<strong><span class="subhead">Anti-Catholicism</span></strong></p><p>Why does The Star feel compelled to print Maureen Dowd (10/29, &ldquo;It seems some habits never change&rdquo;) just because she is popular with their readers? The article exposed Dowd as hostile to Catholicism by her rants at Pope Benedict XVI calling him &ldquo;uber-conservative pope&rdquo; also known as &ldquo;God&rsquo;s Rottweiler,&rdquo; who was once &ldquo;a conscripted member of the Hitler Youth.&rdquo;</p><p>These epithets are examples of unfair, prejudicial and just downright mean anti-Catholicism. Dowd would never say these things about an Islamic, Jewish or African-American religious issue. Too often the Catholic Church is deemed fair game as a punching bag for anything liberals want to rant about.</p><p>The Star should remember that although there are subscribers who &ldquo;enjoy&rdquo; Dowd&rsquo;s column, there are far more subscribers &mdash; including non-Catholic Christians &mdash; who sympathize with Catholics, who find this type of diatribe offensive.</p><p><p align="right"><strong>Greg Ringel</strong></p></p><p><p align="right"><em>Gladstone</em></p></p><p><strong><span class="subhead">Pro athletes need to stop all of the whining</span></strong></p><p>I don&rsquo;t know whether there are any fans in this city feeling the same way I&rsquo;m feeling. I&rsquo;m tired of hearing these professional athletes complain when their job doesn&rsquo;t go their way. Reality is life isn&rsquo;t always perfect. </p><p>I have a 28-year-old daughter with cancer, and she has a 5-year-old daughter with cystic fibrosis. Now <em>that </em>is life not going your way. </p><p>Get over yourselves!</p><p><p align="right"><strong>Paula Mallon</strong></p></p><p><p align="right"><em>Olathe</em></p></p><p><strong><span class="subhead">Blunt a watchdog?</span></strong></p><p>It&rsquo;s good to know that Rep. Roy Blunt is looking out for me and my health care future (11/4, &ldquo;Streamlined reform possible&rdquo;). He&rsquo;s been in Congress a long time and he&rsquo;s finally taken notice.</p><p>He says that he&rsquo;s going to protect me from letting a bureaucrat get between me and my doctor. I just wish that he would protect me from letting a corporate insurance flunky get between me and my doctor. </p><p>Hey Roy &hellip; how about letting us regular folks in on the insurance plan that you&rsquo;ve got in Congress? Or how about letting us at least know how much money you have received from your insurance buddies over the years so that we know whether to take you seriously or not? Maybe that&rsquo;s being a little too personal. I didn&rsquo;t mean to get between you and your &ldquo;health care lobbyists.&rdquo; </p><p><p align="right"><strong>Jim Kendall</strong></p></p><p><p align="right"><em>Kansas City, Kan.</em></p></p><p><strong><span class="subhead">Taxes needed to clear federal debt</span></strong></p><p>It really bothers me that our country is in debt and that it is no big deal and doesn&rsquo;t put citizens in a panic.</p><p>We are trying to use more money with health care and financial aid programs as well as other things that need money to run them. I don&rsquo;t understand how our main focus is on doing all these things that cost money when we are in a tremendous debt. I would like to see taxes increased on items under $1,000 so it would not include housing and cars and the more expensive things.</p><p>I understand that this will get a lot of criticism, but if taxes are raised a little bit, it will all add up. I hope that over a period of time it would help our economy and get our nation out of debt. </p><p>It is a little pathetic that our dollar is only worth 67 cents compared to the Euro. This needs to change and be close to equal. </p><p><p align="right"><strong>Jared Aronson</strong></p></p><p><p align="right"><em>Lenexa</em></p></p><p><strong><span class="subhead">Global warming rains wealth on Gore</span></strong></p><p>As reported on MSNBC, and as many already knew, Al Gore is poised to leap from making millions from his global warming scam to soon making billions.</p><p>Some analysts say he could become one of the wealthiest men in America in the coming years, worth tens of billions of dollars derived from government sweetheart deals and carbon credit commissions. All of this while American businesses shut down or leave the country to escape the oppressive and confiscatory cap and trade taxes. Nice.