Speak out 9/23/08

An excellent job

I WANT to say thank you very much to AmerenUE. You did an excellent job.

Climate crisis

WHEN THE Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report first came out, the left touted it as the definitive report on global warming. But now that folks are beginning to discover that the statistics in the report do not support the left's doomsday scenario, Alan Journet tells us in his recent opinion column in the Southeast Missourian that we should ignore the statistics in the report. The left will always try to make climate change into a crisis regardless of what competent scientists are saying. If we listen to the left, we will be in a crisis all right, but it will be a financial crisis fueled by even higher energy prices.

Timely restoration

THANKS TO AmerenUE for the timely restoration of power after the recent storm. Its employees are out there 24/7 in all types of weather while the rest of us sat in our comfortable homes and waited for the lights to come on. I will never complain about the size of my bill. Without electricity, everything stops. Kudos to AmerenUE and its employees. You are the best.

Let child decide

ALL SCHOOLS need to tell their teachers when a child needs to go to the bathroom, let the child decide. I had a child who raised his hand because he was going to be sick but threw up in class. That's a disruption too. I don't know what teachers are thinking. When a child asks to go to the bathroom, the child knows he needs to go to the bathroom.

Graffiti bragging

PUTTING A picture of Capaha Park graffiti right on the front page of the paper was probably the worst thing that could have been done. When taggers put their name or symbol somewhere, it usually is for one of two reasons: to gain recognition or respect, or to get their name or art out there. Why do you think they picked a major spot like the baseball grandstand at Capaha Park and not the side of some trash container down on Themis Street? Whoever did it has some real bragging rights now. I wouldn't doubt that Cape Girardeau sees triple the amount of graffiti now. You made it a lot cooler. I thought the idea of the lights and cameras was a good idea, but why would you announce that? Wouldn't you want to keep that hushed if you want to catch somebody in the act? Am I crazy?

Dangerous holes

YOU WOULD think that with all the government funding that the owners of low-income, disability and senior-citizen apartment buildings would keep up their properties. I have seen huge pot holes throughout the parking lots, holes with underground pipes sticking up that could injure someone, not to mention damage tires on a vehicle. What's it going to take before something is done about this?

Living dangerously

JOE SULLIVAN'S stunningly brilliant and hard-hitting populist column about corporate greed in the fraudulent housing loan market made me wonder how in the world he has survived and prospered for so long in a working environment where management must surely demand loyalty to supply-side economics, trickle-down theory, the Laffer curve, spend but don't tax and other (now proven to be) mythological "truths."

Lessons of experience

EXPERIENCE IS the teacher in the Graduate School of Life. Some learn and become statesmen/women and concerned citizens. The greater majority are apathetic. Some become politicians, while the remainder vote them in office.

Local terrorists

JOE SULLIVAN in his Sunday column stated, "If we are going to bankrupt the country, let's at least do it trying to rid the country of the terrorists who are picking us off, one foreclosure at a time." Why is he picking on the subprime mortgage lenders? Here in Cape Girardeau the real terrorists are the payday loan people. Joe, you can do something here and now to stop those folks.

Economic pendulum

THE U.S. has a mixed economic system, part free enterprise and part government regulation. It is obvious that the pendulum moved way too far in the direction of free enterprise, almost to dog eat dog, laissez-faire economics. The downside of Reaganomics has come home to roost, and the pendulum must rapidly shift in the other direction.

Precarious position

DEREGULATOR David Limbaugh is in a precarious position. He can either distance himself from John McCain and oppose any government efforts to reregulate an out-of-control economy or morph into a born-again supporter of tough government regulations to get us out of this mess, thus, in effect, renouncing all of the economic principles that he has propagandized for in recent decades.

Lock those doors

COLUMNIST MICHELLE Malkin wrote that we should lock our doors if our neighbors support Barack Obama. Her rationale was that said supporters may be ready to use intimidation and force to secure our vote for Obama. In my situation, her advice is irrelevant. Although I have neighbors who support Obama, I long ago locked my doors in order to protect myself against a possibly armed and dangerous Michelle Malkin and her malevolent followers.

One vote for Joe

JOE SULLIVAN advocated the threat of military force against subprime home mortgage lenders unless they make right their fraudulent loans. As a result, Sullivan is my new idol and possible write-in choice for president.

Thanks for electricity

I LIVE on a county road and went without electric for three days, which means we didn't even have water. No one came to help us take care of the three fallen trees and all the little stuff from the storm. I would like to thank all the men who worked to restore our electricity.

Economic confusion

PLEASE HELP me. I've been trying to reconcile these statements, all uttered within a span of days, from presumed economic experts. 1. "The fundamentals of our economy are strong." 2. "This is the worst economic and financial crisis since the Great Depression."

Odd column

RON HART'S op-ed 'The Occidental tourist" was a rather odd, personal and uninformed rant about a candidate's grades and the media's bias. Hart might take advantage of the Internet and satisfy his curiosity there, rather than trying to make an issue of something that is not necessarily of any importance.

Election issues

AGISM, RACISM and sexism will all play a primary role in the presidential election. Currently, the candidates' stand on the issues ranks 17th most important with the voters and is dropping.