Letters to the Editor
EMStoveken
Published Letters: 391 Editor's Choice: 44
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Let's Create Some Reality!
[Read the article: Words in a time of war]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]A few voices have been calling for some suggestions on how to fix our current situation. Since our government has the power to define reality now, may as well put a few ideas out there.
Environmental -
The first car company to mass produce a 100% alternative/renewable fuel vehicle with a sticker price under $25,000 becomes a top to bottom tax-exempt organization for 5 years. When I say top to bottom, I mean the employees down to the janitor do not pay federal income tax as well as the corporation not being taxed. The motivation will come from all levels of company by enticing them where they feel it most, their pockets.
As a stop gap measure, offer interim tax-exempt status to the company that can create a vehicle with a consistent verifiable 100+ MPG rating.
The first company to establish a functional nationwide alternative/renewable fuel infrastructure (i.e. an existing oil company equipping 80% or more of their stations to provide the alternative fuel) becomes a top to bottom tax free entity for 10 years.
Give electricity credits to homeowners whose houses generate excess clean energy (i.e. solar, wind, geothermal homes coupled with conservation) which is fed into the power grid.
Require all McMansion developments to have solar panels on the houses as well as public wind turbines. (The new sculptural ones are actually quite nice.)
Require companies who are generating alternative fuels to convert their operations to run on their own product. We currently use too much petroleum in the production of "alternatives" such as a ethanol.
Economic -
Legalize, regulate and tax the living hell out of Marijuana and Prostitution. This alone will turn billions of dollars in enforcement expenditures into a massive source of income. 50% of which should be poured directly into our education system to promote additional growth and innovation.
Military -
1)Reduce troop levels in Iraq to a point where we have just enough to protect the Green Zone, deploy community embedded anti-terrorist units, and train Iraqi police forces. Have evacuation plans in place in the event that entire place collapses.
2)Troops that are rededployed come home while we...
3)Talk Pakistan into allowing access in the hunt for Al Qaeda Operatives.
4)Deploy units to the Afghanistan region to finish the job of finding those responsible for the 9/11 attacks. Once we demonstrate our ability to find and capture terorrists leaders, the appeal of terrorism will be somewhat reduced.
5)Re-vamp military training around guerrilla warfare tactics. We will never again face a conventional enemy. We need to be prepared to fight wars like Vietnam and Iraq, just with different outcomes.
Those are the broad strokes, off the top of my head. Pretty damn far from perfect, but steps in (to my thinking) the right direction.
Fire away, folks.
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The Art of "Interpretation"
[Read the article: "A null set"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Shouldn't there be some sort of recourse for politician who flatly change the question they are asked prior to answering it? This is a trick that has been used for years, and a primary reason why I hate watching the debates sober.
This move on Romney's part is even more sickeningly brazen in that the moderator attempted to pin him down to the question as asked and Romney flatly said that he considered the question invalid and would rather give his talking point.
Clearly, Hilary works in similar ways but she at least fleetingly addresses the question before moving on to her scripted spiel.
I should also point out that Romney does not know what a non-sequitor is. It is something that seems out of sequence, that has no relation to what came before it. Something that is meant to stand on its own as its own entity can not be a non-sequitor since it does not offer illusion of being part of a sequence. It is similarly, not a synonym for null set.
A nitpick, I know but this is the kind of linguisitic bufoonery that we have spent 6 learning to recognize as a sign of an unstable and incomeptent mind.