I don't believe college students ought to be allowed to vote in city elections. After they graduate, they leave, and we have to live with what they help vote in. This town caters to the college, but it's the working people who live here and raise children who have to pay for everything.
I love reading columns by Sam Blackwell. I love to hear his stories about him and DC. Keep up the good work, Sam. You're the best.
I want to thank the parks department for making our parks and the bathrooms in the parks look good this year.
I have never seen the mosquitoes so bad as they are this year. I've called the Public Works Department. We need to get this under control before more diseases are spread.
HOW many people support a ban on texting while driving? How many people want less government? I bet if you ask around, you'll find a majority of people say yes to both of these questions.
THE alleged rugged individualist (there is no such animal) who claims it takes a village apparently suffers from some kind of identity disorder.
CONSERVATIVE columnist Byron York recently bellowed that "labor costs are killing the post office." Since York yelped nothing about the effect of e-mail, one wonders if this head-in-the-sand wannabe sage even knows of its existence.
ALAN Journet wrote that "deception is enhanced if the lie is repeated often enough." Journet is exactly right. That is why so many people have bought into global warming. Several of the scientists who worked on the research have admitted to recording false information. Others have admitted to slanting their findings to suit their agenda. Dedicated scientists don't do that sort of thing.
SOMEONE was in a lather about one of the big oil companies not paying income taxes. Some of you can't get it through your heads that no corporation pays taxes. They collect from you and me and send to the government. Corporations have only one place to get cash: by selling goods or services. If they are taxed, they raise prices.
REGARDING texting while driving: This needs to be treated like a DWI. If you have an accident, you should lose your license for six months and have to attend a driving class.
I attended a tea party rally recently, mainly to see what all the fuss was about and to better understand the tea party position without the distortions of the mainstream media's lens. Why on earth should we pay any attention to these people? The best description I can think of is a group of incredibly loud, misguided, angry people who don't have a coherent platform. How ironic it was that two people were lambasting socialism as they convened in a publicly funded reception hall free of charge. Neither could provide an accurate definition of socialism, yet they had an opinion as to what they thought it meant. It turns out the mainstream media really weren't too far off with their coverage.
TOO many people mistakenly cite the Dow-Jones Industrial Average as the end-all metric for our nation's health. When the Dow bottomed out at 6,547 on March 9, 2009, grumblings of the "Obama recession" were heard. Now that it's back up to 11,200 barely a year later, I'm sure we will hear apologies from the name-callers any day now. Considering the Dow is back to where it was at beginning of the housing bubble, should we refer to it as the "Obama recovery"?
I'VE heard the phrase, "This presidency is an abomination" too many times to count now. I have not encountered a single original thought with regard to our country's situation, nor a supporting argument that doesn't collapse under its own weight due to a complete and utter lack of factual support to substantiate that five-word statement. Evidently everyone around here believes Fox News at face value and accepts it as gospel. Where were these people from 2000 to 2008 as we were being led down the path to near insolvency? Do you actually believe that all of today's ills began on Jan. 20, 2009? Things have been swinging rather positively for our country over the last few months.
DEMOCRATS are not crying about the criticism of President Obama. We are joining in with it. Many of the injustices of the Bush administration are still alive and well, including rendition, torture, domestic spying, economic failure and unnecessary war. We have not fallen to the depths of apathy and silence, despite what talking heads claim. We are as loud as ever. Fortunately, we have patience and don't expect everything all at once. It will take years, if not decades, to alleviate the utter failure of the years from 2000 to 2008.
Connect with the Southeast Missourian Newsroom:
For corrections to this story or other insights for the editor, click here. To submit a letter to the editor, click here. To learn about the Southeast Missourian’s AI Policy, click here.