Category Archives: Opinions
Heavy metals in our dark chocolate
It appears that our beloved dark chocolate candy bars can contain dangerous amounts of lead and cadmium — the dark chocolate we intentionally chose for its health benefits like lower blood pressure and antioxidants that protect cells from damage.
Consumer Reports did research to test the levels of lead and cadmium in dark chocolate candy bars. Of the 28 different dark chocolate bars
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New life insurance premium discount
If you have life insurance through the Department of Veterans Affairs, you’ll be pleased about what’s coming in 2025: a discount in your premiums.
Whether you are insured with Veterans’ Group Life Insurance (VGLI), Servicemembers’ Group Life Insurance (SGLI) or Family Servicemembers’ Group Life Insurance (FSGLI), your premiums will be
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A guide for a veteran’s New Year’s resolution
Although I have been using variations of these ideas for the past 12 years, the main credit for them come from Army combat veteran Rob Kennedy, who works with the Greenville VA and whose work “The Warrior’s Journey” is helping hundreds of veterans in their civilian lives. The Vantage Point Foundation, a veteran nonprofit, has also been
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Traditional traditions
Stressful holidays are often caused because there is so much stress during the holidays.
The stress of having to find the perfect gift, bake the perfect cookies, make the perfect gravy (that means no lumps) and decorate the perfect tree. Then, Mother Nature can hit you with a snow storm, or some other weather glitch, and put a real damper on any holiday travel plans.
However, the Christmas traditions of sipping hot chocolate, twinkling lights, and stealing kisses under the mistletoe, make the holidays the perfect setting
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Courier Letters to the Editor
A cleanup well done
Dear Editor,
I would like to say “job well done” to Pickens County, SCDOT and FEMA for all their hard work and long hours in cleaning up after the Sept. 28 storm.
They have worked tirelessly seven days a week and 12 hours a day to clear the trees and debris left by that horrendous storm. I myself had two large piles in front of my house, which they picked up on a Sunday afternoon.
I live very close to where they are dumping all of the cleanup for later mulching. The piles are huge. I was by there today,
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Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus
Editor’s Note: In 1897, 8-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of New York Sun, and the quick response was printed as an unsigned editorial Sept. 21, 1897. The work of veteran newsman Francis Pharcellus Church has since become history’s most reprinted newspaper editorial, appearing in part or whole in dozens of languages. We offer the letter and editorial response to you in this week’s issue. Merry Christmas.
Dear Editor:
I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, ‘If you see it in The Sun, it’s so.’ Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?
Virginia O’Hanlon
Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.
Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.
Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.
You may tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.
No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.
What is Christmas’ meaning for you?
I’ve read articles over the years about how Christmas is a combination of Christian and pagan symbolism, along with some folklore traditions, and for the most part, this is true. I also realize that most people do not want to hear about such things.
Beyond the bah-humbug, I will admit that even though Christmas is not as much fun now as it was when I was a kid or when our children were young, I still enjoy the season. I remember laying under the tree and how I was
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Social Security login changes
If you use the My Social Security account online, you’ll need to make several changes or you’ll be locked out. If you haven’t updated your account since Sept. 18, 2021, using the new method, the login for checking your Social Security account is no more and your username won’t work. You’ll now need to create a new account using one of their credential service providers at Login.gov.
Having access to your Social Security information can have several
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Mistakes made in PACT Act claims
It seems that when there are new rules and regulations to be followed, the Department of Veterans Affairs often needs time to get caught up and understand new procedures. The Office of Inspector General for the VA investigated whether veterans were given the correct benefits after the PACT Act expanded eligibility for toxin exposure. The news isn’t good. What the OIG found was that service-connected claims were improperly handled before they were
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Cure for the ailing soul
When we are truly in love with someone, nothing can keep us from them or at least thinking about them.
It sounds like the beginning of a beautiful romantic love story, doesn’t it? Actually, it is. It’s between a divine creator who sent His Son Jesus to save those who were lost. Christ gave His life so that all who place their faith in God can spend time with Him, listen to His voice, and fall deeply in love with Him. His words are life-changing as they convict the
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