The choice is change or die
Saturday, August 2, 2008 1:00 AM PDT
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The choice is change or die
Every day when I turn on the news, I am hoping that the lead story will be “Israel, U.S. bomb Iran.” The story will go on to say targets were all military and/or nuclear weapons related, but our forces are poised to deliver a second strike, an all-out attack on the Iranian population, if Iran attempts to retaliate in any way.
Clarifying, it becomes clear that Iran will face annihilation unless they just stop. Stop developing nuclear weapons. Stop supporting Hezbollah. Stop supporting Hamas. Stop supporting the opposition in Iraq. Stop threatening Israel. Stop being a dictatorship. Their choice: change or die.
Further, our president is making it clear that we are not going to put troops into Iran. We will simply start bombing them and not stop until they have met our demands.
This would be so good. It would be the beginning of the end of the Jihadist movement. The beginning of the end of totalitarianism. The re-emergence of America and the West as leaders of humanity.
Possibly the end of the arrogant notion that just because you are biologically human, you have a right to live, no matter how evil a conspiracy you are complicit in.
America and her allies are the last best hope of the planet. This is the civilization that is working on perfecting civilization.
Art Mottet Jr.
Longview
Communication at a standstill
Trying to communicate with Congressman Brian Baird, our senior citizen group, over the past couple years, has written and called asking Baird to meet and/or respond to our concerns. Our concerns are not just the war, but Medicare, Social Security, off-shoring jobs, losing our homes, war profiteering, education, veteran benefits, energy cost, protecting U.S. jobs, Korea and the fact that we still have 30,000 troops there and are building a multi-billion dollar base there, selling our country to China, etc.
His response to our letters is to send form letters that explain how he takes his responsibility to us seriously. He assures us he will respond quickly, but this never happens. His last town hall meeting in Longview and Vancouver was just under a year ago. Much has happened this past year that needs to be addressed.
Baird made a promise to keep us informed and listen to our concerns. It’s obvious he broke that promise as he did with a number of campaign promises.
We did meet with Cheryl Christ and were very impressed with her knowledge and understanding of what is going and what needs to be changed if we are going to save our country from a disaster. Our support goes to Cheryl Christ for Congress. Visit her Web site and speak with her about your concerns.
Austin Shotwell
Vancouver
Vote for change
I’m writing to ask you to please join me in voting for change this election cycle. Brian Baird supports the endless occupation of Iraq after returning from a Pentagon-guided tour for only a few days. The following quote is from his Web site: “Brian’s third committee assignment is on the House Budget committee, which gives him a detailed knowledge of the spending and revenue generation of the Federal Government. On this committee Brian has established a strong reputation fighting for fiscal responsibility and a return to a balanced budget.”
How can he make this claim when he supports an illegal invasion and occupation that has already cost this nation $561.5 billion and counting?
Cheryl Crist is running to replace Baird and help to bring our troops home. She will also fight for universal health care, renewable energy and a host of other progressive issues. She’s got my vote. For more on Cheryl, go to her Web site at www.cristforcongress.us or call her campaign office at (360) 754-7631.
Jody Chastain
Longview
Costly subsidies
The liberals are concerned about global warming, which we all should be. They pushed through Congress large subsidies (read taxpayer’s money) to force by law the production of ethanol.
Now we are learning that ethanol has about 80 percent of the energy of gasoline, production of this ethanol uses much energy (from gasoline) to plow and plant and cultivate and to harvest the corn for ethanol, and more energy for processing corn to ethanol. It uses farmland that produced grains for food and requires new land to be plowed to replace that now used for corn/ethanol. This creates a shortage of food grain and drives up the cost of all food grains, which raises the cost of living, which hits poor people very hard in the U.S.
I am sure readers are encountering the doubling of prices of some grains and large ongoing increases in food prices. The well-intentioned forcing us to produce ethanol is now causing hunger and starvation. It hits poor countries even harder, many of which have people near starvation. The June 2008 floods in the midwest have further taken good farmland out of production and pushed the price of corn and grains even higher, adding to the damage done by ethanol.
I would have thought the Congress could see and plan a little further ahead.
Robert H. Elliott
Longview
Of planes and whales
This is in response to Ben Souther’s July 13 letter. As far as Souther’s contention that I contradict myself: the same statistics utilized in modern evolutionary theory (MET) are being used by programmers to build better, more adaptable programs.
These algorithms, which “reproduce” in a way and adapt over time using historical contingencies (MET uses this concept) and not immediate input from programmers, are exceedingly useful for “aerospace engineering [and] microchip design.” One example is that of a humpback whale pectoral fin and an attempt to improve an airplane's wing. It turns out, that the knobby protrusions on the leading edge of the fin improve underwater lift: now, apply that concept to the less dense medium, such as air, and researchers are finding out that a similar thing is true.
In regards to modern MET, simply put, one selective pressure for the development of these knobs was a more hydrodynamic fin that cut down on drag and improved lift. Those with better functioning knobs were more successful at moving, finding food, reproducing. No doubt there were and are other selective pressures on this species, but, as I said, this is just a simplified example. MET does not claim bacteria to humans in a straight, immediate line.
Lorena Birk
Longview
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