Letters to the Editor: Private Rest Stops Benefit Weary Drivers
Private Rest Stops Benefit Weary Drivers
Editor, Times-Dispatch: Last weekend, as I traveled north through Maryland, Delaware, and New Jersey, it was brought home to me once again what all the rest stops in these states have in common: They are all privately run, and are extremely successful. Every rest stop is equipped with two gas stations, designated spaces for truckers to stop and catch up on their sleep, enormous restrooms, and lots of food choices.
These states long ago realized that rest stops, which are necessary to all travelers, rightly belong in the hands of private companies. The resulting rents paid by these companies enrich each state. A minus has been turned into a plus, and everyone wins -- especially the weary, hungry driver who desperately needs a bathroom.
Virginia lawmakers, please don't just throw up your hands and declare failure. Contact these other states, see how it's been successfully done, and keep our rest stops open.
Penelope Shaw Farace.
Glen Allen.
Voter Apathy Is Expensive
Editor, Times-Dispatch: I and nine others were poll workers at a Henrico precinct for the June 9 Democratic primary. We arrived at 4:45 a.m.. and stayed until 8:30 p.m., working a 15-and-a-half-hour day. We were compensated for a total of $1,500.
The kicker is that a total of 178 people cared enough to vote that day. Henrico tax dollars were hard at work on primary day, but the taxpayers were barely visible. One thousand, five hundred dollars were paid to the workers and a mere 178 votes were cast. Voter apathy is expensive.
Miles F. Johnson.
Richmond.
Au Pair Story Was Heartfelt and Uplifting
Editor, Times-Dispatch: Thank you for the uplifting and heartfelt news story, "Perfect Pair: Brazilian Au Pair Cares for Henrico Teen, Wins International Recognition," regarding au pair Ricardo Araujo. I sat and drank my Sunday morning coffee with tears streaming down my face. This young man certainly deserved the recognition bestowed on him. The relationship he formed with Taylor Boyer is a true testament to human compassion in a world filled with chaos.
Bill Lohmann did an outstanding job on this article.
Jane Atkisson.
Glen Allen.
Bill Does More Harm Than Warming Would
Editor, Times-Dispatch: I am really upset that the House passed the cap-and-trade climate bill. I strongly hope that it will not pass through the Senate. I refuse to pay more for my electricity and other products because of the misguided politicians who supposedly represent us.
I firmly believe that there is no proof of any man-made global warming, and this whole movement amounts to nothing but a scam. Even if the planet is warming, whether because of man or because of the natural cycles of the Earth, the important thing to realize is that this will not hurt the Earth! The Earth can adapt to changes in the climate, as it always has. Warming or cooling may hurt or inconvenience the people on the planet, but it won't hurt the Earth.
And for those who say it will hurt the polar bears, there is such a warped attitude that animals are more important than people, and it needs to be changed.
In the 1970s they were predicting an ice age; what happened to that? You can't reason with the global-warming extremists: If it is hot, they say it is because of man-made global warming, and if it is cold, they say it is because of man-made global warming. Plus, how much of a difference can the U.S. make when other countries won't be doing the same things to "save the planet" that we might be doing?
I am not for waste, and I support wind, solar, and nuclear power options, but passing this bill will result in higher prices for everyone, and the loss of millions of jobs in the U.S. Let us work on developing energy options -- but in the meantime we should be drilling for our own oil, and expanding our nuclear energy program.
Michael Paley.
Richmond.
Congress Deserves Its Low Approval
Editor, Times-Dispatch: Among the small group of people in government who had the authority to prevent the current worldwide financial calamity were Chris Dodd, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, and Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.
Dodd chose to obtain a mortgage at a highly favorable rate from a company in California rather than a mortgage from a bank in his own state. That the mortgage company fell under the jurisdiction of the Banking Committee immediately raises a question of impropriety.
Both the congressman and the senator repeatedly assured us all was well in the subprime mortgage business, a blunder of unimagineable proportions. The Managed Funds Association, whose members are the very loosely controlled hedge-fund managers and whose members helped bring on the current crisis, are concerned that the they may lose their very favorable tax rate of 17 percent, as compared to most workers who are taxed at 35 percent.
These same people, some of whom made hundreds of millions of dollars, are holding fundraisers for both Frank and Dodd to curry their favor in an attempt to retain favored status. They may very well succeed. No member of Congress has raised the issue of impropriety, because it is standard practice.
Is anyone surprised that a recent poll found the public has a 79 percent disapproval rating of Congress?
Walter Zadan.
Williamsburg.
Reader Reactions
I notice that no mention was made on the content of my comments.
So I will skip that part and address the regrettably predictable “conservative think tank remarks.“
The fact that the information is irrefutable seems to be secondary to where it came from.
The same information can be found at several sources.
The NCPA is a non profit non partisan public research organization whose funding comes from 22% corporations-39% industry and 39% foundations.
To mention that Exxon Mobil has donated $400,000 over the last decade is laughable.
Exxon Mobil donates money to thousands of foundations as does all other large corporations.
And NONE of them come even close to what the money the federal government has spent promoting the global warming/climate crisis cause.
Not to mention The Sierra Club and Greenpeace and all the other powerful environmental lobbies that are now by far the largest most influential group in Washington.
Forget the science and follow the money.
It is also pretty clear that some of the commentors in this thread have not been following the latest science in the field.
The old hackneyed lines about debate over and consensus already reached is very very old news.
Stay tuned there is new and relevant information every day.
blackbird - in this case, “behest” does mean forcing - yes.
Banks are audited at least twice a year. There has to be a certain level of CRA loans made or you have problems with the government. Yes, at the behest of the government.
The problem with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac was brought to the attention of Mssrs Frank and Dodd a full two years before the crap hit the fan. Do you know what their response was? Along with Maxine Waters, it was to impugn the integrity of the messenger - then do nothing. Great leadership, huh?
what does “behest” mean?
Is that like FORCING THEM?
No, these banks were watching the money roll in, and couldn’t forsee housing prices EVER going down. The government relaxes .....business wack-us…then we get tax-us….ha ha…
I know blame it all on ACORN, all on those poor people….heck what did they have to loose! Theys already poor…Well, I blame them, but I blame them as much as I would a kid who finds an icebox full of ice cream on the hottest day of the year. The goverment just left the key for the ice box in the hands of the ice cream man…and the ice cream man took so much ice cream he lost track of what was falling off his truck, what was being eatten, what was being sold, what ice cream was melting, what ice cream was stolen. Now there is an ice cream crisis, and I blame the ice cream man.
Stupid analogy…sorry..just had some ice cream.
Barney Frank, Chris Dodd and Maxine Waters were all warned about the problems at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, a GSE, well in advance. They did nothing. The GOVERNMENT encouraged a loosening in lending criteria in order to meet the requirements of the Community Reinvestment Act - the banks, at the behest of the government, started loaning money to people who otherwise wouldn’t have been able to get a loan based on the previous established loan criteria set by the banks. Is that big enough for you?
But when AIG, Bear Stearns, Merrill, Lehman, Countrywide, WMU, GM, Fannie Mae, etc go under
isn’t that what we are calling a
“financial crisis”...so what part of this is the governments fault and specifically Chris Dodd and whats his face’s fault?
If there isn’t any problem with letting all these companies fail, then we don’t really have a crisis, so what is the government being blamed for?
I guess the government backed off on regulation that would have help prevent some of this, but I don’t think they “caused” it. They didn’t force Lehman and Bear Stearns and Countrywide use “Risky and sloppy” business practices did they?
So it comes back to: is government at fault for NOT regulating more? I hear
every day on this board and FROM you
that government should keep it’s hands off business regulation…but look what has happened when Business is “allowed” to run “sloppy”? Isn’t that what this letter is saying? It’s kind of a can’t win situation for the gov’t..they get blamed for NOT regulating and then get blamed FOR regulating? Maybe this is just a normal cycle caused by low interest rates and hi gasoline prices in the previous years? In that case, like global warming you can say “what crisis”? It’s just a temporary bubble that will correct itself. Meanwhile everyone and his brother is still trying to blame Chris Dodd.
Blackbird - Is that what you think I meant to say? Thank goodness we’re all entitled to our opinions right or wrong.
Randy
I think what you meant to say is
“The nice thing about government is that you can always blame every crisis on government”
It doesn’t matter what you deniers “firmly believe.“ I’m sure most of you firmly believed George W. Bush would make a great president or that there is an invisible giant living in the sky. Does not make it so. The real (as opposed to junk) science has been backed up be observable and demonstrable facts for well over 20 years. The only scientist saying otherwise are well paid industry hacks. The TD is a joke to keep printing this stuff every night in the paper. Where is the denier’s proof????? Don’t they need to back up their comments with substance? 8 of the last 12 years years have been the hottest on record. Who are the ones saying that it’s been cooling???? How much money are they being paid to say it???? Changing the sampling methods to reflect what you want them to reflect, doesn’t mean jack. The times disgrace and it’s dimwitted, conservative fan base have struck again, and again, and again…..You are all a disgrace to enlightened thinking everywhere and the scientific process in general. Ignoring the problem for the last 10 years has achieved nothing and may have cost us a livable planet. I’d say these facts outweigh your tired points of view any old, hot, humid, record breaking day of the week.
And here we go. As the writer of the Cap and Trade letter said, you can’t argue with the people who buy into the global warming theory. The climate hasn’t changed since 2001, but let’s just toss that little fact out the window, because it is caused by, everyone, Global Warming! Who cares that the science has shown us the the temperatures on Mercury and Jupiter are undergoing similar climate changes. I guess we need to tell all those guys up there to cut back on their SUV usage. They are going to ruin their planets as well.
Ok folks, keep working your hardest to save the planet. The guys who can’t even tell you the temperature a week out are telling us that we are destroying the planet. They can’t even get it within a few degrees. Yet they can tell us that by 2030 or when ever dire consequences are going to happen.
Sorry, don’t buy it at all. Think I will go turn on some lights that I don’t need on while I eat some meat and toss all my plastic stuff into my garbage can.
Finally, no one has said here, how many Virginians are willing to see their gas prices double and triple? We are the ones who are going to get hit real hard. We are a coal state ... so enjoy paying your higher energy bills as well. I guess it is a sacrifice you are willing to make. How many jobs do you want to see lost as well? The government is predicting between 2.7 and 2.9 MILLION jobs loss as a direct result of Cap and Tax, I mean Trade. Yup, looks like a real winner of a bill. NOT.
re: cap and trade comment.
What was very conveniently left out is that the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA) is a conservative think tank. It is anti government environmental regulation. And it has received $400,000 from ExxonMobil over the past 10 years. Thus it’s credibility re: cap and trade is extremely biased and not objective at all.
It certainly is interesting how global warming deniers never tell the complete story of their supposed sources of information. Furthermore, we know from the 1990s that cap and trade works. It worked quite effectively without economic damage following passage of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments despite the fervent wishes of conservative think tanks such as NCPA.
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