Vin Suprynowicz

Pfizer, Inc., announced this week that the company will be closing its former research and development headquarters in New London, Conn. — the project for which the city of New London infamously used its power of eminent domain to seize and ultimately bulldoze the homes of Susette Kelo and her neighbors, after that seizure was OK’d by the U.S. Supreme Court in its highly controversial ruling “Kelo v. City of New London.”

“This was the same bogus development plan that five justices of the U.S. Supreme Court refused to question when the property owners of New London pleaded to have their homes spared from the wrecking ball,” noted John Kramer of the Institute for Justice, the libertarian public interest law firm that represented Ms. Kelo and also filed a brief supporting the Pappas family in their related case, here in Las Vegas.

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When a reporter for CNSNews.com last Thursday asked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., where in the Constitution Congress is delegated the specific power to order Americans to buy health insurance — a mandate included in both the House and Senate versions of Obamacare — Ms. Pelosi responded: “Are you serious? Are you serious?”

“Yes, yes I am,” the reporter for CNSNews.com replied.

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A “push in Congress for broader gun rights is threatening to derail Amtrak and stall a transportation spending bill,” wrote Walter Alarkon on thehill.com on Oct. 25.

“Gun-rights advocates in Congress are pressing appropriators to keep a provision that would let Amtrak passengers check in handguns with their baggage.”

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How gratifying to hear from so many veterans in response to my Oct. 25 column on Mitchell Paige and Guadalcanal.

I heard from Clayton Fisher, 87, of Henderson, who served under Chesty Puller in the 1st of the 7th Marines, receiving his first purple heart at Guadalcanal (the night before the action I described in my column) and his second at Palau.

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Halloween, the day when many an American parent will suit up the little ones in black robes, matching 17th century conical hats, and over-sized warty noses, sending them off to delight the neighbors with this impersonation of a witch, as traditionally represented from 17th century Austrian paintings of the Hexensabbat right up through Disney’s “Snow White.”

Even the newspapers generally play along, running the results of polls that ask Americans how many actually believe in such mythological creatures as ghosts, trolls and witches.

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The U.S. economy grew by 3.5 percent from July to September, the Commerce Department reports. But, contradictorily, unemployment continued to rise, to a 26-year high of 9.8 percent.

Since the recession began in 2007, the U.S. has lost 7.2 million jobs. Unemployment has risen more than 2 percentage points since President Obama took office in January. Economists project the jobless rate will exceed 10 percent by early 2010. And those are national figures — things are a lot worse here in Nevada.

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It’s hard to envision — or, for the dwindling few, to remember — what the world looked like on Oct. 26, 1942, when a few thousand United States Marines stood essentially stranded on the God-forsaken jungle island of Guadalcanal, placed like a speed bump at the end of the long blue-water slot between New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago . . . the most likely route for the Japanese Navy to take if they hoped to reach Australia.

On Guadalcanal the Marines struggled to complete an airfield. Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto knew what that meant. No effort would be spared to dislodge these upstart Yanks from a position that could endanger his ships. Before long, relentless Japanese counterattacks had driven supporting U.S. Navy vessels from inshore waters. The Marines were on their own.

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Speaking before a carefully hand-picked audience — most of the 500 tickets to the gathering in the Lawlor Events Center at the University of Nevada, Reno were distributed through the office of Majority Leader Harry Reid — Vice President Joe Biden assured Northern Nevadans Friday that the Obama administration’s $787 billion economic stimulus plan has started to move the nation toward economic recovery, and that it’s Nevada’s own Harry Reid who made sure Nevadans are getting their share.

As evidence of economic recovery, the vice president mentioned that stocks have risen by 35 percent since January, with the Dow Jones industrial average topping the 10,000 mark last week.
“It is the beginning,” Mr. Biden said. “It is restoring the savings of middle-class families. We were in free fall in this economy. Everyone forgets that.”

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Clark County commissioners voted last week to stop picking up and caring for unwanted pet Mojave Desert tortoises as of the end of the year.

The county has been funding the care of the cast-off tortoises at a 220-acre conservation center operated by state and federal agencies.

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There’s a recession on. Energy prices are down, and the official cost of living with them. Therefore, you might expect government payments that carry “cost-of-living adjustments” to be dropping, helping to ease the deficit.

Not so. When the cost of living goes up, payments to Social Security recipients — among others — also go up. This year they increased by 5.8 percent, the biggest rise since 1982, largely because of a spike in energy prices in 2008.

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