Not the laws needed
One of the editorials in last Sunday's paper exhorted Arkansas legislators to pass legislation for an Internet sales tax to help Arkansas cities. Another editorial mentioned inhabitants of North Little Rock to Sherwood to Gravel Ridge. Which city did these inhabitants belong to?
At the present time I am against an Internet sales tax because Arkansas cities are a hodgepodge. I reside in Gravel Ridge, which was annexed by Sherwood. But I have a Jacksonville address because my mail is delivered from the Jacksonville post office. If an Internet sales tax is passed, I would pay a 2 percent Jacksonville city tax instead of a 1 percent Sherwood city tax. And Jacksonville would get the tax from my purchase instead of Sherwood.
I have contacted legislators and city officials concerning this matter and no one seems to have a solution. Before passing an Internet sales tax, legislators need to pass legislation to provide a uniform sales tax for the state of Arkansas, with dedicated amounts going to cities and counties. This works in many other states. If Arkansas had a uniform sales tax, Mayor Smith wouldn't have the option of holding a special election to increase the city's sales tax.
CLAIRE LEHENY
Jacksonville
Heed heavenly voices
A partial antidote, at least, to the horrors of this degenerate nation and, indeed, the world beyond, would be a massive dose of the grandeur and glory of European culture and all those great European men of sublime and towering genius who, in every realm of human endeavour, were responsible for the miracle of Western civilization, the greatest by far, that this troubled world has ever known.
If, like me, you are weary of the abysmal banality of modern popular music and just about everything else in this depraved and declining world, then I urge you Americans to listen to the exquisite voices of two of your own national treasures, coloratura sopranos Beverly Sills and Renee Fleming.
Sit back, relax, empty your minds and just listen to the heavenly voice of Beverly Sills singing Vincenzo Bellini's "Casta Diva" from his opera Norma, and/or the equally heavenly voice of Renee Fleming singing Jules Massenet's "Ah! Je suis seule, seule enfin!" from his opera Thaïs.
This listening experience will not only move you to tears but will, to some degree at least, restore your faith in humanity.
WILLIAM G. CARLYLE
North Little Rock
Calling entrepreneurs
Got a call from my wife Wednesday afternoon; she was heading home from visiting with her sister in Memphis and was stuck for hours on Interstate 40 due to an accident. We don't drive I-40 from Little Rock to Memphis very often, but it seems we get caught in an accident tie-up about a quarter of the time.
I've got a suggestion for some entrepreneurs in the Carlisle, Hazen, and Forrest City areas. Get yourself a Port-A-Potty and put it on a small trailer with wide balloon tires. Pull it with your four-wheeler on the shoulders of the interstate when it's shut down for an accident and charge folks a nominal fee to relieve themselves.
I know from experience that it's very easy to reach "critical mass" when stuck in two- to four-hour gridlock on the interstate.
SCOTT D. STUBENRAUCH
Roland
Farewell to Honda 50
Thanks so much for the great Bloomberg article in Tuesday's business section about the demise of the Honda 50cc and other small motorbikes. For so many of us, the "little Honda" was the intro to the joys of motor-driven two-wheeling fun!
The article did a great job at pointing out the two-edged sword of climate regulation. On the one hand, we all want clean air and water. So it would seem that a transportation mode that gets over 100 miles per gallon would be tailor-made for the world we live in.
But the article indicates that, unfortunately, the world we live in is really run on the needs of regulators--not on the needs of the climate or those of us who live and work within it. So small, efficient motorbikes will bite the dust, because the environmental monitoring equipment required makes them too costly to manufacture.
While the article indicates that small electric-powered motorbikes will continue to be built, you have to wonder if it isn't time for a climate-rules sanity check.
DAN BAW
Conway
Makeup is too heavy
Because something is popular and in style does not always work. Case in point: The heavy face makeup the news women wear makes them look like "street walkers." I guess when you have black, white or yellow skin to contend with, you go for one size fits all, but frankly, I could scrape my initials on the face of these women, the makeup is so thick. Same with their "uniforms." It's long, it's short, it's boring. Maybe a black pant suit would work better.
We do tune in for "news," you know, but being distracted by obvious tricks (check out those long eyelashes) that don't work ... well, it is distracting.
CLARA FISHER FIELDS
Bentonville
Recipe for restoration
Rex Nelson's column last Saturday was titled "Kings of conservation." In the first paragraph Mr. Nelson referred to he and a friend standing in some pine timber near Gurdon in Clark County when they heard the call of a bobwhite. I was led to believe that the title of his article indicated he and others with him were going to produce and print a recipe for restoring the habitat that the bobwhite once enjoyed and now so desperately needs in order to survive.
After reading the second paragraph it was apparent there would be no recipe for restoration.
Further into the column it was apparent Mr. Nelson was preparing to inform readers that the title did indicate a recipe--of sorts. The fact he mentions Ross Whipple and Mark Karnes has nothing to do with the survival of the bobwhite. The simple fact they own and/or manage thousands of acres of timberland in Arkansas doesn't help the bobwhite, who cares very little about pine straw for breakfast. He needs a steady diet of grass seeds, peas, etc., found along fence rows of cultivated farm lands, not pine timber.
My grandfather at Donaldson always had several coveys of quail on his farm. When I was a youngster, after planting corn, he would send me along each row with a supply of purple hull or black-eyed pea seed and, as near possible, drop one between each corn seed. When it was harvest time, the people living near the corn acreage were blessed like the quail with a good diet and naturally they were willing, like the bobwhite, to feed their families something that didn't resemble timberlands and pine straw.
A few years ago I responded to an article from the Game and Fish Commission and gave them my grandfather's recipe. They never responded but I'm sure they are someday going to get the message. But that's not to say the message will come from Mr. Nelson or Mark Karnes or Ross Whipple. Does the message maybe need a little fertilizer on it?
PAUL GOZA
Malvern
Editorial on 08/05/2017