Speak Out 12/6/07

Our anti-Americanism

In response to "Anti-Americanism": The shame is that you are correct. An alarming number of Americans actually are anti-American in their protests and their utter disregard for the Founders and our beginnings as a Christian nation. Do you honestly think it is patriotic to berate our president because we disagree? Is it patriotic the way our Vietnam veterans were treated when they came home? The freedom to speak is great, but sometimes it is more prudent to be quiet and support the people that lead this country. Try praying for them to make good decisions. If you're not the president, you don't have all the information, despite what the media feeds you. Anti-Americanism? You bet it is.

Left Without Morals

In response to "Stop this nonsense": While you babble about the Religious Right censoring speech, why don't you mention the Left Without Morals and its censoring of the church and trying to pass a law that would jail preachers for quoting Scripture against homosexuality. How about the mind-boggling attempt at taking Christ out of Christmas?

Voting for dictators

Democratic elections in various countries seem to confirm what many (even those in high U.S. office) seem to have overlooked: Democracy is a process, not an end in itself. Witness the eventual fate of Germany's Weimar Republic in the late 1920s and contemporary Venezuela. While we're on the subject, allow me to be among the first to congratulate what may be the first democratically elected one in history: Czar Vladimir Putin I of Russia.

Farm subsidies

If anything reinforces the view expressed in Ecclesiastes that there's nothing new under the sun, it's the more it changes, the more it remains the same farm subsidy program.

Making Huey blush

I wish you would refrain from using euphemisms in your editorial like using the word "overkill" to refer to Gov. Matt Blunt's crusade against illegal immigrants, obviously intended to try to revive his seemingly dead-on-arrival attempt at a second term as Missouri's governor. Rather than overkill, I think you should have described the governor's efforts (from the viewpoint of Blunt critics) as unprecedented demagoguery that would make the likes of Huey Long blush.

Safety-net subsidies

Farm subsidies are a complicated issue invented by Congress. Ninety percent of the farm bill does not go to farmers. American consumers are the real recipients of the agriculture subsidies. With today's high grain prices, there is no reason for agriculture subsidies, because the market is paying for producers to grow all of the wheat and corn they can produce. But these high prices will not last, and when the price of wheat goes back to 5 cents a pound, it is in the best interest of consumers to keep most of the farmers in business. Congress should change the farm bill to only provide a safety net when it is really needed and let the free market run most of the time. Please remember that it is in the best interest of America to encourage conservation, erosion control and a safe supply of American food.

Credits go to Big Oil

You can look it up on the Chicago Board of Trade: January ethanol is selling for $1.84 a gallon. When you buy gasoline with 10 percent ethanol for $2.90 a gallon in Cape Girardeau, the oil companies are getting the subsidy. And the oil companies get the blenders' tax credit. Yes, there is some transportation cost, and every business needs some markup, but the big subsidies are going with the tax credits to the oil companies.