THE TRIBUNE'S VIEW
Saving Beirut
By HENRY J. WATERS III, Publisher, Columbia Daily Tribune
In her Tribune column July 31, geographer and teacher Cathy Salter reminded us how tragically the warfare between Israel and the Hezbollah is affecting Lebanon, particularly its capital city, Beirut.

JOHN DARKOW CARTOON

OPEN COLUMN
Embryonic stem cell work is destruction of human life
Editor, the Tribune: In November, Missourians will vote on a constitutional amendment that would give legal protection to embryonic stem cell research. The amendment would protect a process called somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), the scientific term for cloning embryos. In this case, it results in a living human being at the embryonic stage of life.

OPEN COLUMN
Proposed law allows cloning, just under a different name
Editor, the Tribune: The Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures has distributed literature that says the Missouri Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative, on the November ballot, strictly bans human cloning. As a health professional with a science background, I disagree.

OPEN COLUMN
Do ag associations speak for farmers in endorsements?
Editor, the Tribune: This is a question for all the soybean, corn and pig farmers in Missouri: Do you intend to support average citizens in the fashion we support you? I ask because it appears the professional organizations that supposedly represent these farmers think nothing about turning their backs on the average Missourians who buy your products.

OPEN COLUMN
Construction ruins valley, neighbors’ peaceful mood
Editor, the Tribune: When I left for work on a recent Monday, my home faced a valley with a tree-lined creek. When I returned at 5 p.m., the landscape looked like a war zone. In eight hours, they had cut down trees and brought in dirt from Chapel Hill.

Professor unusual suspect in war’s genesis
By THOMAS F. EAGLETON
"Fiasco," the new book is called, and fiasco it is. But neither Thomas Ricks’ work nor any others portray the enormous role Princeton University Professor Bernard Lewis played in the Iraq disaster. George Kennan, also from Princeton, and Lewis are the two scholars of our time who had the greatest effect on U.S. foreign policy: Kennan on the Cold War; Lewis on the Iraq war.

Communism is ideal except in reality
By WALTER WILLIAMS
Grove City College publishes an excellent newsletter titled "Visions and Values." Its July 2006 edition features an interview with Richard Pipes, acclaimed Russian historian and Harvard University professor of Sovietology. The interview was conducted by Grove City College professor of political science Paul Kengor.

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