RSS06/26/09 Letters to the Editor
Yakima Herald-Republic
E-mail
Print
Comments
Different race is on
To the editor -- Re: June 21 op-ed column, "Boycott is going down a bad road," by Philadelphia Inquirer writer Michael Smerconish.
I will buy Chrysler or GM, just not a gas-guzzling dinosaur. I'm waiting to see Chrysler's version of Fiat's Panda and 500 with the 50 mpg 1.3L turbo diesel. I am also interested if GM will build its Opel division cars with the 46 mpg ecoTECH engines here in the States. Though I wouldn't rule out Ford's Ka with its 50 mpg 1.3L, either. None of these are hybrids. The race is no longer the fastest, but the highest mpg.
TIM PHEIL
Yakima
Liquor sale revenue
To the editor -- In today's economic climate, I've seen many private sector businesses (where overhead is paid by the companies, not with your taxes and mine) downsizing to decrease overhead costs, and lowering prices to try to increase sales volume.
It was interesting reading the June 20 article about expanding liquor sales that our political "representatives" have decided to try to increase income by increasing overhead costs by opening more liquor stores and by increasing prices by raising taxes. That's the kind of representation that's in part responsible for our huge state deficit. The saddest part is that hearing such a well thought-out plan (sarcasm) from our leaders was no surprise at all!
Here's an option: Close every liquor store. Wow, no overhead costs. Let any store that wants to stock and sell liquor do so. Let them sell it during any and all the days and hours that bars can. Lower prices (I know, sacrilege) so you can compete with Internet sales. Without any overhead, you'll still increase revenue. Then use a little piece of the increased revenue to hire someone with a business degree.
I imagine there's one or two other areas of government and its related bureaucracy where the same sort of thinking applies.
DAVE LANCE
Yakima
Ethical governance
To the editor -- Much of the governance that really matters happens at the local level, where governance is what elected boards, councils and commissions do. We work together to choose priorities based on the needs and input of the community, we set policy, we speak through our votes, we supervise the chief executive and we drive the organization to its goals. We are entrusted with large budgets, and with business that impacts people's lives every day.
Good and ethical governance matters. Poor governance diverts energy and focus from priority work, and often prevents an organization from meeting its goals.
I feel fortunate to be part of a school board committed to good governance.
In this election season, it's important to hear candidate views. In the interest of looking forward to a bright future for our community, I challenge all candidates for City Council to answer these questions:
* If elected, what will you do to uphold high ethical standards on the City Council?
* How do you propose to work as a team with other council members to focus the priority work of the city?
Yakima is a community on the upswing, and we deserve strong, ethical leadership to ensure we meet our goals.
VICKIE YBARRA
Yakima
Suffering children
To the editor -- Thanks to the person who wrote the June 21 letter concerning the real facts about destroying the unborn child.
In my letters sent to the Yakima Herald-Republic concerning abortion, I did not have the courage to state the true facts about the terrible pain and suffering the unborn child endures during this heinous act.
I pray for all the aborted infants who have been denied the gift of life; also for all those who support, assist or perform that act that takes an unborn human life.
ROBERT STORY Sr.
Sunnyside
Mr. Story,
Though I support a woman's right to choose, I join you in praying for those unborn. I would also pray for those who govern this country, from the city level right up to the White House, that we may all find a common ground that will help reduce and, one day, eliminate this occurence- not by fiat or legislation, but by making this society one in which an unwanted or unplanned pregnancy is the rarest of events.
Vickie,
The party that supports abortion, illegal immigration, homosexual marriage, and income redistribution, should deal with it's own ethics problems before casting stones.
sjuan -
What in the world does ETHICS have to do with the POLICY issues you name? Do you not know the difference? Just because I think your policy positions are illadvised doesn't mean I question your ethics.
Tex,
I think it is unethical to vote for politicians who support those policies.
What an individual may regard as "ethical" is not very useful in framing a political discussion. Try starting with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/
Article 1.
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
If superior fuel mileage is what you are after, cars are available now that get better mileage than a hybrid. Volkwagen makes a turbo diesel (Jetta) that gets almost 60 mpg. Although not reported by anyone but the local media in the Seattle area, the local VW manager and the Prias (sp?) manager filled up their cars in Seattle and headed to San Francisco to see how far they could make it on one tank of gas.
The VW diesel Jetta made it, the hybrid didn't.
Wow. Seattle to San Franscisco on one tank.
SciPhiMom,
I rode in one of those diesel Jettas and I couldn't believe how quiet it was. I think it got around 50mpg. Very nice car.
Martha,
In our discussion about immigration law, did you or did you not advise me not to go to international law to support my position. Why then are you?
Do you not accept the fact that law is based on religious beliefs?
"NATURAL LAW: A rule of conduct arising out of natural relations of human beings, established by the CREATOR, and existing prior to any positive precept..." Bouvier's Law Dictionary, 1856
The Institutes of Biblical Law by Rousas Rushdoony makes a very solid position that "law in every culture is religious in origin". Something that I find describes what is happening today, in fact:
"Third, in any society, any change of law is an explicit or implicit change of religion. Nothing more clearly reveals, in fact, the religious change in a society than a legal revolution. When the legal foundations shift from Biblical law to humanism (*as has happened*), it means that the society now draws its vitality and power from humanism, not from Christian theism...
Fifth, there can be no tolerance in a law-system for another religion. Toleration is a device used to introduce a new law-system as a prelude to a new intolerance. Legal positivism, a humanistic faith, has been savage in its hostility to the Biblical law-system and has claimed to be an 'open' system. But Cohen, by no means a Christian, has aptly described the legal positivists as 'nihilists' and their faith as 'nihilistic absolutism'. Every law-system must maintain its existence by hostility to every other law-system and to alien religious foundations or else it commits suicide."
Explains what's wrong with our system today, and why people insist this isn't/wasn't a Christian nation. Two law systems (one condoning abortion, one opposed for instance) cannot cohabitate.
Anyway, got off my point... ;-)
forget john and kate plus 8
maybe a new reality television series should be started. one detailing, each week, one of these conservative blowhards/tin foil hat wearers who love to tell other people how they should run their lives or try to control people's bodies.
they should detail each week people like robert story and sjuan and others their experience with adopting and raising multiple children. since conservatives are so anti-choice/anti-freedom, we should be hearing from them about their experience raising numerous children through adoption.
I mean...we wouldn't want them to be proven the hypocrites they are...now would we.
BigEgo,
How many children is a person required to adopt before they can oppose infanticide without being called a hypocrite by geniuses like yourself?
Do you realize that there is a very high demand for adopting babies? Ask anyone who has adopted one. It's the older children who end up stuck in foster care because they were screwed up by their parents. Fewer people are willing to take on the enormous challenge of taking these kids. I suppose in your sick view of things, those children should also have been killed in the name of "choice".
Elect, you can look wherever you want to for support for your position. I was just trying to give you a heads up that international law is not well regarded in certain 'merican-centric circles.
Anyway, I am not going to get sucked into a discussion about law and religion. I am not interested in your religion. Or anybody else's for that matter. :)
BigEgo,
How many children is a person required to adopt before they can oppose infanticide without being called a hypocrite by geniuses like yourself?
who said you should ever stop? remember, its the children who matter here. why would you be so selfish and hateful of children to want to impose a quota on that. I'm sure you have dozens of them rambling around your home and hope to adopt dozens more. why would you ever want to stop, do you hate the unborn children who just need a home that badly? do you think that you need to put a quota on love and life? that seems to be the conservative position.
don't stop now. adopt until you pass away, I say. stand by your word on this. conservatives can stand by their word, can't they?
BigEgo,
By your logic you must be a hypocrite because you haven't performed any abortions. How can you support killing babies if you're unwilling to kill one yourself. It's idiotic logic, but it doesn't stop you from using it.
Posted by sjuan at 06/26/09 11:31AM Post ID#: #5933
BigEgo,
By your logic you must be a hypocrite because you haven't performed any abortions.
I'd be perfectly willing to take up a legally practiced field of medicine. from what I understand, after conservative terrorists murdered dr tiller, there seems to be a need now more than ever for brave people practicing medicine under the law to stand up to terrorism.
do you support people and the law or do you support terrorism?
although it is nice to see that sjuan and other conservatives are EXACTLY what I have said conservatism really is. do as I say, not as I do. the party of scott roeder, mark sanford, mark foley, rush limbaugh, and the nazi james von brunn sure love to tell other people how to live their lives and love to preach about morality and ethics.
but they have NONE. ZERO. ZILCH. NADA.
conservatives love to to whine, "OH THE CHILDREN, THE CHILDREN THE CHILDREN!!!" but when it comes to actually adopting the children. when it comes to supporting school lunches and new schools for the children. when it comes to health care for the children. conservatives have only one message.
screw the children.
you wanna find someone who hates children, find yourself a conservative. hell, if an underprivileged mother doesn't have proper health care insurance, conservatives don't even support that. "well hey its not my problem to care for a welfare mama." OH BUT THE CHILD, THE POOR CHILD!!! THE SANCTITY OF LIFE!!! how about quality affordable health care for that child, not the mcdonalds style health care that conservatives and rick scott want to implement that wouldn't benefit that child one bit.
this is why you LOSE, conservatives. this is why your party is dead and dying and collapsing before your eyes. this is why america just said NO to you. you have no ethics or morals and you're complete hypocrites.
go adopt some kids and quit whining about abortion. quit complaining about kids getting free school lunches, you wanna show how much you care about the children, support them getting quality health care from birth till they're at least 18. you talk about life as the most important thing, well put your money where your mouth is. if you REALLY gave a @#$% about the children, no $100 a year tax increase should be too much of a price to pay.
thats why when conservatives talk about abortion, theres no value to what they say. they lack even the basic morality or values to stand by their own word.
Sjuan,
A billboard does noting but spew whatever propaganda is written on it's face, and that's all BE does. I wouldn't waste my time were I you... that's just my advice.
Elect,
Still, it's sometimes fun to pull his string and watch him go off.
Posted by Elect at 06/26/09 01:03PM Post ID#: #5939
Sjuan,
A billboard does noting but spew whatever propaganda is written on it's face
actually, thats faux noise. I love how conservatives have nothing to stand on and no reality to base their views on. America saw what conservatism was all about.
and just said no.
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-1172-Progressive-Politics-Examiner~y2009m6d26-Rush-Limbaugh-blames-Obama-for-Gov-Sanfords-affair
so rush limbaugh, the leader of the republican party, is now blaming mark sanford's affair on the president.
wow. just wow. this is what republicans believe these days. like the people who post here and write in their little letters praising the murderer scott roeder for being a doctor killer.
conservatives are just not connected to reality, just like their leader.
Posting Guidelines - Updated Aug. 21 2009
Readers are encouraged to use these forums to discuss issues affecting the
Yakima Valley. Debate the ideas presented in stories and other comments, but
refrain from personal attacks and offensive remarks aimed at others; e.g.,
you may call an idea idiotic, but don't say the person is an idiot. The
Herald-Republic reserves the right to remove any comment for any reason.
Examples include material that is obscene, encourages illegal activity or
stereotypes based on race, gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs and
other factors. Continued violation of these guidelines can lead to
suspension or revocation of your ability to post comments. If you believe a
comment is inappropriate, you can bring it to our attention by clicking the
"report violation" link by each comment. Guidelines revised Aug. 21, 2009.
Registered User?
