Are the Suns in trouble come playoff time?
Ryan Johnson
columnist
The Suns will still make it to the Western Conference Finals. The first round should pose no problem, and then in the second round Kurt Thomas returns to improve the Suns’ defense. No team looks like it can beat the Suns until San Antonio. The Suns have a one-in-four chance of beating them.
Jonathan Riches
columnist
Have a little faith. I was at the Purple Palace last Friday and was delighted to watch the Lakers go down by 11, despite a 51-point performance from Kobe. Look, Amare’s absence hurts. But we won without him (can anyone say 11 straight?) and we can do it again. The Suns need to return to the quick, powerful offense that has led to their success. With Kurt Thomas out until at least the second round, we are still missing a big man, but if the Suns play like they did against L.A. Friday (or Sacramento Tuesday), we’ll be all right.
Mike Morefield
columnist
Nobody cares. Yes, they finally have a good team, and yes, they have pulled themselves out of the dredges of the last couple years, but I can’t see the fire and excitement they once had. Anybody who lived in Phoenix in the early and mid-’90s remembers the awesome, god-like status the Suns held. Everything was painted in Suns’ colors, McDonald’s had a Dan Majerle sandwich and I wore a Suns jersey in my fourth-grade school picture. That was the time of Barkley and KJ, when they were pushing against the dream team Bulls for the championship. The Suns have lost that. They could still be that cool, and maybe it was cooler because I was a kid, but I won’t sit and watch a game anymore.
Has the French incumbent administration lost credibility in light of backing down on proposed employment measures?
Ryan Johnson
columnist
Yes. They chose to avert short-term protests rather than set a policy that will benefit the country long term. In 10 years, young Frenchmen will still be having problems getting jobs. Simply put, companies don’t want to hire workers that they can’t fire. The policy was a good one, and the administration will regret backing down. It was for the good of the same people who were protesting it.
Jonathan Riches
columnist
Absolument! And might I add that Jacques Chirac is a spineless coward. Just two weeks ago, Chirac gave his public approval for the First Job Contract, a labor measure designed to reduce France’s astonishing 23 percent youth-unemployment rate by making it easier to hire and fire young workers. In a total about-face, Chirac withdrew the labor law and proved once again that he is not in charge of his own government. The sad irony is that the protesters are likely to be the ones that will suffer most from the scrapped measure, and France’s climbing unemployment rate is and will continue to be the proof.
Mike Morefield
columnist
Yes. French and European labor laws are quite strict on the termination of employees, but they are hindering their country. The “”at will”” employment of the U.S. is not a perfect example, but it is a better situation than having teenagers rioting in the streets because they can be fired easily. Maybe they should increase their work ethic so the fear of termination lessens. The government giving in to these rioters creates a precedent that unruly protests will still protect out-of-date laws, and the government will bend to the will of the few, even when it will economically hurt the entire country.
What should the United States’ role in Iran be?
Ryan Johnson
columnist
The U.S. should let the United Nations play a more direct role. It should have learned from Iraq that, successful or not, taking the process away from the U.N. is bad policy. However, it should continue to prepare for possible conflicts down the road. This is a lose-lose situation. Invading Iran would be far more difficult and costly than Iraq. The U.S. really needs to tread carefully here.
Jonathan Riches
columnist
The U.S. should take no option – including a full range of military contingency plans – off the table. This week, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced that his country had enriched uranium to reactor-grade levels for the first time. This is the same Ahmadinejad who called for Israel to be “”wiped off the map”” and who imagined “”a world without America.”” The fact that a seriously repressive regime, with crazed leaders, regional ambitions and a global terrorist network now may have the capability to build an atomic bomb should convince this administration that now is not the time for talk and half-measures. If the Islamic Republic is serious about building the bomb, then we must be serious about crippling their atomic capabilities … and crippling them quickly.
Mike Morefield
columnist
The U.S. needs to step back from the Iran situation. Europe and Middle Eastern allies should be pulling this country to the negotiation tables. The heated discussions are flying between Iran’s president, who just may be certifiably insane, and a country that is far out of its military reach. The new missiles and warheads they are developing can destroy parts of Europe and all of the Middle East, and those countries that need to have an actual fear of Iran should be the main initiators of these important talks. We are a superpower and have a duty, but let’s finish our other two wars before our third.
