OpinionJuly 28, 2001
SPEAK OUT
JUST SO everyone knows, disabled and retired persons, even though we paid taxes on our Social Security benefits, do not get a tax refund. We need our refund just as much or more than any other person who is able to work. I worked full-time for over 46 years and became disabled a couple of years ago. So is this fair? I don't think so...
Unfair with refunds
JUST SO everyone knows, disabled and retired persons, even though we paid taxes on our Social Security benefits, do not get a tax refund. We need our refund just as much or more than any other person who is able to work. I worked full-time for over 46 years and became disabled a couple of years ago. So is this fair? I don't think so.
Please clean toilets
PLEASE, PLEASE clean up the toilets in the parks. They are so nasty.
Bottom-line mentality
AS NANCY Propst posited in a poignant column recently published in the Southeast Missourian, HMOs do indeed offer a valuable alternative, particularly to their CEOs whose salaries are in the millions. As far as the patients go, I would guess most of them would rather have their protocol of treatment decided by a practicing physician rather than a base insurance bureaucrat whose eyeballs are always focused on the bottom line.
Unknown word
HONEY, I like your enthusiasm and confidence, but believe me, your Speak Out comment about misogyny has not touched off a firestorm of controversy as you so boldly asserted. To tell you the truth, most of us around here don't know what the word means. One coffee-shop wag was heard to say he thought it was some kind of rubdown you got at one of those fancy spas.
Limbaugh's morality
THERE IS a moral component to both sides of the embryonic stem-cell controversy. Thus, as President Bush realizes, the devil is in the details. The eloquent David Limbaugh likely meant in his column that he favors legislating morality as defined by David Limbaugh.
He's buying votes
IT WOULD be naive to say politicians have no hidden agenda when pushing legislation, but I must speak out about two recent actions by our president. I believe tax cuts can be a wonderful thing when used at appropriate times with appropriate frugality. I won't complain when I get my tax refund. Yet I feel the Bush cut was used as a blatant attempt to sway the votes of the American public. The man knows he won the election without the help of the popular vote, and it is fair to say he has not gained support in his term thus far, showing he is far less centrist than previously believed. It is also fair to say that re-election will be a stretch. We watch as Bush pushes to give amnesty to some 3 million illegal Mexican aliens. The problem is that Bush is using our legislative process for his own means under the guise of helping immigrants. He strongly pushed his agenda to the Hispanic community before and relied on their vote. Now he has found a chance to cash in on a potentially huge voter base created solely through his gift of amnesty. It is my hope that citizens of this area and the nation will see through his shallowness of political gift-giving as nothing more than what it is: legalized vote-buying.
Helping him win
AS A general rule of thumb, Missouri Gov. Bob Holden's chances of being re-elected increase by a factor of 11 each time the Southeast Missourian editorial staff expresses outrage over his actions.
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The easy version
MANY INTELLIGENT enough to understand Dr. Felker's column will appreciate it, said a Speak Out caller. I have no way of knowing but would strongly encourage Felker, for the sake of the masses, to write a dumbed down version of it.
Bigger earnings
GARY RUST pointed out that Rush Limbaugh makes more in salary than Dan Rather, Peter Jennings and Barbara Walters combined. That's great, and we should all be proud of his awesome accomplishment. It is also equally astounding that Cape native, public school benefactor and billionaire Richard D. Kinder likely earns more on his investments in one year than all of the aforementioned salaries combined.
Just like life
IF WE have to give a name to the supposedly circular roundabout, why don't we just call it Life, since it is such a magnificent metaphor for it?
Expensive phone call
I THINK this is a shady practice. I have a 19-year-old son who took the bait. And my wife and I are stuck with a $275 phone call that lasted 51 minutes. I have since have had to have all long-distance service cut off. There should be a law nationwide to stop these people from contacting people and taking their money. I know if she ever calls my house again, I will check into our laws and see if maybe I can get my money back.
Letting others do it
THANK GOD the rest of the world has more sense than George Bush. The European Union plan to continue on with the modified Kyoto Treaty without support from the United States shows just how backward and behind the times this country is. The rest of the world is not going to wait because of our arrogance and greed. Using the economy as a shield is just bunk. Why else would some 178 nations support it? We produce the most carbon dioxide and industrial pollutants in the world yet do nothing about it, but at least others are trying.
Good neighbor
OUR NEIGHBOR drove by our house in Jackson and saw we were having a hard time digging up our bush. He came back by and hooked a large belt from his truck to the bush and pulled it out. We thank him very much.
Everything goes
AT AGE 16 I had an landlord who wouldn't replace a faulty, egg smell-producing hot water heater and an air conditioner. After many unsuccessful pleas during the hot summer, I purchased a new hot water heater and an air conditioner. After a week of tardiness, the landlord came by and demanded the rent. I produced the receipt and said we were even for the remainder of my rental contract. He protested, and I told him the air conditioner, the hot water heater and my family would be gone by the end of the week. He accepted the arrangement.
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