Correspondent of the Week
Space leaders
No more U.S. space shuttle, and the future of our space program will depend on privately owned businesses developing inexpensive space flight. Sure.
Thank goodness the Chinese are serious about space exploration and development ("China has moon in mind as it forges on with space program," July 12). They have our money, they'll have space; they're poised to run the future.
Nevermind the last paragraph, but I agree. We have lost some of our national will.
Sunday LTE's:
Debt ceiling
Even the discussion by Congress of the whether to increase the debt ceiling is unconstitutional. The 14th Amendment, Section 4, states, "The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned."
Any president with gumption would simply increase the debt ceiling and get on with other business.
HELEN ETTERS
Winston-Salem
A better use
I was disappointed that our Winston-Salem City Council voted to give a tax break on a house owned by an heir to the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. fortune ("Tax breaks OK'd for house," July 19). It is a shame that she needs to be encouraged to maintain the upkeep on this property by being granted a 50 percent reduction in property tax.
With the budget issues being faced today, I believe that the city could have found a better use for the $8,250 a year that was "given" to her.
BECKY VENABLE
Winston-Salem
A once-great nation
The clock ticks down on a once-great nation of God-fearing people. The world watches as the nation that rebuilt Europe twice fades into obscurity and insignificance — the nation that twice in my lifetime rescued greedy banks and brokerage houses that were "too big to fail."
It seems to me that Washington is run by lobbyists and greedy idiots. That may seem too strong a statement, but can anyone prove me wrong?
A once-great nation allows veterans to go homeless and offers marginal health care at best. A once-great nation allows its school systems to decay in order to balance the federal budget that is bloated because of congressional and executive-branch fiscal incompetence. A once-great nation allows its own children to go hungry while it feeds half the world. A once-great nation cannot even secure its own borders from the drug wars of another nation — but that is another issue.
PETER F. THOMSON
Winston-Salem
Sum It Up
Are you satisfied with redistricting plans for congressional and state legislature seats?
Helen Etters...Mr Obama will rightly suffer impeachment for it if he does so. He won't. Besides, who needs a Congress anyway? Oliver Cromwell he ain't. Debt ceiling? Odd term since there has been no ceiling it seems. Time to fix one in place and make it from timber nails and sheet rock.
ReplyDeletePeter Thompson...yes, DC is run by greedy idiots, within elected office and outside. Most are trying to maintain status quo power structures that have roots in the 1930s. This has been going on since WW2. Our nation will undergo systemic change as these old ways implode from demographic changes happening now. Political power has been gained from these old systems and political power is never given up easily, but it will yield. America is weak now which is typical of a transformation period but we are not out. We are retooling.
ReplyDeleteLTE1: The wording in the LTE cited ". . . debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned." That appears to be very specific re purpose, which means all the debt we have and are now incurring don't meet the wording criteria.
ReplyDeleteLTE2: I stand to be educated by posters more knowledgable about this.
LTE3: When I was a director or manager, I told my staff they could come to me with any gripe they wished, but I wanted them to bring a solution with them. This LTE writer does not meet my criterion.
Glad you're back in the game Whitewall.
ReplyDeletetest test
ReplyDeleteOh, Jesus, here he comes.
ReplyDeleteGood evening, folks! WW, sorry for not greeting you earlier, was in a rush, as usual.
ReplyDeleteBucky: good evening. You are welcome here, even if you are LG, as O. T. implies above. Please feel welcome to express yourself, but not in a manner meant to insult the other posters here, all of whom are my friends. If you do not like a segment of the population, simply say so and move on. You may justify your position, but please refrain from graphic depictions of alleged excesses, and we'll remain friends. If you don't, I will cheerfully expunge offending posts. This is not the "Journal," so I believe in a bit more leeway in some respects, to encourage exchanges between left, right, and center. However, that does not extend to banging buckies. Got it?
LTE #1 - I agree with the last part of the last sentence. It is not the President's call to make, even though he COULD do it. It is proper for the Congress to do it, and sooner rather than later. All the posturing on both sides is merely electoral politics. Do it and move on.
ReplyDeleteLTE #2 - This issue has become like the dead dog one, letter after letter from people who have no understanding of what happened. In the dog case, the judge made a correct decision. If you don't like it, complain to the DA.
In the historic house case, the city council made the correct decision. The historic property tax program has helped to preserve a significant number of important buildings in our community.
Ms. Venable is expressing a prejudice against "wealthy" owners, I suppose, as opposed to "less wealthy" ones. The rules are, and should be, the same for all.
LTE #3 - No comment.
Sum It Up - No. Legislative districts should reflect the common interests of the voters in those district. A quick look at the current districts tells us that that is not the case. It is all about party politics, whether administered by Republicans or Democrats.
Of course, as Ecclesiastes 1:9 reminds us, "…there is no new thing under the sun." Remember that the emperor Diocletian divided the Roman empire into two parts in 284 CE, not for the good of the empire, but for his own personal advantage.