LETTERS

LITTLE ROCK — Not all consistency good

Bradley Gitz, in his column, "Save us from youth," made an astonishingly arrogant statement about the philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson's statement, "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." Gitz opined, "Seldom has anything so stupid been said by someone so smart." I suggest that Gitz study carefully what he is criticizing.

Emerson's statement qualifies consistency by the word foolish. He is not criticizing consistency but foolish consistency. When someone repeats a wrong or stupid action over and over expecting different results or holds to a position that is proved wrong, that is foolish consistency. Further, Emerson wrote about little minds, not all minds. What Emerson wrote is absolutely correct, and Gitz's characterization of it as stupid says more about him than it does about Emerson.

I agree with Gitz's position that it is inconsistent to hold the position that 18-year-olds who can vote, who can go to war and perhaps kill or be killed, should be denied the right to consume alcohol. I also agree with his position that perhaps the age for voting or for enlistment or being drafted into the armed services should be raised to 21.

I would hope that Gitz would be more careful about criticizing what another wrote before writing himself.

MIKE BELMONT FayettevillePoor citizens left behind

The latest myopic liberal attempt at interstate nexus trumping, perfumed as the Streamlined Sales Tax, or SST (also see Lipstick on Swine for similar details), is becoming one of the biggest boondoggles in socialist, ingrate economic history, where wealth is being transferred today from poor to rich Arkansas tax districts, further denting and broadly depressing just the kind of people Franklin D. Roosevelt's statist relics purport to represent.

School districts will have to be further consolidated and road repairs cut where the total flow of funds will not support more taxes in poorer areas being sunk by this shamelessly shortsighted and stupid attempt at feeding the Little Rock bureaucrats. Northwest Arkansas is a most glaring example and should be enough evidence of this crackpot plan to protect big-box retailers and other politically connected whiners unable to otherwise handle the fair competition.

This was predicted long ago, but it apparently will take massive pain for it to register on the national media radar, not unlike Hillary Clinton's easy-money mortgage mess. To be fair-haired, "Tax Hike" Mike Huckabee was one of the proponents of this silly, dangerous tax scheme, but the SST is by and large an entrenched public-sector hit job on the private economy with no known equal attempt at circumventing federal law in our national tax history.

It would behoove the loon left to dispose of its latest tax play failure before trying another one under the banner of bogus change.

J.G. ULMER InkConsider contributions

Letter writer George W. McClain accused conservative radio hosts Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity of spewing hate, which he thinks might have contributed to the shooting death of Bill Gwatney.

Most of the hate is being spewed by left-wing activist groups in the Democratic Party. Is it possible that the hate spewed by Barack Obama's former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, and civil rights activists has contributed to the increase of black-on-white hate crimes in the past few decades?

Could the anti-American hatred spewed by Obama's friend Bill Ayers, a former member of the Weather Underground, and anti-war groups for the last 40 years have contributed to terrorist attacks on Americans overseas and even on Sept. 11, 2001?

I think conservative talk radio listeners are generally law-abiding, hardworking, non-violent people who don't shoot political adversaries. If the killer of Gwatney did it for political reasons, we would already know it by now. Liberal Democratic activists and legal experts would be questioning whether it would qualify as a hate crime.

R.H. MONTGOMERY Little RockSpeech was nothing new

Barack Hussein Obama's acceptance speech was a pure plan for a socialistic society in America. Many of his concepts for government's forcing businesses to operate by his dictums bordered on communist philosophies. That this person even calls himself an American is scary.

FRANK FUSCO Mountain HomeEmotions leading U.S.

Recent reports are that 25 percent of our bridges are either structurally unsafe or obsolete. The infrastructure of our country is showing age and neglect.

In her book "Atlas Shrugged," published in 1957, Ayn Rand wrote of cronyism in government and a society whose wealthy were possessed by their possessions while the masses lived in poverty. At the same time cars were abandoned on highways for lack of fuel and parts as neglected bridges and tunnels collapsed. She wrote that the end of the world as we know it would happen when the lights of New York City go out.

Events in her book seem familiar. The lights of New York City have gone out due to a grid failure. The city went financially dark when it almost became the first city in the United States to declare bankruptcy. Then who can forget 9/11?

Destroying the United States was the reason Osama bin Laden gave for the 9/11tragedy. It was not chance that two planes struck a world financial district in New York. We are allowing our emotions to lead after 9/11, and we are swallowing governmental propaganda. We are led by a president who uses manufactured intelligence reports to mislead us. We claim patriotism as we give up constitutional rights. On a witch hunt for weapons of mass destruction, we invaded and continue to occupy a sovereign country. We are mired in endless military conflicts against an ideology. We are sinking into debt at the rate of $1 million a minute.

We are a divided people. Are we accomplishing bin Laden's goal?

JUDITH PEPPER Fayetteville Hunting made too easy

It seems like our Game and Fish Commission has decided that duck-hunting welfare is the way to go; those who don't want to learn the intricacies of the sport will only have to flip a switch. It's likewatered-down curriculum in school: Even students who don't care about their education can pass.

If the commissioners do not think thesespinning-wing decoy machines have a detrimental impact on the population, they haven't been watching the Outdoor Channel. Hunters (so they call themselves) stand out in the open around a pothole never calling and "Robo" set in the pond. The ducks, probably juvenile, swarm the temptress like mosquitoes around a stinky dog.

I can't believe the commission paid the University of Arkansas at Little Rock for a survey. Every person who hunts migratory birds is asked several questions when he buys his hunting license and duck stamps. One more question like "Do you favor lifting the ban?" would have been 100 percent accurate and cost nothing. Shame on them.

W. J. OBERLE North Little Rock Hate seems hard to hear

It's mind-boggling what you can learn from the letters in Voices.

On a recent Sunday, I learned from writer George McClain that "hate radio" from Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity might have contributed to the senseless murder of Bill Gwatney. Amazing.

I've listened to Limbaugh for over 15 years and Hannity when I can, and I've never heard this hate that McClain hears. It's not surprising that what I do hear is ridicule of liberal words and actions. There is so much material to choose from. This hate must be something only liberals can hear. Kind of like those highpitch whistles that only dogs can hear.

JIM LAUX Sherwood