Letters to the Editor
Anyone Can Vote; No One Can Smoke?
Editor, Times-Dispatch:
On the one hand, the General Assembly introduces a bill to make absentee voting easy -- no excuse needed, just because one feels like it today. Yet, on the other hand, the General Assembly introduces a bill to restrict business owners and patrons from making personal decisions about smoking. It is interesting that for the most important patriotic act, voting, there should be no rules as to when one votes. Yet for personal choices, there is a need to make intrusive rules as to private behavior. How so?The health crowd would have us believe that it knows the proper choices for our lives. If we do not listen, then it will force us to abide by its wishes. An interesting concept in a supposedly free society.
Patrick L. Murphy. Providence Forge.
Limbaugh Should Pay For Lack of Patriotism
Editor, Times-Dispatch:
Rush Limbaugh, patriot nonpareil, hopes President Barack Obama fails. I guess this means that Limbaugh wants to see our country spiral into a full-blown depression, that he wants the Taliban to defeat us in Afghanistan, and al-Qaida to wreak worldwide havoc unchecked. Don Imus was kicked off the air for a racial slur directed at the Rutgers University women's basketball team, while Limbaugh has paid no discernible price for his treasonous comments. What's wrong with this picture?Jim O'Connor. Richmond.
Proposed Bill Ensures Reliable Sex Education
Editor, Times-Dispatch:
Fourteen percent of Virginia's school districts rely on an abstinence-only curriculum for their Family Life Education programs. In these localities, when information on pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections is presented, abstinence is the only form of prevention discussed.Like most people, I want teens to receive medically accurate, comprehensive sexuality education that includes information on abstinence, contraception, and disease prevention. Providing them with information about their sexuality and health encourages them to become responsible and informed decision makers. It's just common sense.
Luckily, this year the Virginia General Assembly has the opportunity to pass an important piece of legislation that would greatly benefit young people: HB 1789, Medically Accurate Family Life Education. This bill would require Virginia school districts to teach comprehensive, medically accurate sex education. This means teens would receive sex education that includes information about contraception and condoms.
Research shows that teens who receive comprehensive sex education are less likely to become sexually active than students who receive abstinence-only education. In addition, teens who are provided with accurate information are more likely to practice safe sex and use contraceptives when they do become sexually active, thus reducing the risk of pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections.
Please contact your legislators and tell them to support HB 1789. Young people must be provided with the information and education that will enable them to make healthy and knowledgeable decisions.
Shayne Thomas. Richmond.
Consumers Prefer Best Business Models
Editor, Times-Dispatch:
The headline of Michael Paul Williams' Circuit City column could well have been "Eliminate the Internet." In his column, Williams expressed his lack of understanding of economic and business principles very eloquently. His view is a common shortcoming of many educated and enlightened folks.Planned economies, as he advocates, do not work -- e.g., the Soviet Union and China. I can remember visiting government stores in China in 1989 and my wife recalls visiting the Russian Gum department store in the 1970s. I doubt if the citizens of those countries would want them to return. Business success is a value proposition in a truly competitive economy. People do business with a company because it provides them greater value for their money than its competitors. Value includes not just monetary savings but better customer service, dependability, and reliability.
My business is very conscious of that guiding principle.The system purges those who do not, whether it is Circuit City or Bernie Madoff. Purging is not painless. But because one's resources are not unlimited, he will seek the best value -- hence the study of economics and the allocation of scarce resources.
Williams' argument about the evils of Wal-Mart's business model supports my point. The company must be succeeding because it is providing its customers with a greater perceived value. Williams should be pleased that its customers are a highly diverse group. Are these folks less enlightened or coerced to shop there? Methods in delivery of goods and services change constantly as a result of people allocating their scarce resources to receive the maximum value for their money. The great thing about our economy is that it is basically market-driven by the consumer. The result is freedom of choice and the pursuit of happiness.
R. Dwight Payne. Richmond.
Reader Reactions
Limbaugh is 100% correct. I hope Obama fails, fails miserably with these misguided policies. Treasonous?! Let’s see Harry Reid:“the war is lost”. That was treasonous. All the dems (including Obama) “the surge is not working”, that was treasonous. Actually treasonous would be idiot Obama taking Air Force 1 to Newport News from Washington. 148 miles, how about at least Marine 1, to reduce the “carbon footprint”. Corruptness and ineptness for 8 years? How come every scandel written the culprits are all Democrats. The whole cabinet selections are tainted. “Hey, gunshow this weekend!“ hint, hint
A not so fitting end to a Virginia Legacy.
After having supported Circuit City for twenty years, I was saddened to learn of their bankruptcy this past fall. Still, I supported their efforts to reorganize under these difficult economic times by making three purchases from them this past Holiday season.
After learning of their liquidation sale my teenage son made a purchase from one of the Circuit City stores of a battery operated clock radio/Ipod player for his dorm room. Not having batteries with him in the store to verify operation, after making his purchase, he imediatly bought batteries at a nearby drugstore to test his purchase. When the item did not work he imediatly returned to the store to request not a refund, but a credit towards another purchase. He was told all sales were final, which was posted in the store, but he went on faith that for sure a once reputable company like Circuit City would not sell him what essentially turned out to be worthless trash. He learned a tough lesson that day, and a realization of what has helped to ignite the disparaging economic climate we suffer through today; which is that big corporate America has no remorse for taking money from consumers only to provide significantly less of what is promised or implied. And when the consumer excerises their right to attain service after the sale, they are deterred in their efforts to do so by endless voice mail menus or foriegn customer service reps who will never deviate off script and can therefore never fully address your problem.
So think long and hard before making a purchase at Circuit City’s Liquidation Sale. The only one who wins in a liquidation sale are the quick buck, no service liquidators.
Mr. O’Connor leads us to believe that speech is only free when it meets his agenda. A true patriot understands that all speech is free, regardless of the personal feeling it evokes. If Jim O’Connor had taken the time to actually listen to the entire Limbaugh clip or read the transcript, he would have heard Limbaugh say he hopes the President’s policy fails. There is quite a big difference between hoping for a man to fail and hoping his policies fail. Instead of honestly representing the words of Rush Limbaugh, Mr. O’Connor regurgitates the three-day-old talking points from MSNBC.
Perhaps more surprising is the left’s new desire to label comments by the free press treasonous when they don’t echo a certain talking point. I vividly remember hearing on a daily basis television pundits, columnists, and regular citizens attack the former President with derogatory statements, many of which decorum prohibits me from reposting. Where were the cries of treason then? Where were these so called “patriots” when effigies of President Bush were being burnt in the street? These same “patriots” were probably the people holding the match. Yet another case of do as I say, not as I do liberalism.
Another mind numbed seminar letter writer who can only vomiting half truths and taken out of context soundbites.
No wonder the Democrat party has such an easy time manipulating their followers.
If one bothered to listen or read an entire transcript of Mr Limbaugh’s broadcast that day, one would realize how ridiculous his letter to the editor really was.
I would think that after the last 8 years of absolute corruptness and ineptness, that comments like yours would be an embarressment to post.
I think treasonous is the correct term. Would you think that the comment would be more dangerous if it came from a general?
Before you start talking about the corrupt right, I suggest you take a long hard look at the left. Four of the last six Democratic governors of Illinois have been indicted or gone to jail. Three of the “chosen great ones” by Obama have failed to pay their income taxes. The House Chairman of the Ways and Mean Commitee not only doesn’t pay his taxes, but he can’t figure out the tax code that he wrote. Not to metion the left side who wish to take us down the road to socialism (ref. Maxine Waters little slip of the tongue). Well, if our newly elected president wishes to take us down the road to socialism, I too hope he fails. Might I suggest you get the “log out of your eye” before requiring the right to get the “speck” from theirs. Or do those high and mighty ideals that your side touts only apply to the right. You really need to check your double standards at the door.
Treasonous is a bit of a stetch.
He’s just the blowhard for the corrupt and stupid.
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