Speak Out 12/2/09

More soldiers

THERE'S a difference between Vietnam and what is going on today in Afghanistan. We're helping Pakistan if we battle the terrorists. They can't fight these terrorists alone. The French are helping us. My hat's off to them. I hope President Obama does not leave the soldiers who are there as sitting ducks. They need more man power so our soldiers are protected.

Out of the bag

I smelled a rat a long time ago when government, media, the public education system and the scientific community seemed to be colluding to establish man-made global warming as fact. Now we find out why the freedom-of-information request from both the United States and the United Kingdom regarding global warming data were ignored and denied. It's because the data were flawed, fudged and altered to support their theory and to allow governments to have even more control over productive members of society via cap-and-trade legislation and other harmful treaties. The cat, my friends, is out of the bag.

Rental housing

I hope some day that there is a some place a renter can go to complain about landlords. Roofs leak, windows are broken, sewage is backing up, and the landlord just says, "Deal with it or move out." We need a rental house inspection.

Penalize crashers

THIS is in regards to the White House crashers. I hope they get a real steep fine, have to spend some time in jail and don't have any opportunity to do a reality show. I hope this opens people's eyes.

No leadership

REGARDING the H1N1 flu. We don't have enough vaccine for everybody. This is President Obama's place to lead us. He's asleep at the wheel. We are a leaderless nation, and we are going to pay for it.

Ivy League

WHEN folksy politicians condemn Ivy League schools as elitist institutions, they're insulting countless young people and families who work hard and sacrifice to achieve a quality education. Every year our local schools proudly send graduates off to colleges and universities across the country, some of them Ivy League. Our local academic high achievers are not elitist. It's simply the American dream to reach every individual's highest potential.

Festival of Lights

THANK you, Jackson, for all the wonderful support for the Festival of Lights to be held Dec 5. Due to the overwhelming support of the Jackson community, the festival will be held. What a wonderful feeling knowing we live in a community that cares.

Thanks for keys

I would like to express my thanks and say "God bless you" to the person who found my keys and turned them in at Walmart Nov. 24.

Mind-readers

MONA Charen and David Limbaugh make a living telling us what President Obama's motives are. For example, Charen recently chortled that the Obama administration wants Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to have an opportunity to use U.S. courts to spread al-Qaida propaganda. Limbaugh read the tea leaves and ascertained that our president wants our nation to regress to the status of underdeveloped nations. I don't know about you, but I would have thought President Obama would want our nation to be on a progressive rather than regressive course. Thus, to inform us otherwise, it's good that we have Charen, Limbaugh and other mind-reading columnists.

What science?

I agree with Lorrie Goldstein who opened a recent column with this comment. "If you're wondering how the robot-like march of the world's politicians toward Copenhagen can possibly continue in the face of the scientific scandal dubbed 'climategate,' it's because Big Government, Big Business and Big Green don't give a 'bleep' about 'the science.' They never have."

Into the breach

JUST as Bernard Madoff learned that Ponzi schemes eventually become transparently clear and their obvious evil recognized by most, President Obama may soon learn that you can't fool all of the people all of the time. It's unclear just how long America will have to pay for its experiment with Obama's phony green jobs, his exorbitant new jobs-killing taxes, his ever increasingly debunked junk science, his communist-leaning czars, his meddling in the auto and banking industries, his sure-to-be-disastrous Obamacare and the encouragement he's giving to union bosses, dictators and tyrants the globe over -- to say nothing of his peace-through-weakness foreign policy. But, at some point, reality will sink in, as it always does. The question is, will we wake up in time? I hope so, and I hope America will have its Winston Churchill or another Ronald Reagan ready to step into the breach when that time comes.

Teaching, testing

PHYSICAL education students shouldn't be tested on what they can do, just their participation? So they get the easy A? No. Should math or spelling be graded on the student's effort alone? If we want to fall further behind every other country, then yes. However, if we want our children to succeed, then we teach them and test them. Even failure is a powerful teaching tool.

Wait and see

PRESIDENT Obama has one thing on his side that will render all of this silly and premature handwringing about his "failed" presidency irrelevant, as you will see. It's called luck. After 30 years of allowing the politicians to make a mess of things, Obama's successful economic policies are turning this country around. Though unemployment is a lagging indicator, the president's luck will kick in sometime next year. By the 2010 congressional elections we'll be creating 200,000 jobs a month.

Surprising stand

I never thought I'd hear this. Conservative columnist George Will and liberal Robert Reich recently agreed that the jury is still out on whether or not the Chinese example of authoritarian capitalism may be better that the U.S.'s democratic capitalism. Wow.

Discovery donation

HERE'S an idea for a Christmas present that would benefit all our children: Let's donate enough to fully fund the Discovery Playhouse on Broadway so it can finally open and we can enjoy the smiles on our children's faces all year long.

Increase taxes

THOUGH we should wait until unemployment drops, ending any lingering effects of the depression, the marginal tax rate should be raised to 70 percent. There is no way we can continue to live under the illusion that cutting taxes and government services will address the deep-seated structural problems with the deficit and debt without a tax increase. Congress needs to pass the tax increase now and defer its implementation until the recession is over. Surely there is a member of Congress who will step forward to take the lead on this matter. The marginal tax rate has been at 70 percent before with unemployment at no more than 4 percent.