Thursday LTE's 20110721

Good AM, folks!

Sort of a tepid set of LTE's this AM. Do what you can with them.

Good news

Some might criticize the Journal for featuring a front-page story about the new Harry Potter film ("The last spell," July 15). Personally, I wish there were more news like this. Everything is so grim in America right now we need a reminder that life goes on, that our children can be happy and have fun and play (and be enthused by stories that began as must-read novels).

I wish that all these political disagreements were settled, that the biggest thing Congress had to argue about was whether to order blue stationary or gray stationary. Congress seems to invent things to argue about in attempts to gain power. Its members also seem to have a double standard, thinking an idea is good until the other side adopts it, then fighting vehemently against it. Can't let the other side accomplish anything good, after all — they might get re-elected.

And though I largely blame the Republicans (Light bulbs? They want to argue about a light-bulb program that was created during and endorsed by the Bush administration?), I realize that the Democrats have their faults, too.

Politics doesn't need to be so harsh and competitive, not when you're supposed to be working for the good of the people, and I wish we had rules that allowed us to immediately recall anyone who went around the bend.

In the meantime, Journal, please keep reminding us that not all life is political.

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JANE GIBSON
Kernersville

The end result
In recent years, so-called "old technology" jobs were encouraged to be moved to poverty-ridden nations to make room for "new technology" jobs. The end result has been widespread unemployment. Millions of Americans have gone into poverty.

Old technology includes things like telephones, automobiles, radios, TVs, furniture, clothing, tires, tools, lawn mowers, yard equipment, paints, plastics, etc. The list could go on and on. This is what most people buy.
In the meantime, the management and owners of existing American companies found that if they cut the salaries of their workers, this would result in extra income for the management and owners, who might get into Wall Street schemes and become multi-millionaires or even billionaires if Congress gave them the right tax breaks.

Meanwhile, unemployed or under-paid workers could still buy old technology products if they were willing to put them on credit cards at high rates of interest.

College graduates had better find ways to get into the management of existing companies if they want to buy yachts and second and third homes. The others must go for government handouts and settle for old-tech products.

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HAROLD PARKER
Clemmons

Locked up
In reference to the July 14 article "Woman charged in dog's starvation death," in which Jennifer Towery Hunt of Lexington was charged with felony killing of an animal by starvation after authorities found a dead dog in her house, she could have at least left the four dogs outside instead of locked up inside to surely die. Maybe outside they could have wandered around, finding food and water.

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CHRISSY GALLAHER
Winston-Salem

The Leopard's Limb

This post is titled after a comment by our good poster O. T. Rush, who likened himself to a leopard reposing on a tree limb, waiting for his favorite prey, good poster Roblo, to pass underneath. Roblo, fearing no leopards, did indeed pass underneath, but O. T. was catnapping at the time, though he later pounced, and their debate renewed. I'm using this post to follow up on leftovers from yesterday.

JohnG: he was indeed an interesting poster in the Forum. I generally disagreed with the gent, but he welcome here if anyone runs across him.

Ancestry: O. T., well you might be proud of your ancestors. Like many of us, my ancestry is somewhat interesting. My paternal grandmother was descended from Germans who settled in Iowa. Since my mother and father were distant cousins (southerners, y'know), both are descended from a gent of English/Scots-Irish ancestry who emigrated to Delaware from what is now Northern Ireland. He sired what became a long line of (usually impecunious) preachers. My paternal great-granddad was such a reverend but ultimately went to work for the Durham tobacco Dukes, moved to Cuba and set up a business that my grandfather grew into tobacco and sugar plantations in Cuba, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, and elsewhere. He was a multi-millionaire, but (sigh), two hurricanes, the Depression, and Smoot-Hawley ended that, so I post this history from a work computer rather than from my study in my retirement home overlooking the Pacific.

Mrs. Stab: Thank you, O. T. She will no doubt blush when informed of your compliment.

Comedians: The ones you listed were indeed great. You of course remember George "Kingfish" Stevens, from "Amos 'n' Andy," of radio and television. Foxx said everything he learned about comedy, he learned from watching Tim Moore, who played Kingfish in the television series. Interestingly, unlike his protege, Moore never did any off-color humor. Speaking of family friendly comedians, I saw Jay Leno on stage years before he hosted the "Tonight Show." While not particular off-color, he was definitely non-PC beyond what NBC would have tolerated--I recall references to Arab cab drivers in big cities and Indian (as in India) clerks in convenience stores.

Little Moron: the screen/strained joke is the best. The few jokes I ever heard were LM jokes: Why did the Little Moron throw a clock out the window? And the same query, but substituting butter for the clock.

". . . science always prevails.": Yes, but in my readings and watchings over the past few year or so, I observe were science is viewing larger vistas, and some aspects of religious belief are no longer quite so divorced from science as once appeared.

Wednesday LTE's 20110720

Good AM, folks! Below are today's LTE's copied from the Winston-Salem Journal. Come left, right, and center, and have at them or whatever else comes to mind. Please do not shun the Journal's site, as it is the source of these and deserves the page views.

Both sides have points
I've been following the discussion over raising the debt limit.

I understand the left's point: America cannot default on its debts and obligations. To do so will weaken our standing in the world and cause great financial distress for everyone.

I understand the right's point: We can't keep spending. We've got to draw the line somewhere.

And then there's all the political talk that obscures the point or tries to make the other side look either incompetent or evil. And the public buys it; the rabid public is eager to assign blame.

The best solution would be to compromise — raise the limit, cut spending and raise taxes modestly. When the debt is paid off, then we can cut taxes. This is what pretty much any family in debt would do: tighten the belt and put more money toward loan payments.

Unfortunately, compromise doesn't seem to be possible. We've hired a bunch of children to run the country. Not that there's much alternative; you have to be some kind of nut to get into politics in the first place.
In light of that, as sad as it sounds, I think we need to default. I think we need to suffer a bad economy or whatever it takes to stop spending so much money. We've got to draw the line somewhere and it's never going to be easy, whenever or wherever we do it.

It's going to hurt. Let's pull the Band-Aid and get it over with.

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SAMUEL F. MEADE
Winston-Salem

Nice town
I loved the story "N.C. town, population 117, has a fall election, but no one is running" (July 16). Imagine a city where no one is power-hungry or anxious to order other people around.
Wherever the town of "Tar Heel" is, I think I might like to live there.

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JULES HOOPER
Winston-Salem

Teacher evaluation
Thank you for your recent support for changing the way teachers are evaluated ("There's more to it than test scores," July 15). You are so right when you state that evaluating teachers is not always straightforward. Our principals are in and out of our rooms throughout the week, so we are told very quickly, or should be, if there's something that needs to be changed.

I am a 19-year veteran and absolutely love my job, despite the fact that the money is much less than most professionals earn and the task at hand is very dependent on the student's attitude, parents' attitude and how the child is taken care of at home. So many of our children come to us from very poor home situations, so my love and caring in the classroom might be all they get in a given day. So many of our children come to school hungry for food and attention, so learning is not always a top priority for them.

I very much invite anyone to come into my classroom to see what I do with these precious babies. But please remember, there's so much more to it than just book-learning.

Those who have concerns should consider volunteering at a local school. There are never enough volunteers to help with some simple paperwork or just listening and reading to a child.

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VICKI HOSS
Winston-Salem
The writer teaches at Union Cross Elementary School in Kernersville.
— The editor.

Financial stability
When we need strong leadership, the Republican Party is willing to cover its supposed assets, ceding power to the presidency in the process. Refusing to include increased revenues as a means of addressing our rising deficit merely passes this liability on to our children and grandchildren.

Continuing tax cuts last fall has had no measurable effect on unemployment — the same charge the Republican Party continues to make against the stimulus. It's time for sacrifice from all.

While the president has placed everything on the table, the Republican Party continues to deny the problem its ideology has created. The Republican Party promoted tax cuts while incurring the costs of two wars. It's time to accept the responsibility for those decisions.

The quickest way to achieve financial stability is to cut spending and raise revenues. That does not result in increasing the size of government. It does increase the likelihood that the future will not be as bleak for our children, regardless of their status.

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RANDY IVIE
Winston-Salem

"Crime makes you stupid." And worse.

The above pronouncement was uttered by a member of the Baltimore PD homicide unit years ago. Criminals continue to validate the gent, most recently in the case of a scavenger who climbed an electric power substation fence in Cowpens, SC, and set out to mine copper wiring to sell for scrap. He drew a charge for his efforts, not one issued by the local authorities. The thief's bumbling killed power to the 3,000 Duke Power customers and killed the thief. It is a bit mean-spirited to note the poetic justice here, but unavoidable for me.
http://www.wyff4.com/r/28592862/detail.html

Tuesday LTE's 20110719

Good AM, folks! We had a short discussion last night that included a bit of the pee and vinegar of the pre-Facebook Readers' Forum, refreshing. Below are are the ponderings of today's LTE writers. Have at it.

A few suggestions
We have been inundated with debt-and-spending chatter in the media. We do have a serious problem, but both sides think they have the only solution. As an independent, here are my suggestions:

We should go to a flat tax or a national sales tax (The Fair Tax). This would eliminate all loopholes and guarantee that everyone pays their "fair share." This would eliminate the need for the IRS at its current size. Rather that laying off all those people, they could be assigned to finding and eliminating fraud in Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps and all other social programs.

If the tax loopholes were eliminated, it would eliminate the need for lobbyists — they would have nothing to lobby for, and our congressmen would have to buy their own dinner.
If set properly, it would give the U.S. one of the world's lowest corporate tax rates. This would allow all these companies to repatriate those profits they are holding overseas to be invested here, plus it would attract more companies to the U.S.

We should declare victory in Iraq and Afghanistan, bring home the troops and stop throwing away billions. These returning troops would have trouble finding jobs, but we are already paying them, so we could offer their services to all the towns, cities and states laying off people.

Finally, implement term limits, a balanced-budget amendment and require all federal and state employees to have the same Medicare, Social Security and health plans that we, their "bosses," have.

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KEN HOGLUND
Clemmons

Hard life
I was greatly affected by the July 15 Thomas Friedman column "Adapt or die," in which he explains how America's workers need to become more adaptive and harder-working to make it in today's work world. I have no doubt that what he says is at least partly true, and that's what saddens and scares me.

Why are we all working ourselves to death? Is it just to have more stuff? I don't think so; it seems to me like more and more people are working harder and harder just to get by. Never mind the unemployed, that's a different topic — those who are lucky enough to have jobs are going crazy from stress.

This used to be known as the "rat race," as if we were mice circling around in mazes hunting for the cheese. It's no way for decent people to live. We should be able to put in a decent day's work that doesn't lead to early death, and then we should be able to relax and enjoy the fruit of our labor.
America leads the world in productivity. And the price we pay is to burn ourselves out. And now we find politicians threatening our Social Security and Medicare, so we can't even rest when we get old.

What does it get us? Does life really have to be so hard?

There's got to be a better way to run our society.

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MARK B. HOWARD
Winston-Salem

Out of touch
I beg to differ with the letter "Seeking solutions" (July 14). The writer's statement about Democrats rejecting any reduction in Medicare is unfounded.

I, too, am on Medicare and Social Security. I am also a registered Republican.

What I understand while watching and reading about the debt-crisis negotiations is that the word "compromise" is not recognized by the Republican leadership.

President Obama and Democratic leadership have said all along that they are willing to discuss entitlement reductions as long as there is also discussion on bringing in new forms of revenues. But all that I hear is "No new taxes, Mr. President."

We need to stop worrying about next year's election and start thinking about the American citizens. If everything is on the table, then everything should be on the table. As far as Social Security and Medicare go, those are entitlements that millions of people have been paying into, expecting something in return when they reach their retirement age. They have no choice in whether to pay. It is deducted directly from their paychecks.

This letter writer is misleading the readers of this newspaper.

I also think that our elected representatives need to start representing the citizens who elected them. It's really a shame that the average citizen couldn't afford to run for a $170,000 job that also pays them when they either retire or get voted out.

Our elected representatives don't know what reality in America is. They are totally out of touch.

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ROBERT SPIEGEL
Winston-Salem

Monday LTE's 20110718

Good AM, folks! Today's Winston-Salem Journal LTE's are below. Fire away.

Foreign Aid

The U.S. spends about $30 billion per year on foreign aid. Much of this money is wasted by corrupt governments and embezzled by foreign officials. Very little of the money is used for the intended purposes, and we receive almost no credit or appreciation from the people of these countries.

Why not make all foreign aid available only in American-manufactured products delivered by American ships and vehicles? A catalog of American products could be given to the governments, and they could order up to their aid limit. Items could include food, medical supplies and equipment, farming equipment, mining equipment, factory equipment, military equipment, construction equipment and supplies, etc. There is nothing these foreign countries could possibly need that could not be obtained from American manufacturers. Everything supplied would be obviously marked as coming from America.

Implementing this approach would create thousands of American jobs and stimulate our economy with no additional cost to the taxpayer. It would eliminate most of the waste of our aid money and benefit the citizens of the countries receiving the aid. It would benefit our economy rather than that of competing countries. Perhaps this would generate some credit and appreciation from the foreign citizens.

Our problem is to get Congress to implement such an obvious and simple solution to our foreign-aid expenses.

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DONALD L. GARREN

Lambsburg, Va.

Anonymous method

Thank you for doing away with the essentially completely anonymous method of commenting on your stories online ("To the readers," July 10). I do not fully endorse Facebook as the mechanism for authentication, but I certainly understand the business reasons for using it.

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NORMAN HILL
Lewisville

Fear and paranoia

The July 13 story "GOP's light bulb idea goes dark" and the same day's letter "The greatness of the U.S." exemplify perfectly the fear and paranoia that prevent me from taking conservatives seriously.

The letter writer says, "… we don't like government telling us what food to eat, what light bulb to use or what air to breath." I could sort of understand that if the government were saying to eat slime, furnish our houses with strobe lights and breath air with a high methane content — but the government hasn't done anything of the sort.

I want my food to be inspected for safety — we've seen, in the news, what happens when it isn't. The aforementioned story points out that new standards for light bulbs mean that we'll pay less and use less energy for the same amount of light. Is that really worth fighting against? As for air — well, I'm just dumbfounded. "We don't like the government telling us what kind of air to breath"? Is there really someone who would prefer breathing polluted air? Really?

I could understand these "freedom fighters" if they were fighting rules that make life worse for Americans. But why are they always objecting to things that make life better for Americans?

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ROGER L. MACK
Winston-Salem

Both are taught

In the July 10 "Doonesbury" comic strip, cartoonist Garry Trudeau depicted a school where both evolution and creationism are taught. During the discussion of creationism, a student in this school asked the teacher to stop because he wanted "to get into a good college."

Calvary Baptist Day School students examine both evolution and creationism. Members of the Class of 2011 have been accepted to UNC Chapel Hill, Davidson College, Duke University, N.C. State, Wake Forest University, West Point, Wheaton College and Yale University (Mr. Trudeau's alma mater).

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BILL WALTER
Winston-Salem

Headed toward the middle

This is not based on anything hijacked from the Winston-Salem Journal, but is certainly topical:

I normally do not watch the chattering class on the news networks, as I can form my own opinions sans assistance from ratings- and agenda-driven talking heads. However, Mrs. Stab occasionally does, and last night she was watching Bill O'Reilly. I probably share a good bit (not all, mind you) of his outlook, but do not like his yelling and interrupting his guests. Nor do I like his show's giving Al Sharpton credibility by having him as a frequent guest.

That said, I sat with Mrs. Stab last night and watched O'Reilly's opening monologue. It was notable for its centrism: the national debt is a crisis and it must be addressed in a variety of ways. Unyielding opposition to revenue (tax) increases counterproductive, as is the same obstinacy re spending cuts.

O'Reilly suggests spending cuts augmented by closing tax loopholes, thus effectively raising taxes. He noted that he has been cited twice by the White House as a voice of moderation in the debt debate, and that the White House has noted that some Republicans are joining the realistic shift to the middle in this debate. This is where we need to be, where Democrat House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is saying "Bravo!" to a suggestion by Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Now, whether it deserves a "Bravo!" is another matter, but his willingness to budge, along with his discussions with Majority Leader Harry Reid, does warrant the cheer.

What doesn't warrant a cheer is the fact that all these pols, including President Obama, are picking around a matter that should have been resolved, a part of a much larger whole that is being neglected by this kabuki dance. That whole includes "regrowing" the US economy into a process that actually makes things other than Big Macs and whose current major growth industry is the care of sick people. It also includes addressing the tax system, energy policy and climate change (sorry, it's a fact). And ending the wasting of our national treasure on the current wars as soon as possible. By national treasure, I mean the lives of our military. We have spent too many in at least one wrong place as it is.