Letters to the Editor for Saturday, July 19, 2008
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Published: July 18, 2008
Qualifications? We don’t care about that
Did you ever go into a fast food restaurant only to be frustrated that the person behind the counter had so little training that they put a new meaning to fast food?
Click to sendHave you ever taken your car to the garage because you were having problems with the automatic transmission only to be told the regular mechanic is on vacation but, “I have a guy I hired this morning so I will let him experiment on your transmission?”
You break a tooth. You call your dentist and make an appointment for an emergency procedure. When you arrive at the dentist office you discover he has been called away to a family emergency but they have a dental intern that is in the second semester of dental school and you need a root canal.
At a family outing you begin to experience severe chest pains. You are rushed to the hospital. In route, the EMTs contact your cardiologist he meets you at the Emergency Room. Preliminary tests show three blocked arteries. They schedule you for emergency by-pass surgery. The surgeon on call is contacted and on the way to the hospital someone runs a red light and he is hospitalized. You are in the operating room waiting for surgery and a young man approaches your gurney, he tells you the heart surgeon has two broken fingers and therefore will not be able to operate and you need attention immediately. He says, “I have never performed bypass surgery but have taken two semesters of anatomy and watched a lot of heart operations on TV.”
In industry, we normally look at a work year as 2,080 hours on the job. The Democratic candidate for president has 143 days of actual experience in Congress. That is 1,144 hours, slightly more than half a year of real work. Is that enough to lead this great nation?
In his book, “The Audacity of Hope” he is quoted as saying, “I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.”
If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck — it is usually a duck.
Is this what we want as a leader?
ROBERT E. DeLONG
Forest
Militia training
Now that the Supreme Court has determined that our Founding Fathers apparently foresaw a need for militias armed with handguns, I hope we’ll soon see some progress on the “well-regulated” front.
Perhaps the militias could train by shooting deer. There’s an ample supply in my neighborhood 24/7.
NANCY SCHNEIDER
Lynchburg
Good Samaritan
Recently, I was in Kroger on Linkhorne Road shopping for several grocery items, which were needed. The clerk checked my items and gave me the amount; however, I looked in my pocketbook and there was no billfold, therefore, no money, credit cards or checkbook. So I went over to the pharmacy and asked the staff if I could borrow a small amount of money to pay for groceries and promised that I would bring the money back the next day.
While the staff was asking the pharmacist, a nice lady stood there and stated, “How much do you need?” and she said, “I will let you have the money.” I insisted that she not do this. However, at this time, she put nine dollars on the counter. I asked for her name to thank her but she would not give it to me. She said “no” and left like a streak of lightning. Yes, I thought when I got home that there are still lots of good people left in the world. I hope that lady read this.
A big thank you and may God bless you.
MARGARET WEEKS
Lynchburg
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Reader Reactions
Posted by ( JacksonPollock ) on July 28, 2008 at 9:46 pm
luv. Your posts and links are absurd. In response to your “loaded” question . . . YES.
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Posted by ( luv2bliberal ) on July 22, 2008 at 10:48 am
Do we really want Sam Rasoul or Obama in the government as muslim sympathizers when muslims have a legacy of hate and violence?
http://ballyblog.wordpress.com/2007/07/03/terrorists-are-muslims-list-of-islamic-terrorist-attacks/
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Posted by ( JacksonPollock ) on July 21, 2008 at 7:51 pm
Maliki, the Iraqis, the majority of Americans, and nearly everyone else but Bush, Rush, Faux News (Murdoch) and McBush want us out of Iraq on a time table or, if Bush wishes, a time “horizon.”
McBush said today that he would rather lose an election than a war. Well, he has experienced both when GWB, in 2000, slammed him in SC for having a black child and Vietnam, which he sat out in the Hanoi Hilton (cursing waterboarding and other forms of torture he now embraces).
The man has no game this week as he tries to criticize Obama who is coming off very Presidential while McBush and GWB try to catch up by coming more and more to Obama’s policies (about 6 years too late). Obama has the vision this nation needs to embrace; McBush has a trophy younger rich wife that he likes to embrace and no game plan.
luv: <silence>
<silence> = “your posts are so ridiculous they are not even worth responding to.”
Peace.
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Posted by ( Cosmo Wafflefoot ) on July 21, 2008 at 6:09 am
I did read it (dan) and so did (Truthseeker), (Poet) and (4U2ponder). Now, you should. I confess, I am less taken by McCain’s so called experience than some at this festival of bull. I tend not to hire people who graduated at the bottom of their class. (call me crazy) His ONLY non-government job was public relations at his father-in-laws beer distributorship. His luck is awful! Shot down (now there is an accomplishment) followed by repeated episodes of cancer. Did I forget kicking his wife under the bus for one with lots more money? Sorry, but I just can’t admire people like that. If given the choice between smart & not smart, I always pick smart.
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Posted by ( JacksonPollock ) on July 20, 2008 at 8:36 pm
Robert DeLong. You are a pathetic parasite. Read poet’s comments, which places the quote in context, and then be a man and retract your statement which is so out of context that you might as well have invented the quote yourself; you did invent the context.
oldman. You write: “cashing the blank check written by Obama, but is unwilling to sign.” Are you not referring to Bush? What the hell do you think he has been doing over the past 7 years. The time is right for Kaine, Webb, Mark Warner, and Obama. The time for allowing the tax breaks for the rich and allowing our infrastructure to crumble (e.g., Minneapolis bridge, Katrina)is now becoming just a passing nightmare.
Dan. We have already had another Jimmy Carter; his name is George W. Bush. The only difference is that Jimmy Carter was more reasonable and not trying to be a cowboy from Connecticut. One can argue forever about the Carter administration, but when one puts it side by side with W’s 7 and a half years, the malaise of the late 70s were pretty good times. McCain was critical of Obama for not having gone to Iraq for two years; when Bush became President, he had ventured only into Mexico and, as history will prove, had no idea what the rest of the world was like. That, perhaps, is part of the reason we are in the international crises we are in today.
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Posted by ( dan ) on July 20, 2008 at 9:18 am
While I confer with Mr. DeLong on the Duck issue , I feel neither canidate is a very good choice.I do however feel McCain is the better because he has much more experience. What we don’t need is another Jimmy Carter. Shame on you Cosmos,read Obama’s book ,that is what he said.
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Posted by ( 4U2Ponder ) on July 19, 2008 at 11:46 pm
Mr. Robert DeLong letter states:
In his book, �The Audacity of Hope� he is quoted as saying, �I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.�
That quote is actually from a widely circulated E-Mail and the words followering may be found at Snopes.com.
This statement is a rewording of a passage from page 261 of The Audacity of Hope, in which Barack Obama spoke of the importance of not allowing inflamed public opinion to result in innocent members of immigrant groups being stripped of their rights, denied their due as American citizens, or placed into confinement, as was done with Japanese-Americans during World War II. The original contains no specific mention of “Muslims.
Mr. Obama�s constantly shifting positions provides sufficient reason to question his qualifications without taking words out of context. Let�s make sure that it really is a duck before we publish his picture.
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Posted by ( luv2bliberal ) on July 19, 2008 at 6:31 pm
You are very right Cosmo. The republicans have bankrupted the nation with their wasteful spending. The only solution that the democRATS have though is even more wasteful spending.
Wake up. Smell the coffee. Don’t vote for a man that hasn’t any accomplishments in his career.
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Posted by ( OneVoice ) on July 19, 2008 at 2:21 pm
The middle ground that Obama tries to capture seems more like quicksand- when you try too hard to be everything to everyone, you run the risk of being nothing instead, a perpetual question mark without a solid base to stand on. That’s a risk he’s obviously willing to take, but the centrist policies he then suggests are not only nothing new, they carry their own considerable risks and problems which he barely weighs. That’s a concern, a surprise, and a shortcoming.
Good, effective politicians are like a good stew- there’s substance in the pot, and it’s well seasoned. While Obama clearly has the substance, the seasoning simply isn’t there. Americans sure are enamored of fresh, unknown faces in politics- maybe because we love Cinderella stories- but that’s voting with your heart rather than your head. Now there’s something to be said for intuition and “gut feeling” when selecting leadership, but when the fresh face is untested in so many ways, perhaps it would be best to go with the proven commodity- even if it isn’t all that exciting- rather than the raw recruit, no matter how intelligent or charismatic he (or she) might be.
Charisma is great, but experience counts for so much more, especially in the troubled, difficult times ahead.
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Posted by ( poet ) on July 19, 2008 at 12:36 pm
ROBERT DeLONG...You, sir, are a deliberate liar. Here is your false quote:
Now the reason I say you are a deliberate liar (oldman included) is that you know you’ve misquoted Obama. This has been proven to be a lie time and again, so only willfull liars keep repeating it.
I’d say you’ve never even read the book because what you are quoting comes from the likes of Hannity and Limbaugh. They know people like you don’t read for themselves so all they have to do is keep repeating lies for the consumption of weak minds like you.
Here is the actual quote from the book. The more you repeat the misquote, the bigger liar you become.
(I’ve noticed some of my posts prints in caps. I don’t know why, perhaps a bad keyboard? Just a note to say I use use caps on occassion, but not in full lines ect)
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