Speak Out A 11/30/01

Getting the job done

WE TALK about high school sports, traffic lights and local police giving too many tickets in this forum because they are not that important and we can have lighthearted discussions about those issues. To the caller saying we have more important things to worry about: You are right. But you will never solve the issues of homosexuality, terrorism, the economy or any other substantial issue in Speak Out. Call your U.S. representative and senator or vote in every election if you want to influence policy in those areas. Speak Out won't get it done for you.

Spending blood money

THE SOUTHEAST Missourian editorial endorsement ("Castro opens doors to American food") of a deal "good for ... agribusiness" should have taken the Southeast Missourian's onetime hard line and elaborated on an editorial entitled, "Agribusiness opens door to Castro's blood money."

Pleasing Socrates

THE ANCIENT Greeks taught us the truism that in order to be a complete person one must have a sound body and mind. Contrary to a caller's claim that the Speak Out debate over the efficacy of lifting weights is trivial, it may be the most important topic ever debated in this forum. Socrates would be proud of Speak Out generally but ecstatic over a healthy Speak Out debate over the merits of pumping iron.

Midnight knock

IF USUALLY sensible syndicated columnists Mona Charen and George Will have both been fooled into believing there is no problem with Attorney General John Ashcroft's secret military tribunals, then prepare yourself for a knock on the door somewhere around midnight.

A long laugh

IN HIS recent letter, Alan Journet was using hot-button terms like "pro-pollution" and "pro-plunder" to hide the fact that the left is still espousing the same tired, empty ideas. They are always pessimistic and gloomy and see the world as on the brink of destruction. Can they name any public official who is going around dumping out chemicals from a 55-gallon drum every day? It took me two hours and two minutes to finish his letter -- two minutes to read it and two hours to stop laughing.

Applause, applause

I READ the note about the youth group raking leaves for seniors. I think other churches in the area such as Jackson and Gordonville should look around their communities. Just because the seniors may not belong to their church, they should still try and help them. I applaud those youths for taking the time out of their schedule to help others. Isn't that what America is all about?

Intellectual thoughts

INTELLECTUALS ARE an insufferable lot, because they give off airs and put on false pretenses as though they know everything but are so racked with ambiguity that they know nothing. Horse-sense heartlanders realize their gut instinct or emotional IQ is the path to truth and enlightenment and not the nonexistent thinking or rational part of the brain. What intellectuals do is wrap their preconceived notions in fancy language to try to convince us that they arrived at their conclusions through thinking and rational inquiry, but we know better.

Off the schedule

I AM a working man. I can't take another sleepless Monday night. Therefore, I beg the powers that be to never again schedule a Monday-night football game in which the St. Louis Rams play.

They're all wet

I WOULD rather surround myself with the people a caller called Hee-Hawers than the intellectual elites, because the Hee-Hawers have the common sense not to spit in the wind. The intellectuals are so dumb they would have to conduct a study on this and stand there and spit into the wind a hundred times or more before they finally would come to the conclusion that they were all wet, which is what they are anyway with their silly ideas.