Speak Out 12/24/09

CO2 facts

WHEN I was in school, which has been many years ago, I was taught that we create carbon dioxide, while plants absorb carbon dioxide and turn it into oxygen. A recent comment claims the increase of carbon dioxide will kill all vegetation. That is contrary to what I learned. Immoral transfer

WE have a right to protect ourselves from aggressors, so we can delegate this right to government. We don't have the right to take the property of one person and give it to another. Therefore, we can't rightly delegate that function to the state. Delegated theft is still theft. Using the state to redistribute wealth as President Obama and his Democratic friends are trying to do now is different from general taxation for legitimate government functions enumerated in the U.S. Constitution. Rather than promoting the general welfare, redistribution schemes involve a group of citizens voting to have the government take property from others and give it to them. Rather than celebrating such schemes, Christians should be holding them up to the light of moral scrutiny.

In other words

DR. Wayne Bowen's piece on what President Obama should have said at the Nobel Peace Prize acceptance ceremony was impressive. Would Bowen please write another piece telling us what President Obama should have said at West Point in deciding what to do about Afghanistan?

Holiday's price

I cannot wait until January gets here so we can get past the begging season. I have never seen so many people with their hands out. That's all it's about. If we gave to everybody has been soliciting our help this time of the year, we'd be flat broke, which all of the others are going to be when taxes come due and their Christmas madness has to be paid for. I feel sorry for them.

Legal, delicious

A few years ago there were a couple of young lads who operated a stand downtown called Hump Doggs. They were approved by the health department and fire department and also had county and city business licenses. The hot dogs were legal and delicious. What happened to Hump Doggs?

Lead in lights

MANY Christmas decorations that contain lights have a warning label about exposure to lead, a substance that can be harmful to small children. Please keep that in mind this holiday season while decorating with your little ones.

Slippery slope

COULD this mess that Congress is proposing as health care reform actually be the lead-in to a single-payer national system? After a year or two of all the taxes that raise the cost of private insurance, people might be led to believe that a nationalized health care system is better.

Pedestrian bridge

HOW many more years do I have to risk my life as a pedestrian dodging cars while trying to get across busy streets like William Street and Broadway? The city is putting in sidewalks, and we have a bus service. It would also be great to have pedestrian bridges over these streets. I'll keep on dreaming.