Where's the rest of the story?
Here are things not discussed in the articles on Sunday's Perspective Section:
No link between games, violence: Article failed to mention William Spengler was a convicted felon, served only 17 years for killing his grandmother. Why was he out on the street?
The freedom to be left alone: Good article that Mr. Pitts has written, but he fails to mention the names were of legal gun owners. The Journal News would show some true "investigative reporting" if they published the names of the illegal gun owners in the local counties.
The market and Mother Nature: Another tired article from Mr. Friedman. If he wanted to do something about carbon emissions, he would call for only one overseas flight per person per year. Think of the billions of tons of carbon eliminated. What is Mr. Friedman's carbon footprint?
Immigration ripe for reform: The editorial says the administration has targeted removal of "undocumented immigrants" who are arrested for crimes. Since it is a crime to enter the country illegally, does that mean all are being deported? What about an article on the one million plus who enter legally, and numerous programs which allow legal immigration.
JACK CALLAHAN, Cleveland, Tenn.
GOP lifeline could be nearby
The current Republican Party seems to be struggling to stay afloat in an ever-changing sea of issues, reaching for a lifeline. There is one.
While the party's factions squabble among themselves, the secularists grow stronger in their influence. As they continue to change the fabric of our nation, in ways never originally intended, the United States of America grows weaker.
Who will speak the truth? Who will print the truth of what Washington, Jefferson, Adams and others said about the founding of this nation? Who has the courage to speak against the American Civil Liberties Union? Who will call for a repudiation of the 1947 Supreme Court ruling in Everson v. the Board of Education, where the erroneous "separation of church and state" was born?
Who will have the fortitude, because you will be ridiculed, to say what tens of millions of Americans feel in their hearts: "We as a nation have abandoned God."
Nationally I haven't a clue, but locally are there some promising prospects? Could it be House Speaker Beth Harwell, Rep. Kevin Brooks or perhaps former Tennessee GOP chairwoman Robin Smith that grabs the lifeline for America?
DAVID DEVILLE, Cleveland, Tenn.
Same lawmakers mean same results
The voters just re-elected 95 percent of the 10 percent approved Congress. Nice work, guys! Now we are heading toward the so-called "fiscal cliff." One writer wrote, our budget is the same as our debt. The national debt represents the money that Congress has spent through the years to keep our country going. By not raising the debt ceiling, we are saying to those we hired for services that we are not going to pay you.
Due to out-of-control spending by our Congress, we have repeatedly had to raise the debt ceiling. Keeping the same budget we have now, the debt ceiling would keep rising. There are many ways to cut billions in spending. Cutting Social Security and Medicare should be last on this list, but most politicians try to scare us into thinking this should be first. Money is separately put into these programs by hard-working taxpayers. Our inept representatives never mention money wasted on foreign aid, supporting able-bodied people on welfare, and billions more on wasteful government projects. If we keep re-electing these same tired politicians, we can't complain about our debt.
JACK PINE, Dunlap, Tenn.
Belgian Merckx best cyclist ever
A friend wanted me to settle a bet. Is Lance Armstrong considered the best cyclist of all time? No! Armstrong is a great cyclist, but not the best. He, his handlers and sponsors were brilliant in building some of the most capable teams in the history of cycling. They hired the best cyclist in the world (some champions themselves) to pull him along, and chase down his opponents.
It is true Armstrong has seven Tour de France wins, but that was virtually the only race he competed in. The best cyclist of all time is a Belgian named Eddy Merckx, who competed from 1965 to 1978. Nicknamed the "Cannibal," Merckx won the Tour de France only five times, but he also won the Tour of Italy and Spain many times. Merckx raced everything. He amassed a total of 528 professional wins to Armstrong's 25. In 1972 he set the "Hour Record," a benchmark in cycling greatness. Merckx set the record at 49.431 km, or 30.7 miles in one hour, which wasn't broken for 28 years. Armstrong never even attempted the "Hour Record." Is Armstrong the best? No, just the richest.
FRANK DANIEL, Signal Mountain
Quick-fix gun ban won't work
Since the expiration of the last federal gun ban, opponents of the legislation claim that its expiration has seen little if any increase in crime.
Reports submitted to the Department of Justice and the National Institute of Justice found that should the assault weapons ban be renewed, its effects on gun violence would likely be negligible and perhaps too small for reliable measurement, because rifles in general, including "assault weapons," are rarely used in gun crimes.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found "insufficient evidence to determine the effectiveness of any of the firearms laws reviewed for preventing violence."
The 2010 edition of the book "More Guns, Less Crime" by John Lott provided the first vetted research on the 2004 end to the federal assault weapon ban. In general, no correlation between the sunset of the weapons ban and violent crime since the end of the ban was found.
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." -- Albert Einstein. While railing against the rising tide of overt abhorrent deviants, people and politicians look for short-term quick-fixes like gun bans instead of looking to their own doorstep and address a tragic national lack of parenting presence and skills.
DAVID D. FIHN SR., Hixson, Tenn.
Football coach's pay over the top
Are teachers, policemen, firemen, ministers, counselors for the most part overpaid for their work? Of course not. Then why is Nick "Super" Saban, head Alabama football coach, "underpaid" at $5.48 million per year as your headline story in the Sunday, Jan. 6, newspaper suggests? Come on, America, what kind of values are these that we are teaching our most precious resource: our children? We pay one man more money to coach students in a game fraught with violence than we do men and women to teach, protect, counsel and minister to our children on a daily basis?
Don't kid or delude yourselves any longer: America's violence problems don't begin and end with guns or even violent movies and video games, but rather it begins with the age-old glorification of naked human aggression in the form of violent "games" like football.
What is America's love affair with football really all about? Besides big money, it is, in part, about violence and violent aggression to millions of fans, and just watch how quickly they will line up to deny it! In my opinion, in the words of Shakespeare," They "doth protest too much!" I believe that paying any coach $5.48 million a year for coaching football is over the top and not the kind of values that we need to be teaching our children.
DAVID BURNETT, Monteagle, Tenn.