Speak Out 6/22/09

Funny singer

NEAL Boyd was on the radio today. He is a wonderful singer, Christian, patriot and comedian. One of the funny things he said is that he is "Halfrican American." Neal is performing with Kenny Rogers in Sikeston this month.

Prizes for columnist

"THE only thing I know for certain about human nature is that I know nothing." -- Michael Jensen. This quote (from a recently published column) is what makes Jensen such a remarkable journalist. What Jensen said about himself is not self-deprecation. It is the absolute truth. Yet this man has been able to sustain a career in journalism for decades, writing thousands of columns claiming insight into various aspects of (you guessed it) human nature. No journalist in history who knows nothing about human nature can come close to achieving what Jensen has and be a blank slate about behaviorist psychology, cognitive psychology, neuropsychology and its various subfields, evolutionary psychology and so on, all of which give us valuable insight into motivation and other aspects of human nature. Thus, since Jensen knows nothing about these matters and has still been able to sustain a brilliant and remarkable career in journalism, I think he is worthy of no less than a Pulitzer Prize, a Nobel Prize and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Teen achievement

WE'RE always running down teens, and I'm sick of it. They are superior in many ways to older generations. They deserve so much more credit than they receive. For example, my sincere congratulations goes out to the 15-year-old girl who won a national title and $50,000 for being able to send an incredible 14,000 text messages per month.

Southeast parking

HOW many parking lots does Southeast Missouri State University need? Wouldn't it be better to build one or two multilevel parking garages instead of sprawling out? At this rate, most of Cape Girardeau will be a huge parking lot for Southeast.

Indecent photo

YOU should be ashamed for the picture that was in the paper regarding sun protection. There is no need for a woman's swimsuit being cut so high. It's indecent. Just what does an editor edit in the newspaper anymore? Standards of decency don't seem to be it.

Internet issues

WHY do the news media and advertisers assume that everybody has Internet access? If you need information or want to do this or want to do that, they give you a website to contact. There are a lot of people who don't have Internet access. They don't have a computer. There are still people who go places and buy things and spend money. But they are ignored for the most part by today's media.

List of wrongs

WHAT is wrong with America? Sexism, drugs, violence, greed, political corruption, extravagance, attitudes, pollution, the mob, gambling, the media, unnecessary bureaucracy, unnecessary laws, the forced proliferation of Western culture in other nations, an ineffective employment system, lack of reality, bigotry, disparity in the economic system, fascism, sloth, an oversexed populace, poor-quality goods, lack of savings, cheating, crime, hedonism, poor nutrition, packaging used for goods, dysfunctional families, illiteracy, crass and base behavior, misunderstandings, devil worshippers, technocultures, abuse of news, inefficiency.

Nasty restrooms

CAPE Girardeau's parks overall are beautiful. But the bathrooms are always nasty. It's like they're never cleaned.

Blattner pride

HOORAY for our hometown Nancy Blattner. We should be proud.

Paper is better

PAPER is all right for me. You can replant trees. Plastic is an unnatural thing, and it's harder on the Earth. It takes longer to decompose. And I just think it's stupid to use all those plastic bags when paper is easier on Mother Earth.

Ambulance stop

WHAT was the Oklahoma state trooper thinking of when he pulled over an ambulance? If that were my loved one in the back of that ambulance and I were following it, he would have had a reason to arrest someone.

Parking garage

I AM disgusted to read in the paper that the reason they're tearing down Howard's and the old Sinclair gas station on Broadway is to make parking spaces for Southeast Missouri State University. Broadway still is one of the main thoroughfares of Cape Girardeau, and more parking does absolutely nothing to make our town more economically viable or attractive or anything else. The other piece of the problem is that students don't want to park on Broadway. It would be better to use whatever money the university has to build a parking garage.

Malpractice caps

I saw on the news where President Obama went to talk about health-care reform to the American Medical Association and the doctors had the nerve to boo our president simply because he won't support what the doctors want: caps on medical malpractice awards. What the country ought to do before even considering passing caps on medical malpractice is ask the opinion of the nurses. You will find that a huge percentage of nurses are against caps on damages against doctors. You would not believe what we have seen. There are a lot of really good, caring doctors, but there are also ones who are not.

No increase

REGARDING no raise for Social Security checks: We need to write our federal legislators. There is no need to bail out banks and leave these poor people, who cannot work or depend on Social Security, in a lurch. Something is seriously is wrong with this.

Corruption exposed

THE president recently fired two inspectors general who exposed corruption in his government programs. The abuses they unearthed should have been followed up on, but the only follow-up the IGs got was the boot for making Obama look bad. It's a typical abuse of power for the Obama administration. And what is the press talking about? He managed to kill a fly while appearing on a ... television program. Is that good reporting?

Homeless option

REGARDING the homeless situation: I have a friend who works at the Cape Girardeau County Health Department. He says that the health department has a new addition to its building, which now has a large, finished basement. He said the health department doesn't use it for anything. He says that it would make a perfect place for a temporary homeless shelter. We all pay taxes to support the health department, so what would this hurt?

Nervy newspaper

I wish you would quit publishing articles from The Wall Street Journal telling Missourians how to best run its state court system. It's quite nervy of any publication with the name Wall Street in it to even remotely think citizens will believe it knows best.

Presidential cults

FOR the umpteenth time, the tempestuous enfant terrible of egregiously enervating right-wing writing tribe, David Limbaugh, has written that about two-thirds of the American people are in effect transfixed by a cult of President Barack Obama. I would suggest that if Mr. Limbaugh can do no better than this in explaining the popularity of President Obama, he might consider taking the summer off and try to come up with better reasons to explain the president's popularity. In a way, I can understand why he thinks his explanation is accurate, because Limbaugh himself was and remains a disciple of the cult of Ronald Reagan.

It's your fault

IT'S about time you guys back off President Obama. Like it or not, he is our president. He can't be expected to fix all of your problems and Bush's mistakes in just a few months. You were quiet when President Bush was starting a war with a sovereign nation for no legitimate reason, and when the economy started it's death spiral seven years into Bush's presidency. The financial and automotive industry failures are neither Obama's nor Bush's fault. It is your fault. You tell the corporations what to offer when you spend your money. You kept buying obscenely impractical vehicles, kept borrowing money for things you didn't need and couldn't afford. Consumer irresponsibility led us to this place.

Close Gitmo

GITMO needs to be closed. It is a bloody stain on our national honor, a disgrace to us all. It's doubtful that these suspects could escape from one of our supermax prisons. Do we really believe in our method of justice?

Demoralized nation

THE Founding Fathers being mainly Christians and creating separation of church and state for the purpose of keeping government out of the church is not a theory. It's fact. Evolution is a theory. Noah Webster wrote the dictionary with the Bible as references for his definitions. He coined one word: Demoralize, and defined it as "To corrupt or undermine the morals of; to destroy or lessen the effect of moral principals on; to render corrupt in morals." In 1828 he saw the America of today coming. Check out his original 1828 dictionary. You'd be amazed.