A fuzzy monster A fuzzy monster ADVERTISING Chuck Hagel is a funny guy. He’s bipartisan, a heresy in the present political climate. As a twice-wounded combat veteran, he knows what war is like for the grunts — dirty, bloody, inhuman.
A fuzzy monster
Chuck Hagel is a funny guy.
He’s bipartisan, a heresy in the present political climate. As a twice-wounded combat veteran, he knows what war is like for the grunts — dirty, bloody, inhuman. He favors negotiating with Iran rather than going to war; and he opposed unilateral economic sanctions, that is, economic warfare. He questions America’s unconditional support for Israel, which needlessly entangles us in Middle East hostilities. He favors a lean military.
If Hagel had been in charge, America would not now be bankrupt. Nor would we have morphed into a virtual police state, with the government assuming Gestapo-like powers.
Hawkish politicians are painting Hagel as a monster of mythical proportions. Their self-serving calumny is reminiscent of the late Mitch Hedberg’s take on Bigfoot: “I think Bigfoot is blurry — that’s the problem. It’s not the photographers’ fault. Bigfoot is blurry. And that’s extra scary to me. There’s a large, out-of-focus monster roamin’ the countryside. ‘Run, he’s fuzzy, get out of here.’”
Of course, Hedberg was a comedian. The current crop of political naysayers is not funny. They want to frighten you with their blurry logic into mortgaging your children’s future to their war-like policies.
Run, folks. They’re fuzzy. Get out of here.
Bob Stimson
Hilo
Who represents us?
In America, shouldn’t the recent news headline, “State Legislators set priorities” (Tribune-Herald, Dec. 25), have read: “They set our priorities?” Yes, you say … or think.
Well, they don’t and haven’t for decades. Most of our legislators are more interested in “setting the priorities” of U.N. Agenda 21 on “sustainable development” and representing its local special interest eco-groups than anything most freedom-loving, Constitutional-abiding Americans want.
The raw truth is that most people in Hawaii are getting a whole lot less representation from their politicians than are many third world dictators and even animals.
If you think your priorities are theirs, please explain how they just banned the plastic bags that you still choose over 90 percent of the time in our stores. If you think they are interested in saving a few animals as they allege, then please explain why they don’t give a rip that their windmills have killed two thousand “protected” eagles, as well as tens of thousands of other protected birds. And yet, “Big Wind” owners have not been fined a dime.
Please tell me why we’re still using the inferior ethanol-polluted gasoline when pure gasoline is cleaner and cheaper to produce and use? And why are they still pushing the worse yet biofuels? Why are they adding more solar panels (even on the Hilo wet side) when all this has given 90 percent of us is higher taxes and electric rates to subsidize them? Why do they want to ban our cleaner and more efficient gas and oil energy sources when we have enough to dump all the more expensive “alternative energies” as well as all the oil from foreign suppliers for centuries?
Why are they allowing a dozen foreign countries to drill in the Gulf and off our shores? Why would President Obama’s EPA shut down the Keystone Pipeline over a beetle? Why is he seeking to stop “fracking?” (Why does he think we want to spend $7 million dollars for him to fly here in his big petro-planes?) Why are you being told to drive in small and unsafe cars while our legislators cruise around in limos?
Why did you re-elect a president who told you his energy policies would make electric and energy rates skyrocket?
Who represents most Americans today?
Sen. Russell Rudderman doesn’t represent any of this American taxpayer’s rights, wants or needs! Billy? Help!
Gerald Wright
Pahoa
Make it better
Regarding “End of Da World,” Tribune-Herald, Dec. 20.: It’s the end of the world, “as we know it,” as it were, every day. The important question for most people, hopefully, is not whether we will survive to the next day.
Self-indulgent Internet prophets of doom notwithstanding, the important question for those of us whose lives are not really threatened on a daily basis is what we will do with the next day to make the world a better place.
William Mautz
Hilo
