Radio archives coming soon! Please return later to listen to past shows of note. True North Radio airs daily on WDEV AM, WDEV FM and WSYB AM from 11am to noon.

An overview of education in Vermont
By Rep. Duncan Kilmartin

…For those who are familiar with the movie "The Perfect Storm", we are actually in the midst of "the perfect storm of public education and its financing". The storm is so great that public education as we know it may capsize and sink. Here is what we know with relative certainty: There is no transparency to any part of the educational system, no definition of public education, no definition of an adequate education, no definition of what it means to have an equal opportunity to obtain an adequate education…. -- Duncan Kilmartin is a Representative from Newport

Global Snow Job
By Tom Trevor

… it is irrelevant how many scientists believe humans caused global warming. Science is not advanced by the most popular theories, but by the correct ones. Before Galileo, almost all scientists said the earth was the center of the universe…. In the 1940's many aerodynamicists thought that the "sound barrier" was a real barrier that could not be "broken" (they thought that drag builds up infinitely at supersonic speeds). Chuck Yeager proved them wrong…. – Tom Trevor lives in Stowe

Is anybody taking Vermont This Week seriously?
By Rob Skinner

I watched Vermont This Week (Jan. 20 broadcast) and heard Burlington Free Press reporter, Candace Page, with a  comical smirk on her face say, "Does anybody take this man [Bill O'Reilly] seriously?"… I think most level headed rational, law abiding citizens, especially with children take him seriously.  I'm sure all Vermonters with children are taking O'Reilly, and the ramifications of allowing a child molester go free, very, very seriously.  I'm sure Candace Page and fellow panelists, NBC's Stewart Ledbetter and VPR’s Bob Kinzel as well as far too many Vermont journalists do not take O'Reilly seriously.  But they should…. – Rob Skinner lives in South Hero

Yes Virginia, Vermont taxes Really are that High
By Robert Maynard

In the Monday January 22^nd edition of the Free Press there was an article written by Free Press Staff writer Nancy Remsen entitled: "Are Vermont taxes Really That High?" … The problem with both Census Bureau Reports is that it only measures taxes per capita, not taxes as a percent of per capita income…. Total state and local taxes amounted to 12.2% of personal income in Vermont, the fifth highest in the nation….

Go, True North!

Saw the O'Reilly segment. Keep up the good work. Thanks for staying the course. Don’t let the [illigitamus] get you down!! 

-- Doug Smith, Alabama

Support our President

President Bush's words in the State of the Union speech proved that he understands our enemy, while Sen. Jim Webb's response was an exercise in cowardice.

History will show that George W. Bush was one of the most insightful presidents our nation has ever had, while the cowardly would-be presidents in the U.S. Senate will do or say whatever it takes to raise their poll numbers.

We are at war and have been even before President Bush took office. Other presidents, including George H.W. Bush, brought us to Sept. 11, 2001, by ignoring the threat and the potential of our enemies. This president changed that.

The cowardly Democrats with their Republican renegades have done and will do nothing to save our country. The Democrat response was a glaring example of Democrat arrogance, weakness and willingness to run rather than face our enemy. In fact, Sen. Webb's politically expedient speech has emboldened our enemy and put his own son in more danger.

America needs to wake up, leave the malls, get off the iPods and back this president. Our very existence depends on it.

-- Jerry Liverette, Brandon

Our children need protection from our judicial system

Fellow Vermonters. Our children need protection from our judicial system. Known child molesters are released with conditions, with the hope that "treatment" will transform them from good people who do bad things to good people that do good things.

The reasons that they are released are two: the known registered molesters are too large a number to be imprisoned, and imprisonment will not give them the help that they need. Who will help the children? Where is the outrage against such a system? Many of us do not believe "treatment" will work.

We have already stated our Christian belief to the political activists in Vermont: that all of us need an inward change of values and behavior including all child molesters and not a few judges and lawmakers. Political activism is a positive force, but 2Corinthians 5:17 tells us that we need to be a new creature (or a new creation), and this is a work that only the Creator can do. Sadly, many nominal Christians are not "in Christ" which accounts for the failures within  the organized bodies that we commonly identify as "The Church". Is our statement "judgmental" or a "fact" of history? Read all of Romans 14:10 -12, and be aware that in the "we", we include ourselves. Our behavior would be unacceptable apart from a [creative] work of God's grace some 40 years ago.

We hope you will keep the need to protect our children before the public eye in your future broadcasts and publications.

-- Richard and Margaret Waite, Braintree

The left has not learned the lessons of Vietnam

American Democrats have campaigned on the issue of an exit strategy for ending US involvement in Iraq. Thanks to these efforts, we now have an exit strategy which the United States may bitterly regret. During the campaign, the Democrats’ theme was that when things got unpleasant enough in Iraq, the US must simply withdraw -- unilaterally, unconditionally.

Whatever some on the Left believe the Lessons of Vietnam were, Americans should read the actual words of the international Jihadist movement to understand what most of the Third World took in as the lesson of Vietnam.  Start with North Vietnamese operations commander Gen. Giap, who stated that Americans were unable to tolerate casualties incurred in pursuit of a strategic goal. Therefore, Giap stated, an opponent of US policy could easily develop substantial political clout inside the US by inflicting continuous though minor casualties on US forces.

The Jihadi movement, who see the modernizing and democratizing philosophy of the US as a threat to their hegemony, very well understood the unwillingness of the American public to endure military pain.  Over the past 20 years, in the face of violence we have therefore simply withdrawn from Beirut, from Mogadishu, from Khobar Towers. We have endured Lockerbie, the Berlin nightclub bombing, and 9/11.  Withdrawal from Iraq guarantees that we will be hit again.  It may be a direct hit on US forces, like the strike on the USS Cole, or indirect like the Bali nightclub bombing or the Nairobi embassy. But we may be sure, this exit strategy gives us no exit and no peace.

-- Bruce Shields

Get Ready For A Tax Hike
Caledonian Record Editorial, January 24, 2007

With an amazing disingenuousness, Democratic Speaker of the House Gaye Symington, after she massaged the friendly-to-income-redistribution report, said, "It's not as if I'm saying Vermont is a low tax state. We just want to be truthful about what the comparisons really are." Sure we do…. Ms. Symington will surely tell us how the comparisons will prove that Vermont is really a low tax state that can easily absorb a big tax increase….

Sanders & Leahy lead assault on free speech

Activists on the far left are positively giddy over the Democrats' takeover of Congress, and they're ready to do "whatever it takes" to set their gains in stone by passing new laws to KILL CONSERVATIVE TALK RADIO…. But the biggest rounds of applause -- and the strongest support received -- came when Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), and Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) announced their plans to bring back one of the most onerous anti-free speech rules ever seen in America: the horribly misnamed "Fairness Doctrine…"

Land tax revolt builds in Mendon
By Gordon Dritschilo, Rutland Herald, January 24, 2007

"Nine years ago, my property taxes were $2,200," said Ed Fowler of Killington. "Today, on the same house, my taxes are $12,000…."This is not fair and it's not equal," he said. "Yes, my property taxes have gone up, but I don't want to sell and I don't want to move."

Hube: Vt. broke law on ed fund
By BOB AUDETTE, Brattleboro Reformer

According to state Rep. Rick Hube, R-South Londonderry, the state of Vermont broke its own law by failing to transfer the required amount of money into its education fund from its general fund…. "The money is being used for other state expenditures," said Hube…. [D]uring this session's budget reconciliation workshops, he hopes his fellow lawmakers will make sure the education fund gets the $25.7 million he said it is owed for the past two years….

Complexify, Complexify!!
By Geoffrey Norman, Vermont Tiger, January 29, 2007

Vermonters are still waiting for Montpelier to engage in the promised full-contact debate over the statewide property tax and the rising – not to say “out of control” – cost of education.  Nobody denies that the debate is necessary or that it will be exceedingly tough.  Politicians would rather drink cold cooking grease than either raise taxes or cut spending and they may soon be obliged to do both.

The VT Public Has Spoken
Valley News Editorial, Published January 21, 2007

People in the rest of Vermont are indebted to Bradford-area residents for registering enough displeasure about a forum on school governance to induce state educational officials to make major changes. We suppose credit is due to state officials for being open-minded enough to change course, but only after they answer a question about the original arrangement: What were they thinking?...

S. Burlington ballot lawsuit thrown out
By Sky Barsch, Burlington Free Press, January 23, 2007

… Agnes Clift of South Burlington argued that the city erred when it refused to put an item advocating parental notification for minors seeking abortions up for vote on the city's annual meeting day. "It's such a tough issue, because the state law clearly says petitioned items shall be placed on the ballot. Then the courts rule, 'That's not what the Legislature meant,'" she said. Clift was citing the law concerning town meeting warnings, which states, "... The warning shall also contain any article or articles requested by a petition signed by at least five percent of the voters of the municipality and filed with the municipal clerk not less than 40 days before the day of the meeting." Clift had the required signatures and handed the petition in on time….

Democrat Group Calls for More Nuclear Power
James Hoare, Environment News, February 1, 2007

Nuclear power offers a safe and economical way to meet anticipated growth in American energy demand, according to an October 2006 report by the Progressive Policy Institute, a policy arm of the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC)…. The DLC's support for nuclear power may undermine efforts by U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) to block completion of the Yucca Mountain storage facility for spent nuclear fuel….

Responding to Global Climate Change: The Potential Contribution of Nuclear Power
A position paper by the Uranium Institute

… Nuclear power has the advantage of not producing carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases. As such, it has the potential to play a vital role in meeting this challenge….

Bush's health plan as starting block
The Christian Science Monitor, January 25, 2007

Democrats can't afford to reject a veto-wielding president's ideas on healthcare reform until 2009…. [T]he basic Bush markers in this debate: 1. Individuals must retain the freedom to choose their type of healthcare, and that requires a market-based approach in which patients and their healthcare providers have maximum say. 2. States such as California and Massachusetts are proving to be laboratories for providing universal health insurance, and a grand federal solution can wait for those models to show promise. 3. The current, limited federal hand in healthcare is in need of reform, and any action there must be revenue neutral….

What were the numbers like for D-Day?
By Mark Steyn, The Washington Times, January 22, 2007

"That poll about Iraq... posed various questions about whether folks thought the 'surge' was a good idea or not. Including the following: 'Do you personally want the Iraq plan President Bush announced last week to succeed?' And here's how the American people answered: 63 percent said yes, 22 percent said no, 15 percent said they didn't know. Let me see if I understand that. For four years, regardless of this or that position on the merits of the war, almost everybody has claimed to 'support our troops.' Some of us have always thought that 'supporting the troops' while not supporting them in their mission is not entirely credible. But here we have 37 percent of the American people actually urging defeat on them. They 'support our troops' by wanting them to lose. This isn't a question about whether you think the plan will work, but whether you want it to work. And nearly 40 percent of respondents either don't know or are actively rooting for failure... What were the numbers like for D-Day?"