Common Sense

Lest there be any doubt about the importance of federal courts, consider the role courts are now playing in prodding the federal government toward a more practical approach to energy and the environment. The most recent example came last week with a federal appeals court ruling adopting the view of Maryland, California and other states that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases should be considered by the federal government when regulating vehicle fuel-efficiency standards. But that was only the last in a series of decisions that have injected a healthy dose of common sense into a debate that has been wildly politicized.

IN THE courts and on the bike paths, the news has not been uplifting for Howard County developers.Already-raw NIMBY nerves must have flared when two young men were shot to death on a bike path in Oakland Mills. Developers could hear the refrain: No Columbia-like developments in my back yard!Meanwhile, a judge delayed ruling on the sale of the 400-acre Smith Farm in Columbia, slated for conversion to parks and play fields. Opponents appeared to have won a round, possibly emboldening others who loath development.

Too many prisoners? Ask Americans who now feel saferI would like to respond to the Opinion Commentary article by Neal Peirce "Poignant letters from American jails" (Feb. 2). Mr. Peirce states that "we have made our streets safer" but he is disturbed that we have placed too many criminals in prison. What does Mr. Pierce advocate? That we return to a system of rehabilitation and lenient sentences?I am sure Mr. Peirce and his feel-good attitudes toward criminals are welcome in liberal, out-of-touch circles.

Editor Note: Since there will be no A La Carte section on Wednesday, Rob Kasper's eggnog column -- with his much-requested recipe -- appears today. AROUND THIS TIME of year, people often lose track of things -- their credit cards, their good sense, their favorite recipes.For losses suffered in the first two categories -- credit cards and common sense -- I can offer sympathy, not useful advice. I also can report that on a recent holiday shopping excursion, every time I used a credit card I was quickly overcome with panic.

COMMON SENSE dictates that the Mount Airy Middle School student who -- against school policy and state law -- handed her asthma inhaler to a friend in the midst of an attack, shouldn't be suspended from school, barred from extracurricular activities or labeled a drug distributor on her record. Happily, Carroll County schools appear, ultimately, to have used common sense in this case.For humane reasons, Christine Rhodes violated the rules in a moment of crisis, with no adverse consequences.

WITH AN APPARENT serial rapist attacking women in the Glen Burnie area, the Anne Arundel County Police Department has stepped up patrols and issued warnings to women living in large apartment complexes. Police have also mounted apublicity campaign informing women that an armed rapist is at large and to take precautions.Obviously, the police want to catch this person before he chooses to attack again, but they can't be everywhere. This man seems to be carrying out his assaults in Glen Burnie and Northern Virginia.

SINCE I RETIRED from the U.S. Senate and moved back to Tuscumbia, Ala., I have, once again, found myself driving through the back roads and country lanes of Alabama hill country. Last week, in fact, while I was driving to the flea market in Vina, I pulled over in a rainstorm to a two-pump gas station with a front porch and a wet dog to make a phone call.I parked my car, ran to the porch and found a man wearing blue pants, who looked like he ran the place. I asked if I could please use his phone.

Hunting debateIn response to Maria Alvarez's letter (Dec. 24) where she referred to hunters as "bloodthirsty barbarians," I would like to point out a few things. It must be OK for someone else to kill the meat that goes on your table. If you're a vegetarian, everything you put in your mouth was alive at one time.Certainly, you must co-exist with all of nature's "little living creatures" like mice, roaches, spiders and ants. Your animals are covered with fleas and ticks. You must not own or use a fly swatter.

IN AN INCISIVE and best-selling treatise on America in the 1990s, Philip Howard argues that the establishment of group rights as the main thrust of reform efforts in our society, to the detriment of the basic principles of our democratic heritage, has resulted in "The Death of Common Sense" (Random House, 1994).The continuing saga of the Navy's efforts to accommodate the politically correct pro femina paradigm of a unisex Navy by placing women in combat billets, while not mentioned in Howard's diagnosis, is a major case in point.

WASHINGTON -- ''I hope,'' the first Republican president supposedly said, with the fate of the Union at stake, ''to have God on my side, but I must have Kentucky.'' The man who aspires, in his distinctive way, to be the 18th Republican president feels likewise.For weeks Bob Dole wasted time, alarmed supporters and squandered an asset -- his reputation for dignity and common sense -- because of a quarter-baked thought he uttered while campaigning for Kentucky's eight electoral votes.He got into a spat with the personification of perkiness, the nation's favorite niece, the ''Today Show's'' Katie Couric.

Parents who fear getting separated from their children at amusement parks, beaches and other vacation spots are turning more often to new high- and low-tech safety devices. GPS tracking devices with wander alerts emit beeps or vibrations when a child strays too far. Digital watches and apparel have high-decibel alarms. And there's the SafetyTat, a waterproof tattoo created by a Baltimore-area mom who wanted to attach her phone number to her child; a half-million have been sold. But even as these products allow adults to breathe more easily, experts caution that they shouldn't replace parental monitoring - and common sense.

In defense of common sense It is interesting to me that Councilman Greg Fox's suggestion to scale back Healthy Howard funding in the face of underperformance is called "partisan" while the lock-step support of four Democrats to a program sponsored by a Democrat executive is somehow given the color of fair-minded political poetry ("Some Cry Partisanship in Fox Fight with Health Plan," May 24). Healthy Howard was projected to serve 2,000 citizens in its first year at $500,000 operating costs.

The electronic mailbag runneth over, so to speak, with the observations, exhortations and ruminations of readers. Let's hear from the folks. Kathy Dodson of Baltimore was appalled that the General Assembly didn't take action to ban the all-too-common practice of driving while texting when it had a chance. The General Assembly members need to stop being stupid and/or stop taking bribes for their votes. They also probably do a lot of texting or their kids do, therefore do not want to ban texting.

Lest there be any doubt about the importance of federal courts, consider the role courts are now playing in prodding the federal government toward a more practical approach to energy and the environment. The most recent example came last week with a federal appeals court ruling adopting the view of Maryland, California and other states that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases should be considered by the federal government when regulating vehicle fuel-efficiency standards. But that was only the last in a series of decisions that have injected a healthy dose of common sense into a debate that has been wildly politicized.

I know everyone has a story about the first person they loved. My story is different. My first love was my father -- boxer Rudolph Valentino Watkins Sr. My father is the first man who instilled in me what a man or what a gentleman is all about. My dad would always have these different sayings, such as, "A man has nothing but his word. If a man does not keep his word then he is not a true man." I did not understand what he meant as a child, but as I matured I grew to know what he meant.

Nonpartisanship improves governing Now that the election has been decided, everyone's talking about the need for bipartisanship ("Partisan jockeying begins," Nov. 10). This is wrong. Partisanship in this context means loyalty to a political party. Political parties are a medium for running an election, for narrowing the field of those seeking offices to a manageable number and for getting out information about those candidates. Political parties are not part of the legislative or governing process.

Thomas Paine: Enlightenment, Revolution, and the Birth of Modern Nations Craig Nelson Viking / 398 pages / $27.95 Thomas Paine is the Founding Father who makes everyone uncomfortable. Indeed, many Americans probably don't think of him as a Founding Father at all. Craig Nelson's lovely new biography provides cogent reasons that the man who wrote Common Sense has often been neglected by the cheerleaders for the American Revolution. Paine wasn't just a radical, Nelson reminds us (all the Founders were that, whether they liked it or not)

"I THNK AN AWFUL LOT OF REPUBLICANS SAY THIS GOES ACROSS COMMON SENSE, THIS RESEARCH HAS THE POTENTIAL OF SAVING MY FATHER, MY MOTHER OR A FRIEND, OR CURING CANCER." ED ROLLINS Republican strategist commenting on President Bush's veto last week of legislation that would have permitted federal funding of stem cell research.

Judge shows sense in land-use rulings I write in response to the editorial that takes issue with two rulings on land use by Carroll County Circuit Court Judge Michael M. Galloway ("Common-sense growth," Oct. 28). I have no argument with the statement that the current Board of County Commissioners was elected, at least in part, to correct some decisions allowing too much growth by past boards. However, there must be a sense of balance, and the county's view of how to enforce its new adequate public facilities ordinance has swung the pendulum too far in the other direction.

The war over growth in Carroll County seems never-ending - and badly in need of a truce of common sense. It used to be that developers and their lawyers ran roughshod over Carroll's commissioners and planners. But after years of runaway, mismanaged growth, a new set of county commissioners took office in 2002 and began the very hard task of restoring balance by slowing down homebuilding so that the county's facilities - particularly schools, roads and water supplies - could catch up with the projects in the pipeline.