To anyone who considers themselves an American citizen, I strongly suggest they read the transcript of President Barack Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech. To his detractors, it may open their eyes to the idea that we have a real-live, honest-to-goodness leader in the White House. To his supporters like me, it will confirm what we knew all along – that this man is what we, and the rest of the world, have been waiting for in an American president.
I have no doubts that many of his detractors will not take the time from their very important lives to read the speech… their opinions are cast in stone, they know what they know, and that is that. How sad for them, because I could not be prouder of our new president than I am today. Of this I am certain: the rest of the world now knows that, as Bob Dylan once sang, “The times, they are a-changing.”
Bob Macias
Mission Viejo
•••
Barak Obama delivers a speech in which he declares “There will be times when nations – acting individually or in concert – will find the use of force not only necessary but morally justified” and that our foreign policy is struggle between good and evil. His supporters in the press call this the Obama Doctrine. It sounds exactly like the foreign policy views of presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush.
Had any of these gentlemen made the same speech the left would be blocking our streets with cries of “U.S. imperialism” and “shoot from the hip cowboyism.” Instead, when Obama steals a page from the conservative view of the world they call it a “doctrine” and genuflect in reverence.
What remains to be seen is if Obama is actually going to back up his words like his three previously mentioned conservative predecessors or is this another case of his all-talk-and-no-action doctrine?
Mike Pfirrman
Los Alamitos
Samueli’s vindication
What wonderful news it was to read in yesterday’s Register that brilliant and generous philanthropist and law-abiding citizen, Henry Samueli will no longer have to defend his integrity against those out to make a name for themselves in the US attorney’s office. Some honorable people really do become successful by hard work and a charitable nature, and the Samuelis are shining examples of the kind of people we need more of in this country. Thank goodness justice has prevailed in this case, and Samueli can get back to being the role model he is.
Laura Wimberly
Yorba Linda
Throwing good money into bad science
I wonder how many people sleepwalked through the two connecting stories – “EPA: Emissions damage health” and “U.S. Catching up with California on emissions.”[ News, Dec. 8?]
As a counter to the recently uncovered e-mails showing that the “Global Warming” stats were manipulated and opposing views were edited out, the EPA announced that “the administration was prepared to push ahead for significant controls at home if Congress doesn’t act first on it’s own.”
A few things here: First the Senate should be incensed at this obvious threat and show that by soundly rejecting the fraudulent cap-and-tax legislation. If Obama wants to move forward in destroying the American economy then they should let him clearly take the lead and not provide him cover.
Second, if Obama really wants to force the country into emulating the insolvent state of California, then Congress should make it clear it was not their idea.
And third, to rectify the situation and become heroes, Congress should immediately enact legislation and remove that “obligation” to “reduce greenhouse pollutants under the Clean Air Act” by simply removing CO2 from that obviously flawed bill. And if there are not enough in the Senate to override a presidential veto, then the American voter can correct that flaw in the next election.
R.J. Steckler
Garden Grove
Clean up pollution, instead
Letter-writer Steve Gil says that “global warming is a growing environmental disaster.” I hope he is not basing this opinion on the IPCC’s latest assessment report which has based much of its executive summary on the questionable UEA/CRU data. And hopefully he realizes that the famous Michael Mann “hockey stick” is so thoroughly discredited that even the IPCC doesn’t refer to it any more.
There is no evidence of disastrous warming – only the expected natural variation of global temperatures that we have experienced for many millions of years. What’s more, there is no cause-and-effect link between rising CO2 levels (which are still far below what they have been for most of the history of the planet) and the minor rise in global temperature since the end of the Little Ice Age.
We would do much better to focus our limited resources on real pollution on our planet and stopping the overfishing of our oceans rather than the quixotic quest to suppress a trace gas that is essential to life on Earth.
Bill Prescott
Orange
A little end-times theology
Persian and Western imperialism square off; Palestine occupied; Western shipping concerned over inflation and Indian Ocean pirates. Sound familiar? It should; that was the world into which Jesus quietly came two thousand years ago. Several years ago in Iran, Muslims theologians invited Christian theologians to attend a conference to discuss Jesus’ second coming; which Muslims believe will bring an end to history and usher in world-wide submission to God. The New Testament also says there will be world-wide submission to God when Jesus comes and the world’s kingdoms shall become God’s (Philippians 2: 10-11; Revelation/Apocalypse 11:15). His second coming will be less subtle than the first one in Bethlehem.
At the end of the Christian presentation concerning Jesus and the last days of history, Iranian reporters asked Christian theologians what “Christian” Western nations were doing to prepare themselves for Jesus’ second coming. When Mennonite theologian David W. Shenk, attendee and source of this information, informed them that Jesus’ kingdom was not temporal, they and the Muslim theologians said they had to study Christian eschatology some more. What he and the other Christian theologians said was of great interest to them. Meanwhile, the president of Iran wrote President George W. Bush inviting him to join with Iran to prepare the world for Jesus’ return, one of Iran’s policy goals.
This writer does not know of any response made by President Bush or if he even got the communication. However, as we approach Christmas celebrating Jesus’ first coming, each of us would do well to answer the reporters’ questions: How am I preparing for Jesus’ return? Will I be any more prepared than shepherds, rulers, and astrologers were two thousand years ago? If not, why not?
T.D. Proffitt, III, Ph.D.
Irvine
History Department Concordia University
Gun control in perspective
One response to my letter on the absurdity of arming everyone to prevent gun violence pointed out that Switzerland requires most able bodied men to own a weapon for national defense, and that consequently Switzerland has a very low crime rate. Here we have what is called a “co-relation without causality.”
It may be that the armed citizenry dissuades criminals, then again it may be that Switzerland, as a very wealthy country with almost no poverty and a homogeneous population, simply doesn’t have much violent criminal activity as a matter of culture. I might add, none of the western European countries, most of which have strict gun-control laws, have a murder rate any where near the rate in the United States., but again that is a co-relation without causality.
Also, let me note that Swiss law requires that firearms be kept under lock and key and unloaded, so if a gun-toting criminal does break into a Swiss Chalet, all the owner has to do is ask him to wait a minute, while he unlocks and loads his defensive weapon.
Finally, as illustrated by the case of Friedrich Leibacher who rushed into a session of parliament in the Swiss town of Zug., everyone having a gun at home has a downside. He used his Swiss Army assault rifle and a grenade to murder 14 people.
Jim Corbett
San Clemente
Government produces nothing
The Forum on Jobs and Economic Growth held yesterday by the Obama administration was populated, for the most part, by politicians, academia, union leaders and bureaucrats. My guess is that few of them have worked in the private sector, started a business or have had to make a payroll.
The notion that government has any significant role in creating jobs is lost on me. This institution does not create, invent or produce anything, but rather removes as much capital as possible from the hands of people that know how to do these things.
So, here is the result of my personal break-out session and advice on how to create jobs. It’s quite simple; get your hands out of our pockets and get the hell out of the way.
Bob Long
Laguna Niguel
Tiger Woods’ errant ways
This kid glove handling of Tiger Woods by his sponsors waiting to see which way the wind blows is an indictment on the morality in the United States today. Maybe after he denounces his shortcomings in the future, the sponsors can still capitalize on his greatness and sell their goods. This is the same type of mentality used with pedophile priests in the Roman Catholic Church. Move them around from parish to parish and give them another chance, regardless of the destructive nature of their deeds.
Only one company, “Gatorade,” has dropped him from their marketing saying their decision was made awhile ago. They needn’t to have made that disclaimer for what they did was the right thing to do. The case could be made if his indiscretion was with one girl he might have been forgiven, given the countless women that try to have affairs with famous people.
A forgiving public might give him the benefit of his errant ways, but 10 or more of these women coming forth so far shows how the kid in the candy shop couldn’t resist temptation. The final decision of whether or not he stays married is ultimately with his wife. If I were her father giving her advice, I would without a doubt tell her to divorce him as quickly as she could obtain a top-notch divorce lawyer.
He put her at great risk having unprotected sex with these various women as though he couldn’t care less about his wife and the consequences. Get rid of this horndog! I hope the corporate sponsors themselves show some backbone and remove him completely from their sponsorship and remember their product representation comes first.
Barry Wasserman
Huntington Beach
•••
It seems that some in the media have taken it upon themselves to denounce the public interest in Tiger Woods recent traffic accident. Writers such as your own Jeff Miller are quick to come to Tigers defense by portraying the public as demanding details of the incident and invading his family’s privacy. The problem with that stance is that the public has not demanded details, rather they have just questioned the bizarre statements Mr. Woods has made public.
This matter lost much of its “right to privacy” when the Woods family decided to crash their car into a tree, smash out the windows with a golf club and then continually lie about what happened. If they wanted to keep this matter private, they should have avoided taking it public in the first place. It reminds me of the couple who gets into a heated argument in a restaurant and when faced with other patrons staring at their outburst, go on the offensive by shouting “What are you looking at? Mind your own business.”
Patrick Buckley
Rancho Santa Margarita
Skewed immigrant statistics
I understand why politicians skew the numbers when talking about how many illegal immigrants are in the country. They have an agenda.
Does that also explain why reporters such as Dan Walters [“Health, immigration linked,” Dec. 8] continue to state the number of illegal immigrants in this country as being about 12 million? How long have we been hearing that number, 10 years or more?
Estimates of illegals crossing our southern border, much less coming in from various other places, range up to 10,000 per day. It has been that way for quite some time. Most studies show that illegal immigrants number closer to 20 million, and most of these state that this number is conservative. We can’t depend on our politicians to tell the truth and we can’t depend on reporters to search for the truth. We are definitely in trouble.
Dennis Walker
Yorba Linda
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