Speak Out 3/31/07

Get aboard

I WISH all of the businesses in Jackson would get aboard and not pay their electric bill until the 19th of each month since the city took away the discount to business owners only.

Faulting AmerenUE

WE SHOULD be allowed to have a choice in who will provide electricity, like Jackson. How do we go about getting that initiated for Cape? AmerenUE should file bankruptcy instead of trying to make customers pay for their mistake. Ameren, you are to blame and it is your fault all by yourself. You pay for the cleanup out of your bonuses.

Wielding influence

I'M GLAD Jo Ann Emerson realizes that we have a farm-based economy, and the more crops our farmers sell to the USDA the more (taxable) income they earn and less subsidies they receive. Since we don't have any starving people here, we might as well use the crops to buy good will around the world. When I was a kid in the 1940s, nobody ever thought local farmers could wield global influence, but with Emerson's support for trade with Cuba and reduction of subsidies through increased sales, we're becoming even more influential. God bless you, congresswoman.

Questions about DUI

TO MS. Post: How did you get a DUI while in the convenience store for a reported speeding incident? You don't mention a speeding charge, so was the alcohol charge a setup? And if you drove your children to the store under the influence, wouldn't that be child endangerment? At my work we have to have more than one absence for termination.

Pig poem

MARK BLISS'S comment saying pigs and politicians would be right at home with all the mud-slinging reminded me of this old poem (author unknown) entitled "Judged by the Company One Keeps":

One night in late October,

When I was far from sober,

Returning with my load with manly pride,

My feet began to stutter,

So I lay down in the gutter,

And a pig came near and lay down by my side;

A lady passing by was heard to say:

"You can tell a man who boozes,

By the company he chooses,"

And the pig got up and slowly walked away.

Big phone

BIG TELEPHONE companies hate competition. That is why they constantly try to stifle the development and expansion of new technologies. Senate Bill 552 would encourage in our state the development and expansion of VoIP, a new technology that lets users use their phones over the Internet. I hope everyone will contact Sen. Crowell and let him now how important it is to keep big business in check and not let them control our prices.

A question of logic

I don't mean to be picky but in answer to the question as to whom we would blame if we are extinct 500 years from now, I feel compelled to compose a question of logic. Assuming we are extinct 500 years from now, wouldn't the question of who to blame be impossible for a Homo sapiens to answer, given the number of that species that would be remaining?

Grim great

THANK YOU for your feature on retiring Notre Dame Regional High School girls basketball coach Jerry Grim. Grim was an excellent coach and is a wonderful man. Notre Dame is blessed to have Grim continue in his capacity as a classroom teacher. Grim is great!

Moderate hecklers

BY CONSUMING moderate amounts of alcohol (said to be good for you by the medical community) SEMO's hecklers are role models of healthy living.

Prehistoric SEMO

HOLD OFF on the build-a-lake idea for awhile. Once the big one hits, Southeast Missouri will be back to its prehistoric pristine condition of one big lake.

Ameren albatross

AMERENUE HAS become an albatross around our collective necks. To me, the huge bonuses given top executives are an in-your-face response to already frustrated customers.

Capitalistic theory

RUSH AND David Limbaugh would certainly support the global-warming theories if it made them money!

NASCAR and hairspray

I AGREE that we all should do something about global warming. But I do need to ask all of the people complaining and saying someone should do something what type of car do they drive? Do you like NASCAR? What type of hairspray do you use? The list of questions could go on and on, but if you are not willing to give something up to help out then you should have no complaint.

Just curious

IF ALL this evolution and Big Bang junk took millions of years, why is everyone so worried about global warming? That's what I thought. Somebody was wrong.

Milankovich cycles

TECHNICALLY GLOBAL warming is happening. As a matter of fact it has been happening for the last 18,000 years or so. That is when the Earth reached its coldest point during the last ice age. The Earth goes through cycles of climate changes, or shifts, periodically over the years. This is due to changes in the Earth's orbit called Milankovich cycles. These cycles work similar to the way the seasons change, moving parts of the Earth closer or farther away from the sun If we could stick around for another 10,000 years we might even see the Al Gores of the year 12,007 making a movie about how we need to start driving gas-guzzling, fossil fuel-burning cars to increase the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere because the temperature last August reached a high of minus 20.

We love Roy

I AM a parent of a student at Cape Central Junior High. Our leader and principal, Roy Meredith, often tells his student body that he "loves them." Well Mr. Meredith, we love you too!

Channel outrage

I'M WITH TJ on this one. I couldn't have said it better myself. Let's channel that outrage in the right direction and work toward real justice. "What does the Lord require of you? To act justly, love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." (Micah 6:8)

Home run column

TJ GREANEY has hit it out of the park with this column. I hope it is forwarded to the appropriate people who will, if inspired, make a difference in the future of Islam and the sanity on our planet. TJ Greaney WILL save this planet!

Pork is pork

CHAD CRAFT recently derided what he called "liberal pork." When the GOP controlled Congress they collectively became the all time kings of pork. To the best of my recollection, Craft was silent on that phenomenon. Now that the Democrats control Congress Craft seems outraged about pork. This is understandable because "liberal pork" as defined by Craft seems to refer to pork that doesn't come our way.

Punishment required

IN ALL the emotional feelings about the runaway children, it finally should be said: these children, especially the boy who heartlessly put the telephones where his paraplegic father could not reach them, should be severely punished without sympathy. If they are not, what do you think they will do the next time?