Letters To The Editor
March 31, 2010 - MidWeek
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Del.icio.usGet a clue on ACLU
Snap out of it, David Vines (“ACLU unholy war” letter). The American Civil Liberties Union is not intent on confiscating your weapons or siccing Islamic evil-doers on you. Why use 10 column inches of print when one could just as easily and more economically say, “Me and my Fox News friends and my church are the deciders of what the Constitution means.”
The ACLU exists to protect you and me and the rest of us from such deciders.
Tom Horton
Palolo
Need a Tam cam
Turning to the Letters page of the March 17 MidWeek, I noticed the letter titled “Re-aim bank cams” and had to laugh, as I expected the letter to address aiming cameras at bank CEOs and perhaps installing them in board-rooms, catching the real criminals who rip off more than the traditional “bank robber.”
Looking at another letter on the same page, “Why vote for Rod Tam,” hmmm, maybe a camera in his office as well!
Rick Parlee
Mililani
Madoff and Tam
Remember Bernie Madoff? He cheated thousands of people out of billions of dollars. Did he ever claim “poor math”? No, but never mind, the judge sent him to 150 years in prison anyway.
Along comes Rod Tam in our backyard. He bilked the city - and therefore us taxpayers - out of thousands of dollars. And he claims the reason is “poor math.” Where is the judge that sends him to jail?
Gerhard C. Hamm
Waialae Iki
Navy to the corps
In World War II, I was a pharmacists mate second class when our LST landing ship was sunk at the island of Vella Lavella in the Northern Solomons. As a result of my action, I was given a promotion in rate to first class and awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal - which, I was told and have always believed is the highest award that a noncombatant can receive. Corpsmen were considered noncombatants.
After reading Jerry Coffee’s recent column criticizing President Obama for pronouncing the silent P in corpsman, I wonder if something changed in the past 60 plus years and higher medals are now given to corpsmen?
Mr. Coffee, don’t ridicule Obama for a simple mistake. As for incorrectly saying corpse-man, I have heard others, even in the Navy say worse things than that, except when they were bleeding to death.
Ted Green
Kaaawa
Taxed drama queen
Rick Hamada has become quite a drama queen in his opposition to increasing the general excise tax. Yes, I know it’s his job as a conservative to oppose any and all tax increases. But don’t you think he goes to the alarmist (and even ludicrous) level to refer to a rather small increase in the tax as “draconian”? My dictionary defines draconian as “exceedingly harsh, very severe.” A one percentage point increase in the excise tax hardly fits that description, even if compounded by being charged at several points along the way before retail level. If I had to pay an extra few bucks when buying a new TV because of such an increase, that’s not going to send me into bankruptcy court. If my weekly grocery bill went up by a few dollars, I won’t be starving. I probably won’t even lose any weight.
Mr. Hamada uses alarmist rhetoric, such as saying our legislature is “hellbent” on “dramatically” increasing the GET. Raising the excise tax by a mere one percentage point to 5 percent or 5.5 percent isn’t all that dramatic. Many other states and foreign countries have sales taxes or excise taxes much higher than that. And there is no sense in raiding special funds, which then means that money won’t be there for future uses for which they are intended. Nor does it make much sense in delaying our tax refunds this year. Let’s bite the bullet and increase the tax.
Joseph O’Brien
Honolulu
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