10 of our top opinion columns this week: ICYMI

In today's fast-paced news environment, it can be hard to keep up. For your weekend reading, we've started in-case-you-missed-it compilations of some of the week's top Paste BN Opinion pieces. As always, thanks for reading, and for your feedback.

— Paste BN Opinion editors

1. Presidential debate didn't help Trump catch Biden, but horror show scared America

By The Editorial Board

"In the midst of a deadly coronavirus pandemic, economic distress and racial turmoil, American voters deserved a serious exploration of the nation's problems and the range of solutions. Instead, they got a chaotic insult fest that was like one of those awful 90-minute movies that leave the audience dumber than when it went into the theater."

2. Amy Barrett: If Democrats attack her over People of Praise membership, they'll regret it

By Melinda Henneberger

"First, you cannot fight bigotry with bigotry; religious intolerance is just as wrong as any other kind of othering. Indulging it won’t get us a more tolerant America. And Senators, treating her like the kook that she is not is just what the president is counting on you to do. Unless you want to star in Trump campaign commercials that he’ll say prove Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is 'against God,' don’t even think about it."

3. Ignore the strongman fantasies. If Trump loses the election, he'll lose his job. Period.

By Jill Lawrence 

"Do I think President Donald Trump will refuse to leave office if he loses the election? No. Do I think he’ll be able to wield his powers to prevent a legitimate result? No. Do I think he loves musing about sticking around no matter what? Absolutely. And that’s one of the many reasons we must stop giving him openings to weave fantasies, and stop the mass freakouts that routinely ensue."

4. COVID long-haulers: I caught coronavirus in March. I still haven't fully recovered.

By Diana Zicklin Berrent

"I got COVID-19 in early March. It is nearly seven months later, and in September alone I’ve been to five medical specialists. I underwent an MRI earlier this month, and I have an echocardiogram coming up. I was recently diagnosed with glaucoma; my doctor believes its sudden onset was caused by the virus. My career as a photographer has already come to a screeching halt; the irony of suffering damage to my eyesight — my lifeline — felt like adding insult to injury."

5. I've known Amy Coney Barrett for over 20 years. Her intellect and heart are unrivaled.

By Nicole Garnett

"Looking back, everything has changed, except Amy Coney Barrett. The very same qualities that struck me as remarkable on that spring afternoon are the qualities that make her an exceptional judge, award-winning teacher, generous colleague, loyal friend and loving mother. And the obvious pick to serve on the Supreme Court. She is brilliant, to be sure, but also humble, generous, loving, kind. She accepts each new challenge with grace and gives all she has to give (and sometimes it seems more) to all she is called to do. She will bring all those qualities to the Supreme Court, and our nation will be blessed by her years of service as Justice Barrett."

6. Trump-Biden presidential debate in Cleveland: Once is enough. Please make it stop.

By David Mastio and Jill Lawrence

"The Commission on Presidential Debates should cancel the second and third debates scheduled for President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden. To hold them would be sadistic. Americans don’t deserve this. Biden didn’t deserve it and neither did the moderator, Chris Wallace." 

7. Pain permeates the streets of Louisville after Breonna Taylor decision

By Suzette Hackney

"They’ve been at it for more than 120 consecutive days, marching and demanding justice for the family of Breonna Taylor, the 26-year-old Black woman who died on March 13, when Louisville Metro Police officers who were hunting for drugs and cash fatally shot her while serving a no-knock warrant."

8. COVID-19 ravaged meat plants: My refugee mother's life is worth more than the bottom line

By San Twin

"Meat packing company JBS helped take away what our family treasured most: My mom. And then the government took more: our belief that every life matters, no matter how much money you make."

9. Screams of 'defund police' misplaced. Instead, use military as example for progress.

By John Donohue and Michael O’Hanlon

"As the debate over whether to defund the police continues, it might help to take a look at how the United States dramatically reformed its troubled armed forces after the Vietnam War, not because police in America need to become more militarized (in fact, the two of us have written explicitly against that idea)."

10. Republicans and democracy have much deeper problems than Trump's awful debate performance

By Julian E. Zelizer

"Trump's performance shouldn’t have surprised anyone. Everything he did was consistent with everything else that he has done until now. Throughout his term and the last campaign, the president has refused to condemn white supremacy numerous times before or offered elusive responses when asked about the issue. He has been aggressive and nasty with his opponents, employing rhetoric much worse than conventional partisan politics. Character assassination is as much his business as real estate. And the list goes on."