Should the calamitous, disjointed emanations gurgling from the elephantine gobs of the odious, overweening, impertinent Democratic mooncalves who are seeking the presidency ever become law (or even policy), the subsequent inevitable decline and ruin of America will occur at such a rapid rate they'll make the Indy 500 look like a potato-sack race.
It seems those on the left have an appetite for destruction. They are the bane of this great nation and a pestilence which plagues the entire world.
To put it simply: Everything they touch turns to poop.
RICHARD D. SANDERS
Benton
Absurdities abound
Could you possibly dream up a more absurd president than Donald Trump--or a more tone-deaf enabler than Tom Cotton? Senator Cotton now admits to giving our gullible president the loopy idea of buying Greenland, and of course Trump, being Trump, immediately ran with it. And Cotton, being Cotton, has proceeded to double down on his nonsensical proposal--buying Greenland is "obviously the right decision," the Democrat-Gazette reported Cotton saying. Why, you'd have to be deranged not to see it, he says. No matter that Denmark doesn't want to sell and Greenland doesn't want to be bought.
Even if the scheme wasn't so half-baked, a more prudent statesman than the character we have in the White House might have first considered a back-channel approach before blurting it out to the world, thus ensuring worldwide ridicule. The idea is so harebrained that you almost wonder if Cotton is perhaps slyly working to undermine Trump, to make him appear to be an even bigger fool than he has shown himself to be. If only.
CRAIG SMITH
Little Rock
Address retiree issues
I noticed that Congress is addressing several issues concerning retiree pensions, including multi-employer ones. Here are a few that are not that need to be addressed as well: (1) Annual funding notices should be timelier, show the interest rates used to calculate the funding level(s), and reflect the government's (PBGC's) view of them. (2) Restrictions on the merging of pension plans with the PBGC's approval are required to protect retirees in higher-funded plans. Companies are doing this to avoid payments into lower-funded plans. (3) The use of so-called pension-smoothing techniques (giving companies more time) to fund unrelated programs should be severely restricted. These subvert pension security. (4) In the case of bankruptcy, retirees should have a standing in court to claims on assets and be represented on the bankruptcy board. (5) Golden parachutes for executives retiring or downsized should not be paid out of a pension fund. (6) In mergers, acquisitions and spinoffs, the funding of all resulting pension plans or merging of should be approved by the PBGC.
ERISA (Employee Retiree Income Security Act) needs updating to close the loopholes and problems encountered in the last decade or so. Congress should pay more attention to retiree issues.
BOB WINTER
Sherwood
Many uses for paper
Until recently, with the advent of the iPad, I believe Mr. Hussman was not aware of all the services the newspaper provided other than providing the news. Uses for green rubber bands, yellow plastic bags, a doggie career, using newspaper to clean windows, paper to wrap breakable items, a swatter, to detect car oil leaks, filling recycle bins, on and on.
He must be amazed, and I hope he is getting a chuckle from all this information.
CLAIRE LEHENY
Sherwood
We're all just people
I do not read obituaries every day or even every week. If someone I know dies, I'll look for that one, and take note of if, when, and where services may be held, etc.
However, on occasion, I will find myself perusing them after I have read the rest of the paper, and every once in a while, one will stand out. It may be the fact the departed was very young that catches my eye, or even a very long obituary that reads like a biography of a life well-lived. I'll read the very short ones, and think to myself, what a perfunctory statement of a life lost; did anyone know or care about this person!?
Saturday's paper included an obituary for Mr. Matthew McConnell that was a bare-bones, touching statement concerning addiction, and how we as a society sometimes view it. I did not know this person. Overall, it captures a life full of potential, but one also stolen by the "thief" of addiction, told through obviously loving tears, soaked in honey, so sweet was the sentiment.
A poignant portion of it bears repeating in this section, that others may read it. It states: "We never expect addiction to kill those most familiar to us. There is a dangerous idea that drug addicts are a whole separate category of people, people who would never include Matthew, the starting linebacker. But the truth is that there is no other kind of people. There are only people, and all of us know someone whose life is vulnerable to addiction."
To the writer, I am so sorry for your loss, and I felt blessed to read those words from your heart. Thank you. May they touch others the same way and maybe make a difference in another's life. Amen.
TIM GREEN
Little Rock
Editorial on 08/28/2019