Two big problems with earmarks
What is the big deal with earmarks?
They are only $10 billion in our trillion-dollar budget!
Well, there are two major problems, corruption and bad bills being passed.
A business owner and his/her family, employees, etc. give the max to an elected official for the primary, main campaign, the PACs, to his friend’s campaign. Give or be left out!
Then the elected official selects “good ideas” that fit into his “no questions asked earmark budget.”
Guess who gets these earmarks, directly or indirectly – whether the project is of value or not?
Now, for bad bills. A bill comes along that the elected official does not like. Remarkably, the official is offered a chance to insert his pet earmarks. He does, votes yes, and a bad or unnecessary bill gets passed. And, these earmarks do not get debated; they just appear in the bill when signed!
The argument for earmarks is that the elected official knows the needs of the district better than Washington bureaucrats. If that is true, then fire those bureaucrats. If a project is worth doing, then the elected official should introduce it and fight for it on the floor.
COL. (R) ROGER DUCKWORTH
Ooltewah
Story omits key element
While reading the Sunday article about the historic Polk County fort blockhouse, I kept wondering “what’s a blockhouse?”
The article told how many there had been, at Fort Marr, the fact it was the only one left, the subsequent sad history associated with it, but never informing readers what a blockhouse is.
Chances are an assumption was made by the writer or editor that all readers knew what a blockhouse is, or there was a journalistic error to omit the definition of a blockhouse, because not all readers know what a blockhouse is or was, including me!
My feeling is the article would have been even more interesting if it had also included the definition and historical perspective of what a blockhouse is, which would have left all readers completely satisfied with an otherwise very interesting article. As it was, I, and I’m sure some others too, had to subsequently leave the newspaper and look up blockhouse to find out what it is; and it’s interesting too.
CALVIN CALHOUN
(Editor’s Note: Blockhouses were small forts built of logs, usually approximately square – like “blocks.”)
Ministers need to speak up
Ministers should be the ones who rebut biblical misinterpretations in the press, but so ashamed of Christ’s gospel are the shepherds of Chattanooga’s flocks that the only pastors who write newspapers are those who invite the wolves among their sheep, welcome abomination, and ordain sin.
A trained literary critic will have to do.
In Genesis 19:1-11, Lot defends two angel guests against the Sodomites, who want to “know” them. Pro-homosexual readers say that gang rape is the sin here, not sodomy.
Given that the Bible always calls homosexuality sin, such readers must be as blind as the Sodomites, who cannot find the door in front of them, to pretend the storyteller condoned sodomy but not rape.
In Leviticus 18:22, lying with a man as with a woman is called an abomination. According to “Strong’s Concordance,” the Hebrew word (transliterated) is “tow’ebah,” meaning “something disgusting.”
Pro-homosexuals also write that Lot is unholy because he offers his two daughters instead of his guests. However, Lot never call them. Rather, his offer insults the Sodomites, who want men, and invokes the help of Lot’s soon-to-be sons-in-law – who are out among the men of Sodom, as silent as Chattanooga’s ministers.
DR. BRIAN HALE
Red Bank
Custody cases handled wrongly
The child custody case of Tonya Craft and Joal Henke demonstrates all that is wrong with the family courts. If two parents are each fit, no person, including a judge or either parent, has any authority to dictate the child’s relationship and time with the other parent. The only authority a judge has is to make each parent respect the equal rights of the other parent, which, most importantly, ensures the child will have an opportunity to have a meaningful and equal relationship with each of his or her loving parents.
Ms. Craft was proven innocent. She has never been proven to be an unfit mother. As such, dad has no more rights to the children than mom. Moreover, the children have a right to and need an equal and meaningful relationship with their mother. A child spells love T-I-M-E. It is time family courts stop depriving children of this need. When will we learn that throwing two parents into a ring like pit bulls and awarding child custody and all the financial benefits that come with it to the parent who best destroys the other is the most destructive approach we could take for our children?
JEREMY HOPKINS
Ducktown, Tenn.
Good Samaritans are aplenty
There are still good people out there!
Recently, my Honda broke down on McCallie Avenue, not far from a local gas station. A student on a bike (David?) stopped and offered to push me toward that station. That poor young man was dripping with sweat and never complained once.
As the hill got steeper, two young women joined him and pushed me over the hill where I coasted to the gas station.
Once there, two other men joined in and pushed me right to a pump.
I can never thank these folks enough for their efforts and very good deeds. Yes, these unsung heroes in my eyes will never be forgotten. You will be blessed as I was blessed by you!
SUE BROWN
Airport policies are out of line
Is there no privacy for the American people any more?
I speak in reference to the new policy of pat-downs of one’s private parts at the nation’s airports. Why should the American people placidly accept this indecency?
My husband and my doctor are the only ones who are supposed to feel my intimate parts.
Do we see pictures of Arab men and women being patted down?
If all of those who fly would boycott the airlines for a month or two, they might get the point that this has gone too far this time.
Just how much are we going to let them do to us before we fight back?
NORMA WITTER
Sequatchie, Tenn.