Letters to the Editor
Busy Body
Published Letters: 141 Editor's Choice: 20
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Obama Is Using His Website to Aid Iowa
[Read the article: Obama's first week, one-on-one with McCain]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Barrack Obama is urging the donors, large and small, who come to his website to provide whatever assistance they can to the folks in Iowa, driven out of their homes by a flood of biblical proportion. The breadth of the flood is unbelievable--most of the state of Iowa is underwater. Because much of the Iowa National Guard is in Iraq, the state cannot draw on this resource for help. Millions of acres of corn are under water and cannot be re-planted this year.
I have been impressed with Barrack Obama since the Iowa primary and becoming familiar with his organizational skills. He uses 21st Century technology, and efficient, yet compassionate management skills to organize thousands of strangers to achieve a definable goal bigger than any one of them.
McCain is a joke in comparison...maybe worse. I have no doubt that Obama will make mistakes, if elected, but I feel that he is by far, the superior candidate in being able to unify the country and focus on solving some of the most difficult problems the country has faced since the Great Depression.
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Drilling Will Not Reduce Prices in the United States
[Read the article: Gas prices and offshore drilling ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Much of the oil originating in Alaska goes to Japan, not the United States. Japan pays a higher price. The parties drilling for oil in Alaska and on the coasts do not include the U.S. government, but are private corporations. They will say thank you very much, SUCKERS, we will sell that oil to the highese bidder.
Someone reported on Garrison Keillor's site today that gasoline in Shanghai is selling for a little over $1.50/gallon. This is because China is subsidizing the price for its citizens. China will buy the oil because it has the wealth and because they can use oil as the ultimate weapon to finish us off without firing a shot.
I used to think that high oil prices would make Chinese goods more expensive but it isn't going to work that way. Exporters in the US get saddled with $5-$6 per gallon fuel while exporters in China pay $1.50. Game over and Bushco laughs all the way to the bank.
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Its a Game of Chicken
[Read the article: More fun with reverse globalization]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]China is using its monetary surplus to subsidize the price of oil. Even with an 18% increase in the past week or so, gasoline costs in China are about half of what they are in the United States. Furthermore, money is still available in China for financing new business ventures.
The US is a different story. Even with low interest rates, the US is "tapped out". There is no credit. A lot of tech-based startups have failed in the past few months because they cannot get funded. They cannot borrow money. The only thing that low interest rates have given us recently is inflation.
The question is whether China can hold out long enough, spending its wealth on subsidies for manufacturing, to finish us off as a consumer of resources like oil and iron ore, and create a sizable consumer group in China to replace the US.
China has a plan for being one of the "have's" in the New World Order. The US has no clue.
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It Could Be Another EtOH from Corn Fiasco Unless More Power Plants Are Brought On-Line
[Read the article: The Barack Obama of automobiles?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Ethanol and other biofuel businesses are failing because corn and soy feedstocks have dramatically increased in price. Corn, like oil, is not a limitless resource.
The Volt is going to require a lot of electrical energy, which is ultimately converted to movement of the car and transport of its passengers. The electricity is going to have to come from somewhere. Power grids are stretched to the limit now and cannot service significant numbers of electric cars. The only power source that can begin to meet this demand, without adding significant amounts of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere is nuclear power. If this is the direction of transportation, those plants need to be under construction NOW. If not, we will see the same thing happen to electricity as happened to corn and soy--the price will skyrocket because it is also a limited resource. The price is likely to skyrocket anyway because nuclear power plants are not cheap.
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Meanwhile, Back in the Real World
[Read the article: A plague of economic locusts]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Things are getting mighty scary. We heard word this morning from several Wall Street insiders to get our money out of Wachovia, NOW! Also, make sure that you don't have more than $100K in deposits in ANY Bank.
I went to my bank to pay off my mortgage. They asked me why and I said I had lost confidence in the banking system. The banker said she heard that a lot today. They are now giving me a song and dance about the payoff but I won't back down.
It will be interesting to see whether this can be contained or whether people with cash will bring the whole banking system down by pulling it out.
I never thought I would live to see this and am sorry I have.
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Don't Take the Bar--Find Something Else to Do with Your Life
[Read the article: I bailed on taking the bar exam at the last minute -- twice]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]If the correspondent is having problems with depresssion and anxiety in law school, he/she will be crushed by the daily practice of law. It is a difficult and demanding profession in which lawyers take on the anxiety and negative feelings of their clients and work to provide them with the most positive result possible.
All legal practices have deadlines and not meeting them is prima facie malpractice so procrastination is not an option. Mature legal practices have hundreds to thousands of deadlines over a given year.
Its probably a moot point at this time because the correspondent's grades were not very good and he/she has waited too long to take the bar. Either of these red flags are enough to hobble any chances at employment as a lawyer.
Find something else to do with your life.