LETTERS

LITTLE ROCK — U.S. must provide for own oil

In March, I wrote Sen. Mark Pryor and Rep. Vic Snyder that the cost of oil at $105 per barrel was seriously disrupting our economy and recommended that the U.S. establish a Manhattan-type project to provide our oil needs from within the 50 states, the Gulf and coastal areas.

Such a project to provide for our oil and refineries would entail utilizing the most knowledgeable and qualified personnel available and a czar with authority and power to deal with impediments they will encounter from our oil barons and corruptible politicians.

Oil has [topped] $125 per barrel, gasoline is at $3.65 a gallon with diesel at $4.50. The price of many food items has tripled, and increased transportation costs ensure higher prices.

The auto industry says [achieving] increased mileage will take eight years. We've known how to do this since World War II. Since the oil embargo of 1973, politicians have talked oil dependency and done nothing. Why are our lawmakers opposed to self-sufficiency?

Our economy is in very serious trouble. We've only begun to feel the effect on gasoline and food. Next come higher prices on clothing and other products, and the closing of mom-and-pop stores and small businesses. Congress must immediately provide laws for drilling new wells, opening old wells and building new refineries. We can do this and respect the environment.

We must muster the will to do the right thing. Call your senator and representative, please.

VIRGIL L. DeLANEY Jacksonville

Revisionism no miracle

Re Charles Krauthammer's "A miraculous story": The word could be revisionist, but certainly not miraculous.

A quick look at an 80-year-old map of that region would show a different country encompassing the land where Israel is now. That would be Palestine. That's because Palestinians lived there. Then the Zionists came and murdered both Arabs and British people until they managed to force the British to accept them and leave. Reality? Israel was born in a sea of blood and terrorism.

Krauthammer dismisses Palestinian suffering as being the responsibility of the Palestinians and having nothing to do with the Zionists usurping the best farm land, moving or murdering the inhabitants to take the land the Palestinians have lived and farmed on for generations. The Arabs choose war, Krauthammer complains, rather than compromise. How dare those dopey Arabs! They wanted to stay on the land of their fathers and were not aware that some 2,000 years ago Yahweh gave that land to the Zionists. All they had to do then was murder all the original inhabitants. Sixty years ago, they came back to do it again.

I agree that Israel has the right to survive, but let's stop making excuses for unacceptable behavior. For years, the Israelis have been building houses and their "terror-prevention" wall, coincidentally walling off Palestinian homes and farmland. Krauthammer mentions Israel giving up some land but fails to mention how much more they have taken, then complains at the Arab reaction. If Israel wants peace, then let it behave peacefully.

RICK BURRY Eureka Springs

All graduates exemplary

I was flabbergasted to read the letter from Jill Combs insulting Sen. John Sidney McCain III because she had heard that he finished fifth from the bottom in a class of 800.

According to Combs, "Just what we need, another C-student Republican for president." It is obvious that Combs knows nothing about the U.S. Naval Academy or any of our service academies.

I don't know what the numbers were when McCain entered the Naval Academy, but I can tell you that these days the academy grants appointments to around 1,200 out of more than 10,000 applicants yearly.

These appointments are not given out lightly. Applicants need to be in at least the top 20 percent of their high school classes. I dare say that most are in the top 10 percent. They need to be well-rounded in not only academics, but extracurricular activities, including some type of sports.

The appointment process is highly selective, and once in, cadets are continuously challenged in several areas, especially in academics. Many don't make it. They either cannot meet the high standards academically and/or physically or else they realize that the military life is just not for them.

As a proud mother of four graduates of the Air Force Academy, I assure you that their education was second to none. Whether they graduated in the top of their class or at the bottom, the fact that they graduated at all speaks volumes about their work ethic and fortitude. And the same can be said of our fine graduates from the Naval Academy, including McCain.

LINDA HRYNYK Cabot

Fear-mongering is sad

Barack Hussein Obama, Barack Hussein Obama. Repeat that seven times and spin around, and the Devil will appear.

It is sad how we try and associate a presidential candidate with a tyrant because of a name and hope that it will scare the voters into continuing along the path of economic destruction we have been on for the past seven years. Hussein is the name of the grandson of the prophet Mohammed. Hussein is also the name of one of this nation's most trusted allies in the Middle East, the late king of Jordan, who probably did more than anyone to help the U.S. avert war in the Middle East, yet we try and denigrate an American with the name of a deposed megalomaniac and to continue the same fear tactic that carried this administration into office.

Why don't we serve up some truth for a change? We seem more concerned with fear and the fact that minister Jeremiah Wright happened to say some touchy things that certain people did not want to hear than with telling the truth, that the media are trying to help usher someone who should have been court-martialed for treason into the office of president of the United States.

John McCain's missteps as a prisoner of war are well documented, but they seem to be as much of a hands-off topic as John F. Kennedy's philandering was in 1960. Why? Are we that afraid of a minority president that we will allow anyone else into the White House, their past uninvestigated or ignored by the same media that [have] no mercy on the black candidate?

A.J. CARTER Stuttgart

Spots for handicapped

I have a valid handicap placard because I am a handicapped person with numerous medical problems. I have type I diabetes, heart problems and arthritis just to name a few, and it is quite painful for me to have to walk from the back of a parking lot to get into a store.

At the grocery store, I informed a lady sitting in the passenger seat of a truck that she was in a handicapped parking space. She did not have a placard hanging from

her mirror, nor did she have a handicapped license plate. She responded that her husband was only going to be in the store for a few minutes. I told her this was not a short-term, run-into-the-store-andget-a-few-items parking space.

I went two lanes over and found a space that was not far from the store entrance. When I came out of the store, a muscular, non-handicapped person pulled into a handicapped space. I informed him that he didn't have anything on his car to indicate that he was handicapped. He replied, "It's in there somewhere." I told him that I was going to call the police, and he flipped me off and went into the store.

I am telling you the above because I want you to know that I will be on the lookout for those who are parked in a handicapped space and don't have either a placard hanging from their mirror or a handicapped license plate. I will have my cell phone with me at all times and I will call the police. You know who you are, so beware. I will turn you in and you [may] be fined.

ANITA CASTLEBERRY Little Rock

Seat belts can save lives

Years ago when I traveled the state, I came upon accidents that had just occurred. This was before cars had seat belts. At that time, I had seat belts installed in my car.

I've reviewed the miles I've driven, and that's over a million. Needless to say, I've seen smashed-up cars, mangled, bloody bodies and otherwise. I further experienced getting smashed up at an intersection where a van lost its brakes coming down a hill and broadsided me, totaling my vehicle. Without the air bag and attached seat belt, this message wouldn't be available.

If your health is such that you want to retain it and you understand the meaning of the word longevity, make buckling up a regular routine along with adjusting the seat and mirrors before starting your vehicle. By doing so, you'll be guarding your health and pleasing the people who love you. As someone once said, little things can make a big difference.

HERB LEHMAN Little Rock

Denunciation sensible

In a speech celebrating Israel's 60th anniversary, President Bush said, "Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along." He cited the appeasement of Adolf Hitler, then stated, "We have an obligation to call this what it is-the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history."

One would expect such a commonsense denunciation of appeasement to pass without comment from friend or foe, but Barack Obama chose to see it as an attack on his position of meeting with our adversaries without precondition and denounced it as a "false political attack" on him, not once but several times. Nancy Pelosi went even further by calling Bush's remarks beneath the dignity of his office and saying that any serious person should dissociate himself from them. Will rogue leaders respect anything Obama says when he has condemned the president for a simple denunciation of appeasement?

The attack on Bush plays well to Obama's primary voters, but will Democrats this fall be happy defending the appeasement that emboldened Hitler when most Americans see rejection of it by Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S Truman as a mark of their greatness?

Obama continues to make John Mc-Cain's case for conservative voters much better than McCain has. If this becomes the Democrats' position, they may well elect McCain in what should be their year to win.

HARRY E. BEEMER Camden

Clinton has the answers

Methinks the editorial guys are lower than a grasshopper for whomping up on our Ms. Hillary.

Our Hillary Clinton is a regal lady. Like Margaret Thatcher of Great Britain, she promotes her political ideals with firm strength and determination. She has always done her best to promote racial healing and to promote the awareness of the plight of senior citizens and loss of American jobs. Poverty is one of the South's leading conditions. Elect Clinton and eliminate poverty.

With a team of Clinton, Mike Beebe, Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor, Arkansas and the South will make great strides into future prosperity. Arkansans of allracial categories and of all economic levels deeply love and support Clinton. Sorry, Charlie, if you are not man enough to support a real lady.

I give 100 percent support to Clinton and the entire Arkansas team. Go, team. Go, Clinton.

JARRELL RAINWATER Little Rock

Beware losing our roots

The good old U.S.A.: Few will argue otherwise, except those of another faith or persuasion.

There have been other great nations during the eons of time that prevailed for a season, only to be superseded by another of greater prowess, so a question begs an answer: Why has this great nation not given sway to various aspiring antagonists around the world?

I think the answer is simplistically obvious: because of the inherent Christian faith of our earliest colonists, who wisely embraced it and passed it on to their own, their own being great men like George Washington, who prayed on his knees before battle; Abe Lincoln and his compassion for all manner of mankind; and all the other godly men who preached Jesus Christ and him crucified.

That's what keeps this great nation strong and intrinsically viable against all who oppress: our Christian faith. But beware. There are demonic forces afoot disguised as honorable and legitimate entities who aspire to govern this great nation. They are the proverbial wolf in sheep's clothing.

Please be advised that the president is all-powerful. He appoints judges to the Supreme Court who interpret the laws of the land. Cast your votes wisely.

HAROLD O. MONROE Clarksville

Feedback

Just adding to surplus

I moved to Bryant over a year ago to enjoy the "good life" of retirement, but soon got bored and found a parttime job. The few dollars a week I earned sure helped the state tax as my employer withheld the required amount from my check.

Being the good citizen that I am, I filed my taxes. Not so fast, says the tax man; you still owe the state money. Why so? say I. My W-2 says they withheld $153 for state tax. Not enough, says Tax Man; you still owe $154.

That is $307 dollars for a parttime, a-few-hours-a-week job. But I am relieved to know that my taxes are helping build a giant surplus.

L.P. FRUIN Bryant

Stop taxing the taxes

Just read Carolyn Bennett's letter concerning the $94.8 million surplus in the state treasury. Could this be the proper time for the state Legislature to correct the ethical problems regarding charging citizens taxes on taxes?

In this state, we are not allowed to deduct from the taxible income any of the multitude of taxes for income, food and other purchases or services. Thus we pay taxes on taxes.

Reportedly, this is the only state which mandates this unscrupulous practice.

VIRGINIA HARRISON Clarksville