July 11, 2006
Courier-Journal
Editor
One cannot help but learn amazing stuff by following your newspaper. I see in today's edition, page A3, in the article about the Southwest pilot, that the federal alcohol limit on pilots is "0.20."
No wonder they seem such a happy lot.
Very truly yours,
(NOTE TO MY READERS: the real alcohol limit is not 0.20 - it is .002)
August 16, 2006
Courier-Journal
Editor
The news this week that the British government had broken up a terrorist plot to blow up airplanes over the Atlantic Ocean was an example of good police work. The spin by our government officials to make it somehow related to the war in Iraq is bad logic used to fuel questionable propaganda.
The firestorm which the United States has created in Iraq serves terrorism recruitment and does not make us more secure. This war, based upon "ginned up" intelligence and flawed reasoning, has, at a minimum, neutralized any goodwill felt toward our country after the attack of September 11, 2001.
The ensuing "war on terrorism" is completely a misnomer. As applied, our officials have instead been waging a war of terror against us. As a child, a neighbor of mine kept is kids in line by waging his own terror war against them using an unseen boogey man. This has become the method by which our own government is keeping us in line.
Five years ago this administration got caught with its collective pants down. Ignoring warnings of an impending Al-qeda attack, we got sucker punched by a group of radical extremists who want us out of the middle east. Instead of addressing the real issues here, it has instead used its "war on terror" as a political tool against its people. Its time we wake up.
Very truly yours,
October 16, 2006
Courier-Journal
Editor
A recent Anne Northup ad is a microcosm of much that is wrong in politics.
It's first allegation states that Yarmuth favors doubling the employer's social security contribution, then shows a video clip in which he says something like, "If the employer's contribution was doubled, then ....."
When a science teacher tells her class that, "If I were to drive my car over a high cliff, it would reach terminal velocity in 5 seconds" is she actually advocating driving a car over a cliff? No, of course not, and neither is Yarmuth supporting a tax increase in the ad.
The ad's second allegation is equally disturbing. In it, Mr. Yarmuth is seen stating that he doesn't remember proposing a higher tax for gas guzzlers, then, wham! There's the video of him saying it, proving, definitively, that he didn't remember saying it, which is a different matter than denying he said it.
The problem for me is the insinuation that Mr. Yarmuth's a liar, when, in reality, he's seen first expousing a hypothetical situation and second stating that he doesn't remember something which he said. I, for one, come away with the impression that Mr. Yarmuth may not remember everything he's said or written in the past 15 years, not that he's a bald faced liar. In other words, although it may be true that Mr. Yarmuth is the biggest liar to ever roam the face of the earth, the examples cited in the ads offer no support toward that conclusion.
And therein lies my problem with the ad. Anyone with at least average intelligence and some rudimentary training in logic would see the flaw in the reasoning, but the ad is not directed at them. Rather, it is directed at those with less than average intelligence and/or reasoning skills. Now, I cannot imagine that the people who authored that ad are insufficiently skilled at their craft to honestly believe that the examples they use support the conclusions that the ad reaches.
Rather, the makers of the ad, and, I must suppose Ms. Northup herself, are guilty of at least hypocrisy in airing the ad, as they are brazenly taking advantage of viewers who lack the ability to see through the ad's intellectual dishonesty. And these are the very people who rely on the government most to treat them fairly and honestly, and, maybe with some respect. How are people supposed to trust a government which is made up of lawmakers who would take unfair advantage of those who need its help the most? I'm afraid the influence of Washington has got its grip on our Ms. Northup.
Very truly yours,
December 12, 2008
Courier-Journal Editor
A close election behind him, our very own Mitch McConnell apparently now remembers the role he so enjoys playing. Its not the warm, touchy-feely one of the campaign ads, rather its the one where he blocks all legislation which is not directed at increasing the wealth of the few who he truly represents.
Case in point is yesterday's blockage of the automobile rescue legislation. Regardless of whether one believes in the wisdom of attempting to keep the big three alive, Mitch looks at the problem and blames-you guessed it-the unions!
How dare workers band together to better their lives and salaries at the expense of Mitch's corporate buddies? Those union members are undoubtably some of the same people who recklessly borrowed money with those sub-prime loans in their attempt to bring down the financial institutions of Wall Street. Why did those greedy people want their own houses when there was still plenty of room under overpasses and in abandoned buildings?
Mr. McConnell wants legislation added to the auto bailout which would further erode the power of the UAW, but where was his moral indignation when the financial houses and mega-banks came to Washington with their hands out? What demands did he make of Wall Street before he voted billions for them?
I expect in another six years the majority of Kentuckians will be once again itching to vote for this bastion of corporate virtue even though he deplores the very principles that helped create the middle class of this nation. I guess the good news is that the soon to be unemployed poor and middle class Republican voters will have a lot more time to campaign for their man next time around.
