LETTERS

— Caution for new car buyers

This year we sold our 10-year-old car to our son and bought a new one. When we registered the new car, we were told that we would have to pay 6 percent sales tax on the list price, which is the manufacturer’s suggested retail price.

I did not agree as the car had a $3,000 factory rebate, which is taxable, and a $4,297 dealer discount, which is not. I paid the tax and appealed to the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration. The first time I sent the documents, they lost them. I sent them again certified mail, but never got a reply. I then sent an e-mail and got a reply from a supervisor who said that there was no refund due.

Has Gov. Mike Beebe authorized the Arkansas tax department to charge us sales tax on the list price instead of what we actually paid? If a home sells for $10,000 less than it listed for, should tax be due on the listed price?

I have found that the people at the local tax office are nice to deal with and are only doing what the director has ordered them to do. I thought it was the job of the Legislature to impose state taxes.

After the Democrat-Gazette contacted DF&A, I received a phone call and an apology from the tax people and a check for $257.82. They assured me that local offices would be contacted to make sure this does not happen again. If you paid tax on a new car this year, you may want to make sure you did not pay the tax on the list price.

TOM BYRNE Hot Springs Village

It’s worth preserving

A recent letter stated that “we atheists have faith as well. Not in any god, but in humanity. We have faith that one day humanity will be united under one banner, one religion and one spirit: the banner of peace, the religion of us. . . .”

Now even for atheists it is true that faith without works is dead. Perhaps the writer would like to put feet to his faith and join his fellow atheists in North Korea in their noble work of bringing Heaven on Earth.

I am astounded that anyone can view the horror that is North Korea and the carnage of the 20th century and still proclaim his faith in humanity.

The truth is that in “the religion of us,” the state becomes God, whose power to enforce “one banner, one religion and one spirit” comes from the barrel of a gun.

The genius of the American experiment is the concept of checks and balances. That is achieved under the Constitution through the legislative, executive and judicial branches. In the larger culture, the church (a term including synagogues and mosques) provides checks and balances to the state and the state supplies checks and balances to the church.

These relationships are always tumultuous and often messy. But the result is that rarest of conditions in all human history, individual freedom. May we have the wisdom and courage to preserve it.

CHARLES E. SHORES Hot Springs

Oppressed defended

Letter writer James Mayo would have us believe that “anyone who is condoning lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender persons is nothing but the advocate for Satan.”

Nothing could be farther from the truth. Were Mayo to open a Bible, he might be surprised to learn that Jesus consistently took the side of the marginalized and oppressed. Is Mayo really asking us to believe that Jesus himself was an advocate for Satan? Or is he simply misinformed?

R. SCOTT OGILBY North Little Rock

Natives are content

Re the letter from Dick Stemple regarding the correct pronunciation of our beloved state’s name, Arkansas: We native sons are very content with the historical pronunciation.

His comment caught my eye because English is my major and syntax is my game. For an historical sidelight, let me say that I am reading my way through the Marquis de Custine’s 600-page book “Empire of the Czar,” published first in 1839 following his tour of Russia. I was surprised to find that millions of serfs, for centuries, had no names and were the property of the czar and royal family. They were housed, fed and worked for the czar, and when the land was sold to other royalists, the serfs/slaves went with the land.

Back to names. Regarding the writer’s name, Dick Stemple, I must go back to the old English way of naming serfs, slaves, our ancestors. My name is Hill, so it is reasonable to say that my ancestors lived on a hill. My friend Bud Miller’s ancients were grinders of the grain, and Will Farmer’s were farmers, and Stemple’s folks from the past lived near the temple; hence, his name.

When Christian names were added, then someone picked Dick, and in the following centuries some someone added, “Dick’s Temple.” Now that is a regal name if I ever heard one. And it’s OK with me if he keeps it.

W.P. HILL Springdale

Health care is flawed

Guest writer J. Mick Tilford cites free-market Nobel laureate Friedrich Hayek in support of his case for mandatory health insurance. Does that mean that Tilford accepts Hayek’s case for laissez-faire in virtually everything else?

Perhaps, like Hayek, Tilford overlooks some important matters; for one thing, mandatory health insurance requires coercion.

Milford wants individuals punished for defying the government’s orders to buy something. Why is this departure from freedom and civility justified by promised, though never delivered, efficiency? Moreover, an insurance mandate will be accompanied by controls on premiums. Obamacare dictates that sick people may not be charged more than well people despite the fact that the sick need more medical attention than the well do.

The history of bureaucratic price controls is a history of shortages, rationing, ever more pervasive mandates and misery. If Hayek didn’t pay enough attention to the consequences of mandatory insurance, that’s no reason for Milford not to. Yet Hayek feared for the individual’s freedom once the state intervenes in medicine.

Our already heavily government managed medical system has too many decisions being made by somebody else. The Obamacare mandate will only push us further down the road to serfdom.

SHELDON RICHMAN Conway

Yet another election

I found it very interesting to read that the deficit reduction plan submitted for consideration involved cutting Social Security raises, raising the eligibility age to 68, cutting Medicare and Medicaid benefits and a number of other things.

No where could I find any mention that Congress’ raises should be cut, their salary reduced or that they should participate in the same health plan as other Americans.

Most of us are willing to make sacrifices to get the deficit under control, but let’s make the cuts fair to everyone. Senators and representatives, take note: There is another election in 2012.

JIMMIE H. WHITE Jacksonville

Pain now kicking in

Remember the hype about how Obamacare will reduce cost, allow us to keep our doctors and our current insurance, and we will not be forced into a “government program”?

Obamacare is carefully crafted to phase the pain in incrementally over the next several years. The full pain will not be felt until after the 2012 election. What a coincidence. A few ugly aspects of the program are beginning to rear their heads. A few:

AARP supported Obamacare, even with the knowledge that the plan cuts $500 billion from Medicare and is essentially scrapping the Medicare Advantage program. AARP has now announced that its employees will see an increase in their insurance cost of up to 13 percent as well as larger co-payments and deductibles.

The Boston Globe reports that since April 1 about 90 companies in Maryland have terminated their insurance plans, encouraging workers to sign up for state-subsidized care. Boeing has given notice to 90,000 employees that they will see increases in their out-of-pocket expenses for care of up to 20 percent.

TRICARE is the insurance program for the military. The Department of Defense and TRICARE have reported that the funds are not there for implementing the provision to provide coverage for children up to age 26. Cost for this will be about $2,400 per year and will likely be passed on to the families receiving the coverage.

PHIL PHILLIPS Fayetteville

A better way to fight

With 2010 rapidly drawing to a close amid new revelations about radical Islam’s terroristic intentions in several parts of the world, I earnestly hope that 2011 will be remembered as the year in which the United States’ leaders decided firmly that America’s effective foreign policy does not center on declaring wars on other nations.

Long wars or big wars will not be an acceptable or effective solution to foreign policy problems and worldwide threats of terroristic acts. Witness Iraq and Afghanistan, the staggering cost in blood and treasury of big wars and the severe radicalization of the local population.

We have made five assaults on al-Qa’ida in the arid mountains of Yemen since last December. Some believe that there are 300 al-Qa’ida in Yemen, but only 130 in Afghanistan.It’s not just Yemen that would command our attention. Look at Somalia, North Africa, the mountains of Pakistan and states of the former Soviet republic. Terror cells exist in Western Europe and the United States as well as areas crippled by ethnic and religious strife. Terrorism is permanent and pervasive.

The United States needs to focus on robotic drones, commando teams, paying contractors to spy on the bad guys and training local operatives to chase terrorists. This will prove to be a better approach than our continuing to send boots and $8 million vehicles down dusty roads that can be blown to smitherings by $10 roadside bombs.

DON S. MANES Little Rock

Not so sure about it

According to letter writer Matt Thomas, atheists place their faith in humanity. Humans will someday bring peace to this planet? Does he mean like Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Karl Marx, Chairman Mao or Adolf Hitler? (I know it is not clear if Hitler was actually an atheist, but still.)

That is very great faith, indeed.

GREG STANFORD White Hall

Feedback Greenberg’s gifted

Paul Greenberg hit a journalistic home run with his recent “Post-mortem/Random notes on an election.” It was reminiscent of his writing skill that earned him the Pulitzer long ago.

Too long his genius had lain dormant, but he gave us a resurrected glimpse of it with this masterpiece of the perfect combination of substance and style. Way to go, Mr. Greenberg. You’ve still got it.

BILLY BOOTH HazenDeal cost smokers

Get a grip on your pocketbook and rearrange your budget. The governor wants to cut the grocery tax again. The last cut cost over $80 million. He made a trade with the Legislature to cut the grocery tax by raising the tobacco tax. That trade cost tobacco users almost $86 million. Tobacco users are a minority now; politicians are not afraid to lose their vote.

A.M. LATCH McRae

Locality says it all

Letter writer Dick Stemple would be ever more puzzled at the pronunciation of the name of a community along U.S. 77 in South Kansas. Folks there will correct you if you say “R-can-saw City.” It is “R-cans-as City.” Locals simply say, “Ark City.”

All language has local quirks and dialects, but that would not prevent us from having an official language.

PAULA YATES Searcy

Editorial, Pages 11 on 11/22/2010

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