RSS01/16/10 Letters to the Editor
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- 09/02/10 Letters to the Editor
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- Hoops event shows again we're more similar than different
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Fundraising success
To the editor -- Thank you, Yakima! Camp Prime Time has just completed the second of two recent major fundraisers and we are thrilled.
Our biennial auction and dinner in November was a great success, raising over $103,000. It was a fun night with dinner, live and silent auctions, and comedian Josh Blue. We thank all 600 people who were in attendance for helping to make the evening such a huge success. We also thank all who partnered with us in donating items, in-kind support and volunteer time. We truly could not have raised these funds without you.
Our recent Christmas Tree Recycling event was once again a booming success. During the 16 days after Christmas, we collected over $14,000 in donations. Thanks to the many enthusiastic volunteers who worked in the cold, wintry weather, and to the many local businesses that partnered with us by lending us equipment and advertising time. And a huge thanks to Barnett Implement for again allowing us the use of its property.
Camp Prime Time relies on your generous donations to keep the camp for special-needs children and their families open and free of charge. For more information, please call 509-248-2854 or visit www.campprimetime.org.
DIANE EILMES
Executive director, Prime Time Inc.
Liberty renovations
To the editor -- Re: The Jan. 3 article, "Lady Liberty to glow again." Thank you, Oscar Martinez, for renovating the Liberty Theatre. I, too, have wonderful memories. I was an usher and cashier at the theater in the early 1940s.
We moved to Toppenish in 1939 from Belle Fourche, S.D. I still reside here. I am anxious to see the final results of his renovations.
LEONA BOUCHEY
Toppenish
Grateful for support
To the editor -- The volunteers for the American Cancer Society Discovery Shop would like to thank all the people who have helped us meet our goal this year. We could never have done this without all the donations we received and the support of our many customers. We just want the community to know how much your support is appreciated by the volunteers and those who can benefit from your kind and considerate regard for others. Thank you.
DOROTHY CROSSLIN
ACS Discovery Shop board chairwoma, Yakima
Caravan thanks
To the editor -- Thank you, Yakima Valley, for the kind comments I received by mail and over two dozen phone calls regarding our Christmas Caravan. Thanks need to go out to family and friends who help donate their time on the truck, Mary Jarvis, Robert Wickersham and James Alexander. I would like to thank my fellow Christmas Express Trucks: GS Long, Critter Cab, Burrows Tractor, Oasis Well Drilling and King Sales. See you next year!
BUTCH JARVIS
Fleet manager, Coca-Cola
Nonsectarian state
To the editor -- One important reason why early immigrants came to America was to escape the religious wars that ravaged Europe between 1517 and 1648. These wars demonstrated the folly of placing political power into the hands of churches.
Our Founding Fathers, as a result, established -- not a religious or a secular -- but a nonsectarian state. Their decision has proven to be among the wisest ever made by politicians.
If no church holds the reins of power, all sects can live together in peace and harmony. Make one group into a state religion, however, and friends will become enemies and our civil society will descend into conflict.
Most of our Founding Fathers were rationalists, which properly understood is a nondenominational religion. Descartes argued that our minds were created -- presumably by God -- with the power to perceive the truth.
By using our common sense and our powers of reason, we can see "self-evident truths" -- that "all men are created equal" and "that they are endowed by their Creator with inalienable rights."
The freedom to worship without interference from the government or from our neighbors may be the most important right of all.
DOUG PATTERSON
Yakima
Show accountability
To the editor -- When is Obama finally going to demonstrate some accountability?
Certainly not with the Christmas Day attempt to blow up Flight 253 where he has attempted to shift the blame to our intelligence gathering agencies. As with past missteps, he is trying to find a scapegoat instead of looking at his own culpability. It was Obama, himself, who created the politically correct climate of downplaying any threats of terrorism. This is evidenced by his deletion of the words "war on terror" along with plans to send some of the Gitmo detainees back to such terror-breeding hotbeds as Yemen.
Additionally, his attorney general, Eric Holder, plans to prosecute former CIA agents for doing their jobs in protecting America. Now, just what does that message send to agents in the field? Namely, that the president is averse to hearing anything about terror plots, so consequently, aggressive investigations that are required to "connect the dots" do not occur.
Furthermore, his lackluster reaction to the massacre at Fort Hood is even more evidence that he doesn't take terrorism seriously and that mind-set permeates all facets of his administration, especially Homeland Security.
Obama's acute state of denial has only emboldened our enemies and emasculated our counterterrorism efforts.
RITA HANSES
Yakima
Change denied
To the editor -- I remember one of the last debates between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, in January 2008. Mr. Obama was making the point that he would bring change, that he would bring bipartisanship, and bills would be formulated in public and posted on the Internet before being voted on. He would end the practice of "ear-marking," etc.
The Health Care Reform Act was done behind closed doors, in secret, by only Democrats, all with the approval of Mr. Obama, and while over 50 percent of the public does not want the bill as written. What they want is reform.
Winston Churchill has been quoted as saying, "With integrity nothing else matters, without integrity, nothing else matters." Think about it before the November elections of 2010.
MARK A. DELAGASSE
Selah
I hereby proclaim this as an open thread on thank-you Saturday's comment section.
What's on your mind???
(This comment has been removed by a Yakima Herald-Republic moderator)
But they with hear the case as to whether the names of people who sign referendum petitions are public information or not (from SR-71 in WA state)
Report ViolationI saw nothing wrong with your post, datruef. I saw it before they removed it
Report ViolationMay I please ask people to donate for Haiti? My wife and I did not have a good year money-wise but we gave $50. Will some of you match it, please?
Report Violationfrancesgumm writes...
(open thread)"Whats on your mind?"...
and
"Donate to Haiti"
We gave, and I think most folks will give, especially seeing the magnitude of devastation for these people. I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around the way the bodies are being scooped up and hauled off without being marked for later identification. I understand the reason behind it, (no refridgeration, or adequate space to store the deceased), but it's heartbreaking to know that loved ones will never be able to bury or find their family members. Absolutely heartbreaking!
P.S frances...
Don't you think Fox News made a smart choice to bring Sarah Palin in? Maybe now she will finally be able to put alot of those "elite left wing Palin haters" in their place, and show them how wrong they were about her. I'm looking forward to seeing her on Fox, and maybe even getting her own time slot.
Integrity??? It seems like an antique word in today's political society. When you find one who has it AND employs it, VOTE FOR THEM!!!! We'll all benefit!
Report Violationoverfifty: I'm in total agreement with you! I believe Sarah has integrity....I think that's what frightens so many left-wingers! Their dictionaries may not include that word.
Report Violationover 50,
i am a frequent poster at conservatives4Palin.com. Please join us there. I use a different name there, but you will probably figure out who I am.
It rocks!
she had a great facebook post today.
More bad news for the left from the polls. This is on CNN, which can not be accused of being FoxNews:
""According to the survey, 48 percent of registered voters say they would vote for the Republican candidate for Congress, with 45 percent saying they'd back the Democrat. The 3-point edge for the GOP is within the poll's sampling error - but it's a switch from November, when the Democrats held a 50 to 44 percent advantage. The generic ballot question asked respondents if they would vote for a Democrat or Republican in their congressional district, without naming any specific candidates.
"That 3-point difference doesn't sound too bad for the Democrats, but the party's numbers are boosted by high levels of support in districts that the GOP has no chance of winning this year," says Holland. "In safe Democratic districts, the Dems have a 21-point advantage over the GOP."
The poll paints a different picture in more competitive districts, those where the incumbent won with less than 55 percent of the vote in 2008. In those districts, the poll indicates Democrats are currently facing a 27-point deficit, with 59 percent of registered voters in the competitive districts now saying they would vote for the Republican candidate for U.S. House if the election were held tomorrow, and only 32 percent that they would choose the Democratic candidate.
(##### Read that again ########)
"That suggests big losses for the Democrats this November. But keep in mind that there is a lot of white noise in the data, because it is almost impossible to accurately model individual House districts," adds Holland.""
This post is about the Mass. election. This is from FOX NEWS today. "With the election set for Tuesday, polls show the race is now a dead heat, and the most recent survey has Brown leading by 4 points. The Republican state senator has all the momentum -- he's reportedly raising money at a rate of $1 million a day -- and there's no shortage of criticism in political circles for the way Coakley and her allies have run her campaign."
Now wouldn't that just FROST the Dems.. They are even sending the PRES there to salvage the mess Coakley has made of a shoe-in seat. Just think what Nov 2, 2010 is going to be like, ALL because the Dems & this Admin. will not listen to the AMERICAN people... To many backroom deals giving away our tax $$$, just to get the votes to ram this thing down our throats... REMEMBER THE DEMS IN NOV.
First of all, it was my understanding that the names of people who signed petitions was already public information. It seems a little odd to be pursuing something that already is.
Second, though SR-71 refers to the referendum that passed (bravo) last election, it also refers to one of the United States' finest aircraft ever built, the SR-71 Blackbird.
The SR-71 (for Strategic Reconnoissance) was a mach three spy plane that was literally invented from the ground up in Lockheed's famous 'Skunkworks' R&D Department, headed up by 'Kelly' Johnson, who was in charge of the Blackbird's birth and introduction to service. The aircraft was referred to as the Habu by its crew members, a type of Okinawan pit viper.
During the cold war, the Soviets would typically bring out a brand new fighter plane, then strip it down and load it with fuel to make an attempt at the World Air Speed Record. They took the record away from America once, then an SR-71 took it back, then they brought out a new aircraft a while later and took the record again, then the SR-71 took it back, then the Russians tried it a third time. After this, the United States took a stock SR-71 out and made three runs with it, inching the throttle up just a bit each time. They broke the World Air Speed Record three times in a row in one day. That was the last we heard of the Russians trying to get that record again.
The Blackbird was so advanced that it's entire technology had to be invented. It used it's fuel as hydraulic fluid as well. At speeds of mach 1.8 and above, sixty percent of it's thrust was delivered by the airflow through the louvers around the front and back of the engines. The faster you went, the less fuel you used. Each time the aircraft was flown it got so hot from air friction at altitude and speed that the pilot literally could not touch the frame of the windscreen without being burned through his gloves. After each flight, the airframe 'annealed' a little more, that is, it became so hot that it literally fused together tighter.
The aircraft flew above the troposphere at 80,000 plus feet, the point at which there ceases to be enough air molecules to keep a standard aircraft flying. Enemy pilots that were foolish enough to attempt to attack an SR-71 transiting through their airspace would pass into air that their wings would not operate in. They would go ballistic, like a rocket with no directional control, and simply fly a parabola up and back down to usuable atmosphere. At least one determined pilot who wanted to intercept a Blackbird never regained control and crashed after such an attempt.
Wing leading edges and the point of the engine inlet were literally razor sharp and had to be covered as soon as the aircraft landed to prevent injury to ground personnel.
One SR-71 pilot tells of the time that he knew that he and his Radar Intercept Officer had really become a team. They were flying high over the western US and in contact with the tower they were flying over when a pilot in a Piper Cub asked for a ground speed check. The tower replied that he was making 97 knots ground speed. A second later, a twin engine pilot in a Cessna 310 called in for a ground speed check. The tower gave him a ground speed of 190 knots. Then a smug sounding F-18 fighter pilot called in and asked in a very self satisfied voice what his ground speed was. The response was 540 knots. The Blackbird pilot had just begun to press his microphone button when his RIO came on and asked for their groundspeed. The tower replied, "We show you at, uh, 1,880 knots groundspeed."
There were no more requests for ground speed checks on that day.
Well, you said it was open thread day. What did you expect?
"To the editor -- When is Obama finally going to demonstrate some accountability?"
Also, why are you suddenly so worried about Presidential accountability after sitting on your hands for eight years while your boy pretty much lied every time he spoke and led us from a boom into economic @#$% then tried to blame it on somebody else?
Hypocrite.
When are YOU going to show some accountability for helping to create this mess we're in with your vote, hmmm?
Oh, never? That's what I thought...
"Now wouldn't that just FROST the Dems.. "
And you are continually complaining about how rude and hateful liberals are? Almost every one of your comments is about dividing people - us vs. them. Where's the balance?
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