We are in the midst of what I think of as "a long and frustrating season." The long political season actually began over a year ago. We still have several months until the next president will be elected. By the time one of the candidates for president celebrates his victory, well over a billion dollars will have been spent for campaigning. The 2012 presidential election will be the most expensive in history.
I find myself wanting to enter some kind of safety zone during election years. In spite of my frustrations, I am unable to avoid the down and dirty, up close and personal, political fray. And, each "political season" I hope it will be different.
I admit to hoping that this year, when we find ourselves facing economic tragedies all around us, the candidates might find a sacrificial spirit within themselves. Recognizing that well over one-third of the households in America make a sacrifice every payday between buying food and paying for basic needs and medical care, couldn't our candidates agree to limit their spending on advertising? I wonder how much each candidate would save if they just cut the negative advertising.
It will continue to be a long season of sorting out what is true from the exaggerations and discerning that one word among the many that is authentic. I hope that the end of this process will not find us sifting through the ashes of money spent to elect the person with the most money.
The author of the Aug. 1 letter "Complexity and order" can be commended for his interest in the Higgs boson and science. However, his question: "Where did the matter come from to begin with?" and his subsequent assumption of an architect (ID) suggest he should have delved deeper.
When humans design things, we see a top-down approach, but in nature, we see a bottom-up approach. The sparrows in a flock follow local rules (e.g., distance and speed in relation to the bird next to it) as do the cells in our bodies and other living things. One can fill up pages of white space describing designs in nature that no decent engineer today would incorporate.
For example, the laryngeal nerve that runs from the brain to the larynx and allows us to speak is seven times longer than it needs to be. It loops down around the heart and back up to the throat. Cave-dwelling fish and salamanders have skin-covered rudiments of eyes, but they are completely blind. Not to mention all those uninhabitable worlds and all that wasted empty space in the universe.
Everything we have learned and answered about this cosmos, most often to the benefit of humankind, has revealed natural processes and nothing supernatural. The observation of the Higgs particle/field was a major achievement and additional evidence of the aforementioned. Nonetheless, many still insist on a supernatural default position for every unanswered question.
I have just finished reading Kathleen Parker's Aug. 3 column, "Romney got it right in Poland and Israel." What a great and truthful missive. This is the only column that I have seen that relayed Mitt Romney's trip in an accurate way. Thanks to Kathleen Parker for "getting it right."
This, quoted from her column, sums up his beliefs: "While the nation's gaffe-seekers were enjoying a few moments of snark, Romney was articulating foundational principles with none other than the most prominent community organizer of them all."
Thanks to Mitt Romney and kudos to Kathleen Parker for sharing the truth.
ELLEN RAMM Winston-Salem
Important elections
The upcoming November elections are among the most important in our nation's history. We will be deciding the direction of our country for the next 20 to 30 years. As expected, the national and state elections are commanding our attention, when in fact, the local elections are no less important. The outcome of the votes we cast locally has a direct effect on how we live our lives. What is more relevant to our lives than property tax rates, the quality and preservation of our public-school system, the availability and continuity of public-health services and the follow-through of a voter-mandated public library?
The significant challenges we face concerning the course of our county government urge us to be looking for fresh ideas and pragmatic perspectives. In November we will have the opportunity to vote for a person for Forsyth County commissioner who has the fresh ideas and a common sense perspective. Gail McNeill is not bound to a political ideology or to any special-interest group. She is levelheaded and even-tempered. Gail McNeill will bring a wealth of experience to the board of commissioners as an educator, community volunteer and a politically involved citizen.
To learn more of Gail, visit her website at www.mcneill2012.com, and you will understand why I am proud to be a strong advocate for her candidacy for county commissioner. I urge you to cast your vote for well-informed, thoughtful county government. Vote for Gail McNeill in November.
Unless she was grossly misquoted, we have now seen the "other" Maya Angelou ("Angelou at town hall with Martin's family," July 26). For someone to say, "That's not what she meant," would not cut it. The least she can do is to offer a public apology to all of the nation's law-enforcement men and women. She could also thank them for what they do every day and for what they put up with simply because they wear a badge. Most of us American citizens could not and would not even attempt to do their jobs.
The front page of the Journal for the last few days might give us all, her included, food for thought. I am the proud father of a U.S. marshal and the father-in-law of a uniformed police officer, both of whom served in the armed forces of this great nation. They are both doing more than their share. Like so many others, they are pulling extra duty, while so many take protection for granted. It is comforting to know that they are just a phone call away: 911.
This old Marine says, "Thank you," and I will continue to pray for their safety and for their families. They do us proud. Semper Fi and God bless America.
RAY JOYNER
Winston-Salem
Sum It Up
Are you satisfied with Mitt Romney's pick of Paul Ryan as his running mate?
Respond to letters@wsjournal.com and put "Sum It Up" in the subject header. Only signed entries, please — no anonymous ones. Briefer responses receive preference in print.
Rev.Hanaker..can't do anything about the money part, but I assume you are pleased with the Ryan selection as VP candidate. You will no doubt be comforted by the fact that this campaign will now be about our national wrong track drift and what it takes to begin bringing America back.
A great truth. Parker's column was good. Outside of an ill timed gaffe in London, this trip for Romney was a home run and a pleasant reminder of the way an American president should speak his beliefs in front of friends and allies.
A public apology. I was so busy doing my executor duties that I never read saw or heard about this speach of hers. If accounts are correct, it is a good indication that the race industry is growing desperate and will soon drop their mask.
Are you satisfied with Mitt Romney's pick of Paul Ryan as his running mate? Very. Changes the focus from the White House's sewer campaign to one where the stewardship of Obama's presidency is the issue. Big issues, stark contrasts and our future as Americans, or just americans, is at stake. All in, as it should be.
ID is a logical fallacy known as "argument from ignorance", and incorporates virtually every other logical fallacy as well. That will never change.
In a famous study of an illiterate culture done in the 1930s, Russian psychologist Aleksandr Luria found that you cannot "teach" logic to illiterates. When faced with this simple syllogistic problem:
In the far north where there is always snow, all bears are white. (True) The town of X is in the far north where there is always snow. (True) What color are the bears in the town of X?
A typical answer would be "I don't know. I've seen a black bear. I've never seen any others."
The same goes for ignorant people. After being thoroughly defeated in an argument by the slave Jim, Huckleberry Finn says "You can't learn a N----r to argue. So I quit." You can't "learn" an ignorati to argue either.
LTE #3 - Romney has no status to be talking to anyone in Poland or Israel. He would be better advised to be talking to the American people, which so far, he has failed to do.
His only firm campaign "promise" so far is that he will repeal ACA, which the President does not have the power to do.
LTE #4 - All elections are "among the most important". Any election that rids us of ideologs like Whisenhunt and Conrad would be a good election.
LTE #5 - Maya is 84…who knows.
Sum It Up - Mitt gives a nod to the Pee Pee Party…it won't help him. Paul Ryan is yet another tax idiot.
To be fair, Mitty had no "good" choice…the reasonable Republicans are all dead or have abdicated.
10,000 showed up at Mitt's High Point rally. He may lose the election, but I think he's going to carry N.C.
That indicates that the screw-ball Democratic state politicians will probably not retake control of the GA. And with McCrory running a 'sane' governmental ship for a change, we may actually get the state back on the 'right' financial track.
Mitt Romney's choice of Paul Ryan as his vice president is raising big bucks.
The campaigned has taken in $3.5 million online in the last 24-hours, according to spokeswoman Andrea Saul, indicating approval of his choice.
This isn't the first big online haul for the campaign following a major event. In June, Romney raised more than $4.7 million from 47,000 donors in the 24-hours after the Supreme Court upheld much of President Obama's health care law.
___________
I always think it's harder to hold a lead than to come from behind.
Famous last words of a certified loser. Anyone who thinks being behind in any contest is good is an idiot.
Many losing coaches and managers in football and baseball have said the same thing. All had very short careers. Two studies just released this year:
NFL: the team leading entering the 4th quarter wins 80% of the time.
MLB: the team leading at the start of the 7th inning wins 85% of the time.
Non-thinkers see it differently, because we make such a big deal out of comeback wins...it's all about drama, but has little to do with reality.
No difference in Presidential politics. The only presidential candidate since the 1920s who overcame an early deficit in the polls to win was Harry Truman in 1948. And of course, that was a very special event, because Truman was the real thing, and knew how to win, whereas Romney is just a born rich boy who hasn't got anything better to do.
Ike was the leader right from the start in both his campaigns in 1952 and 1956, as were LBJ in 1964, Nixon in 1968 and 1972, Carter in 1976, Reagan in 1980 and 1984, Bush I in 1988, Clinton in 1992 and 1996 and Obama in 2008.
The 1960 Nixon/JFK race was a tossup right from the start, as were the two Bush II campaigns in 2000 and 2004, so no one could claim to be the comeback kid.
Dreamers do not do well in sports or in politics, and for that matter, in real life.
There are two kinds of thinkers…those who don't and those who do.
In the 24 hours after their announcement of Paul Ryan as Romney's running mate, the Romney campaign raised $3.5 million. Since the campaign raises an average of $3.4 million every day, that is a huge spike of 1/10 of a million dollars.
In 2008, in the 24 hours after John McCain made the biggest mistake of his campaign by choosing Sarah Palin for VP, the McCain campaign raised $4 million, plus $10 million more over the next three days.
I guess the givers liked Silly Sarah better than Tax-whiner Paul.
'Capitalizing on the announcement in an email to supporters on Sunday, Ryan asked recipients to enter a contest for a chance to meet the new Republican team. The email directs recipients to the Romney campaign website, which asks for a small donation, $3, as an entry fee for a chance to win.
Ryan wrote in the email, "I'm looking forward to what lies ahead - especially meeting supporters like you. One lucky supporter still can win the chance to meet Mitt and me before things really heat up with the Convention." '
It's also interesting to note where the money comes from. The top five contributors as of last week. Dla Piper is an international law firm dealing primarily in growth and technology firms:
OBAMA Microsoft……………….....418,845 U. of California……… 411,386 Dla Piper……………….....314,977 Google………………........303,225 Harvard U……………......276,824
ROMNEY Goldman Sachs………....636,080 JPMorgan Chase……....502,874 Morgan Stanley……....476,300 Bank of America……...465,850 Credit Suisse…………...421,310
Yep, you got that right. The very same outfits that plunged us into economic disaster in the first place. I guess they're hoping to do it again.
Correspondent of the Week
ReplyDeleteMoney and politics
We are in the midst of what I think of as "a long and frustrating season." The long political season actually began over a year ago. We still have several months until the next president will be elected. By the time one of the candidates for president celebrates his victory, well over a billion dollars will have been spent for campaigning. The 2012 presidential election will be the most expensive in history.
I find myself wanting to enter some kind of safety zone during election years. In spite of my frustrations, I am unable to avoid the down and dirty, up close and personal, political fray. And, each "political season" I hope it will be different.
I admit to hoping that this year, when we find ourselves facing economic tragedies all around us, the candidates might find a sacrificial spirit within themselves. Recognizing that well over one-third of the households in America make a sacrifice every payday between buying food and paying for basic needs and medical care, couldn't our candidates agree to limit their spending on advertising? I wonder how much each candidate would save if they just cut the negative advertising.
It will continue to be a long season of sorting out what is true from the exaggerations and discerning that one word among the many that is authentic. I hope that the end of this process will not find us sifting through the ashes of money spent to elect the person with the most money.
THE REV. MARTHA A. HONAKER
Sparta
Higgs boson and designers
DeleteThe author of the Aug. 1 letter "Complexity and order" can be commended for his interest in the Higgs boson and science. However, his question: "Where did the matter come from to begin with?" and his subsequent assumption of an architect (ID) suggest he should have delved deeper.
When humans design things, we see a top-down approach, but in nature, we see a bottom-up approach. The sparrows in a flock follow local rules (e.g., distance and speed in relation to the bird next to it) as do the cells in our bodies and other living things. One can fill up pages of white space describing designs in nature that no decent engineer today would incorporate.
For example, the laryngeal nerve that runs from the brain to the larynx and allows us to speak is seven times longer than it needs to be. It loops down around the heart and back up to the throat. Cave-dwelling fish and salamanders have skin-covered rudiments of eyes, but they are completely blind. Not to mention all those uninhabitable worlds and all that wasted empty space in the universe.
Everything we have learned and answered about this cosmos, most often to the benefit of humankind, has revealed natural processes and nothing supernatural. The observation of the Higgs particle/field was a major achievement and additional evidence of the aforementioned. Nonetheless, many still insist on a supernatural default position for every unanswered question.
I wonder why?
LARRY J. SANDERS
Dobson
A great truth
DeleteI have just finished reading Kathleen Parker's Aug. 3 column, "Romney got it right in Poland and Israel." What a great and truthful missive. This is the only column that I have seen that relayed Mitt Romney's trip in an accurate way. Thanks to Kathleen Parker for "getting it right."
This, quoted from her column, sums up his beliefs: "While the nation's gaffe-seekers were enjoying a few moments of snark, Romney was articulating foundational principles with none other than the most prominent community organizer of them all."
Thanks to Mitt Romney and kudos to Kathleen Parker for sharing the truth.
ELLEN RAMM
Winston-Salem
Important elections
The upcoming November elections are among the most important in our nation's history. We will be deciding the direction of our country for the next 20 to 30 years. As expected, the national and state elections are commanding our attention, when in fact, the local elections are no less important. The outcome of the votes we cast locally has a direct effect on how we live our lives. What is more relevant to our lives than property tax rates, the quality and preservation of our public-school system, the availability and continuity of public-health services and the follow-through of a voter-mandated public library?
The significant challenges we face concerning the course of our county government urge us to be looking for fresh ideas and pragmatic perspectives. In November we will have the opportunity to vote for a person for Forsyth County commissioner who has the fresh ideas and a common sense perspective. Gail McNeill is not bound to a political ideology or to any special-interest group. She is levelheaded and even-tempered. Gail McNeill will bring a wealth of experience to the board of commissioners as an educator, community volunteer and a politically involved citizen.
To learn more of Gail, visit her website at www.mcneill2012.com, and you will understand why I am proud to be a strong advocate for her candidacy for county commissioner. I urge you to cast your vote for well-informed, thoughtful county government. Vote for Gail McNeill in November.
ANNE GRIFFIS WILSON
Winston-Salem
A public apology
DeleteUnless she was grossly misquoted, we have now seen the "other" Maya Angelou ("Angelou at town hall with Martin's family," July 26). For someone to say, "That's not what she meant," would not cut it. The least she can do is to offer a public apology to all of the nation's law-enforcement men and women. She could also thank them for what they do every day and for what they put up with simply because they wear a badge. Most of us American citizens could not and would not even attempt to do their jobs.
The front page of the Journal for the last few days might give us all, her included, food for thought. I am the proud father of a U.S. marshal and the father-in-law of a uniformed police officer, both of whom served in the armed forces of this great nation. They are both doing more than their share. Like so many others, they are pulling extra duty, while so many take protection for granted. It is comforting to know that they are just a phone call away: 911.
This old Marine says, "Thank you," and I will continue to pray for their safety and for their families. They do us proud. Semper Fi and God bless America.
RAY JOYNER
Winston-Salem
Sum It Up
Are you satisfied with Mitt Romney's pick of Paul Ryan as his running mate?
Respond to letters@wsjournal.com and put "Sum It Up" in the subject header. Only signed entries, please — no anonymous ones. Briefer responses receive preference in print.
Rev.Hanaker..can't do anything about the money part, but I assume you are pleased with the Ryan selection as VP candidate. You will no doubt be comforted by the fact that this campaign will now be about our national wrong track drift and what it takes to begin bringing America back.
ReplyDeleteA great truth. Parker's column was good. Outside of an ill timed gaffe in London, this trip for Romney was a home run and a pleasant reminder of the way an American president should speak his beliefs in front of friends and allies.
ReplyDeleteA public apology. I was so busy doing my executor duties that I never read saw or heard about this speach of hers. If accounts are correct, it is a good indication that the race industry is growing desperate and will soon drop their mask.
ReplyDeleteAre you satisfied with Mitt Romney's pick of Paul Ryan as his running mate? Very. Changes the focus from the White House's sewer campaign to one where the stewardship of Obama's presidency is the issue. Big issues, stark contrasts and our future as Americans, or just americans, is at stake. All in, as it should be.
ReplyDelete. . . it changes the focus from Mitt Romney to Paul Ryan.
ReplyDeleteWhich is probably good for getting more votes.
DeleteObama is going to turn the whole nation into his boyfriend if he gets reelected.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteLTE #1 - Dream on. It will just get nastier.
ReplyDeleteLTE #2 - Excellent points, but save your breath.
ID is a logical fallacy known as "argument from ignorance", and incorporates virtually every other logical fallacy as well. That will never change.
In a famous study of an illiterate culture done in the 1930s, Russian psychologist Aleksandr Luria found that you cannot "teach" logic to illiterates. When faced with this simple syllogistic problem:
In the far north where there is always snow, all bears are white. (True)
The town of X is in the far north where there is always snow. (True)
What color are the bears in the town of X?
A typical answer would be "I don't know. I've seen a black bear. I've never seen any others."
The same goes for ignorant people. After being thoroughly defeated in an argument by the slave Jim, Huckleberry Finn says "You can't learn a N----r to argue. So I quit." You can't "learn" an ignorati to argue either.
LTE #3 - Romney has no status to be talking to anyone in Poland or Israel. He would be better advised to be talking to the American people, which so far, he has failed to do.
His only firm campaign "promise" so far is that he will repeal ACA, which the President does not have the power to do.
LTE #4 - All elections are "among the most important". Any election that rids us of ideologs like Whisenhunt and Conrad would be a good election.
LTE #5 - Maya is 84…who knows.
Sum It Up - Mitt gives a nod to the Pee Pee Party…it won't help him. Paul Ryan is yet another tax idiot.
To be fair, Mitty had no "good" choice…the reasonable Republicans are all dead or have abdicated.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete10,000 showed up at Mitt's High Point rally. He may lose the election, but I think he's going to carry N.C.
ReplyDeleteThat indicates that the screw-ball Democratic state politicians will probably not retake control of the GA. And with McCrory running a 'sane' governmental ship for a change, we may actually get the state back on the 'right' financial track.
Mitt Romney's choice of Paul Ryan as his vice president is raising big bucks.
DeleteThe campaigned has taken in $3.5 million online in the last 24-hours, according to spokeswoman Andrea Saul, indicating approval of his choice.
This isn't the first big online haul for the campaign following a major event. In June, Romney raised more than $4.7 million from 47,000 donors in the 24-hours after the Supreme Court upheld much of President Obama's health care law.
___________
I always think it's harder to hold a lead than to come from behind.
Famous last words of a certified loser. Anyone who thinks being behind in any contest is good is an idiot.
DeleteMany losing coaches and managers in football and baseball have said the same thing. All had very short careers. Two studies just released this year:
NFL: the team leading entering the 4th quarter wins 80% of the time.
MLB: the team leading at the start of the 7th inning wins 85% of the time.
Non-thinkers see it differently, because we make such a big deal out of comeback wins...it's all about drama, but has little to do with reality.
No difference in Presidential politics. The only presidential candidate since the 1920s who overcame an early deficit in the polls to win was Harry Truman in 1948. And of course, that was a very special event, because Truman was the real thing, and knew how to win, whereas Romney is just a born rich boy who hasn't got anything better to do.
Ike was the leader right from the start in both his campaigns in 1952 and 1956, as were LBJ in 1964, Nixon in 1968 and 1972, Carter in 1976, Reagan in 1980 and 1984, Bush I in 1988, Clinton in 1992 and 1996 and Obama in 2008.
The 1960 Nixon/JFK race was a tossup right from the start, as were the two Bush II campaigns in 2000 and 2004, so no one could claim to be the comeback kid.
Dreamers do not do well in sports or in politics, and for that matter, in real life.
There are two kinds of thinkers…those who don't and those who do.
ReplyDeleteIn the 24 hours after their announcement of Paul Ryan as Romney's running mate, the Romney campaign raised $3.5 million. Since the campaign raises an average of $3.4 million every day, that is a huge spike of 1/10 of a million dollars.
In 2008, in the 24 hours after John McCain made the biggest mistake of his campaign by choosing Sarah Palin for VP, the McCain campaign raised $4 million, plus $10 million more over the next three days.
I guess the givers liked Silly Sarah better than Tax-whiner Paul.
'Capitalizing on the announcement in an email to supporters on Sunday, Ryan asked recipients to enter a contest for a chance to meet the new Republican team. The email directs recipients to the Romney campaign website, which asks for a small donation, $3, as an entry fee for a chance to win.
ReplyDeleteRyan wrote in the email, "I'm looking forward to what lies ahead - especially meeting supporters like you. One lucky supporter still can win the chance to meet Mitt and me before things really heat up with the Convention." '
Wow! Where do I send my three dollars?
It's also interesting to note where the money comes from. The top five contributors as of last week. Dla Piper is an international law firm dealing primarily in growth and technology firms:
ReplyDeleteOBAMA
Microsoft……………….....418,845
U. of California……… 411,386
Dla Piper……………….....314,977
Google………………........303,225
Harvard U……………......276,824
ROMNEY
Goldman Sachs………....636,080
JPMorgan Chase……....502,874
Morgan Stanley……....476,300
Bank of America……...465,850
Credit Suisse…………...421,310
Yep, you got that right. The very same outfits that plunged us into economic disaster in the first place. I guess they're hoping to do it again.