Understand change
When you first dumped this newfangled way of readin' the paper on me, I was upset. How was I supposed to find the parts of the paper I read while ignoring the rest of that drivel?
I even went so far as writing a letter to you about it. Like I usually do when I write a letter in disgust, I filed it for a few days.
I am finding now that I can get through the paper just as quickly on my PC, reading the parts I like to read and ignoring the parts I don't care for. It is different from the way it used to be, but it still works. I will not say it is better; it is just different.
I do have some understanding of why it changed, though. I am not unfamiliar with programmers who have to justify their paychecks. I've been playing with and working on and in computers now for more than 40 years. Yes, that's right, 40 years. Does anybody else remember using a cassette player for data storage?
THOMAS KING
Pocahontas
Editor's note: This letter was originally published 15 years ago today.
Turned upside down
President Obama hasn't even been in office for 100 days, but I cannot remember such quick reversals in policies that have such destructive potential for this country.
Progress has stopped, if it has not taken a direct reversal. I now understand what Gen. Charles Cornwallis felt on Oct. 19, 1781, when he had to surrender Yorktown to Gen. George Washington. At that moment, Lord Cornwallis had the British band there at Yorktown play the tune "The World Turned Upside Down."
This was a great victory for the foundation of America. As a conservative and GOP supporter, I've felt that the world has once again turned upside down, but this time against America's well-being.
The president, along with a massive majority of Congress, passed a stimulus package totaling over $800 billion that has only increased government interference with private business and the national debt. If you're in debt and you continue to overspend, your debt becomes worse. And this debt will not only increase our taxes, but our children's and grandchildren's.
The spending and spreading of government control must be put in check and, in this humble observer's opinion, thrown back. With less taxes, less spending and more saving, this economic downturn can be overturned. Businesses need to be under their own control in competing with one another, not subjugated to government overview that destroys individual ingenuity. The world needs to be turned right again.
ZACHARY T. SELLERS
Dover
Shame on Sarah, staff
Arkansans are not stupid. We can see what's going on with Podium Gate. First, it's delay the report (sounds like a familiar tactic, doesn't it?). Now stories are being floated about the purchase to say that Queen Sarah is not bound by state purchasing procedures. The AG is now helping to cover her bases. Even if she is not bound by those purchasing guidelines, the money the governor spent on her podium is ridiculous and inexcusable. And it would be the same if anyone else bought it--Republican or Democrat.
What seems to have been forgotten here is the money that runs the government comes from the taxes Arkansas citizens pay. We expect our tax money to be spent wisely. I bet there are dozens of podiums around our state Capitol. Surely one of them could be modified, if needed. Or--spend $25 and build a riser, if needed.
I had a boss years ago at a large state agency who used to say stupidly that our agency had more money than God. Our purchasing people were always cleaning up messes he made by disregarding the purchasing regulations. Sarah has done the same thing and she got the GOP (and now the AG) to cover her mess. I noticed an almost identical podium to Sarah's treasure was used at a recent White House press conference honoring World War II Rosie the Riveters. Hmmm ...
We live in a state where people are proud, resourceful and frugal. They make do. They do things like create trailers from the bed of an old pickup rather than buy a trailer. Nobody in state government, not even Queen Sarah, needs a $19,000 podium bought with our money. Shame on her and her staff!
JOYCE WILLIAMS
North Little Rock
Switch format back
I use an iMac, and the new format is absolutely terrible. Please switch back to the old format so we can read the paper instead of spending all our time finding today's paper and trying to zoom in and out of this very awkward format. I assume it was designed for the iPad, but many of us with poor eyesight read it on our computers.
WILLIAM E. HARMON
Russellville