together.

The first is a plan proposed by the Governor to release non-violent, low-risk prisoners early to deal with…

Why I am a liberal By Dugan Barr

Dugan Barr — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 08:47:49 +0000

Sometimes, I am asked, “Why are you a liberal?” I started out to write a piece that answered that question. However, the more I thought about it, the more I came to understand that there has been real confusion and…