Letters to the Editor
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Published Letters: 182 Editor's Choice: 38
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With friends like these
[Read the article: What should Obama do about Rev. Jeremiah Wright?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I disagree with the posters who say the Rev. Wright should not be a story. The reason the nomination process is so long and arduous is to see the candidates handle all manner of problems, just as they will if they are elected president.
Wright clearly has an agenda against Obama, I am not sure why. After watching his speeches and interviews over the past few days, it's clear he is enjoying his time in the limelight and that he doesn't care if he torpedoes Obama's campaign.
Obama should simply tell the MSM that the reverend had a right to his opinion as do all Americans but that his vision of America is not Obama's. Obama can the reiterate his message about hope and change.
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Careful, the Bush house is made of glass
[Read the article: "Hardball": Barack Obama is no Neville Chamberlain ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I seem to recall reading in Salon that George Bush's grandfather, Prescott Bush, senator from Connecticut, was a director on the boards of several companies who continued to do business with Nazi Germany until 1942. Only the threat of legal action such as seizure of assets compelled these companies to end their business relationships with an enemy of the US.
Currently, the Bush family has many ties to Saudi and Kuwaiti businesses, some of whom have supported Wahabi clerics.
14 of the 19 hijackers on September 11 were Saudi nationals yet we still do a lot of trading with Saudi Arabia.
I guess talking to a country with whom we are having problems is appeasement, but buying oil from a country whose citizens killed 3,000 of our people is just good business.
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Catfight
[Read the article: Pipe down, Cindy McCain]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I have $20 on Michele Obama.
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It's time for the strike
[Read the article: Ask the pilot]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Passengers need to strike. One day when no one flies anywhere. Empty planes, empty airports. We protest the stupid TSA rules, the nickel and diming charges to cover increasing fuel costs (just raise the damn fare!) and the bus terminal mentality. Maybe then the airlines will finally say enough to the TSA.
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Lake Placid Brewing
[Read the article: The rise and fall of an American beer]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I never drank Bud, not even in college. The local bar only carried Bud, Bud Light and Miller so I drank Miller and wasn't crazy about that. Bud and Miller and even Coors always tasted like malty water to me.
I prefer a beer I can actually taste such as Bass Ale, Sam Adams, Sierra Nevada, the fine beers of the Atlantic Brewing Company of Bar Harbor, Maine, and the Lake Placid Brewing Company beers of upstate New York. Their Ubu Ale is terrific with a rich caramel taste and color, almost a stout. Speaking of stout, Guinness is still great. I acquired a taste for it in Ireland 22 years ago. It is the national drink, still served to hospital patients. A meal in a glass.
I grew up in the Bushwick and Ridgewood neighborhoods of the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens in New York City. These formerly German neighborhoods claimed over 200 small breweries in 1900. They are all gone now.
Every Sunday after church, my grandfather, Henry, would send my father with his 3-quart beer pail to the corner tavern. 3% beer was legal during Prohibition. My grandfather would sit on the back porch of their attached house on Cornelia Street in Brooklyn, reading the papers and quaffing his favorite local brew. In later years, he would listen to Red Barber call the Dodger games on his Philco portable radio. I have the radio but not the beer pail. Here's one to you, Henry.
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It's 1992 ... again
[Read the article: McCain ads hurting Obama?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It's the economy, stupid. Once again, with a Bush in the White House, the economy is tanking, people are hurting and the president is oblivious.
I have always felt that Obama could win in a walk if he adopted a more populist message: help for the poor and middle class (raise the minimum wage, national healthcare, more help for education, simplify the tax code), regulate non-banking financial institutions, end the disastrous tax cuts for the rich, end the war, invest in infrastructure thus creating jobs.
Add to that a clear and reasoned speech about why we must leave carbon-based fuels behind and adopt wind and solar power to create electricity. We can then base our transportation on electricity in the form of electric cars charging off of household current and high-speed mag-lev trains.
And, by the way, no biofuels. Use the land to feed the world's hungry and China and India's 2.3 billion people.
Drilling for more oil and building 45 nuclear disasters-in-waiting is not the answer. China and India will soon drink up most of the world's oil. Let them have it. Base our energy needs on solar and wind power including solar arrays in space. The electricity can be beamed down to us via microwave.
Encourage states to change their building codes to require solar panels to create heat and electricity in those areas of the country with more than 120 days of sunshine. Require cisterns in those areas that receive 25 inches or more of rain each year. This non-potable water can be used to water lawns, gardens and fields, wash cars and houses without using potable ground or reservoir water.
It will be painful in the short term but $4 a gallon gas is nothing compared to the $10 a gallon gas that's coming.
Millions of new jobs will be created by the new energy industries.
This is the time for bold new ideas that will help the US succeed in the 21st Century. China will soon be the world's biggest economy with India close behind, but the US can be better and smarter with new sources of energy and an end to the pollution caused by carbon-based fuels.