LETTERS 04/29/08

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Nearly every day I witness somebody tossing trash or flicking cigarette butts out the windows of their cars. Why make the world your trash can when you can hold on to it for a short while longer and find an appropriate place to dispose of it?

Just because you may not get caught doesn’t mean you should do it. I do hope law enforcement gets tougher and issues stronger fines or sentences the litterbugs to clean up the roads themselves. This is truly an embarrassment.

Kellis Miller

Blue Springs

Meteorologist Mike Thompson is correct in his defense of global warning skeptics (4/21, FYI, Hearne Christopher column). A personal examination of a 100-year period of weather in Kansas City showed a continuous series of short-term warming and cooling periods. Studies from China covered more than a thousand years and confirmed this. No cycles have been discovered that would help in forecasting climate changes.

Thompson is also correct in that tactics such as those used by Hitler depend on personal abuse instead of scientific proof.

Harry A. Gordon

Retired meteorologist,

National Weather Service

Kansas City

Johnson County is in the process of trying a Chinese national accused of enticing and coercing women to travel to her business to perform sexual services for men for money. (4/25, Local, “Guilty plea in sex-trafficking case”).

She has admitted to the charges. She could face up to 20 years in prison. But by agreeing to cooperate with prosecutors, the estimate is she will face a whole eight months.

What a nice legal system we have. Don’t get stopped for a traffic ticket.

Frank Thompson

De Soto

In years past when people expressed concern about a possible recession or depression, I always said I could deal with it. I still remembered how to cook beans. But in the current economic situation, my old skills don’t help much.

I know how to make bread, but the price of flour is now beyond my reach. Making the family clothing is possible, but the cost of the supplies surpasses my budget. Macaroni used to be a poor person’s staple, but it changed its name to pasta and the price tripled. The same thing happened to cornmeal mush when it became polenta and the price zoomed.

Now I’m reading how funeral costs have increased. So, at the age of 82, I can’t afford to live and I can’t afford to die. Is there an alternative?

Imogene Lusher

Independence

I too am upset over the high price of gasoline. The blame truly rests with every member of Congress in the last 35 years. That is how long ago it was obvious something like this was going to occur, and there’s still no comprehensive energy program.

Congress is a joke. Occasionally members of Congress revise the mileage standard and tell us they are working on it, but no real progress has been made in solving the energy crisis. Both political parties have controlled Congress over the last 35 years, so both parties are responsible for this mess.

Fortunately I believe we have the technical capability to solve the problem. Unfortunately it may take a few years to do it, given our late start.

The next major shortage will be of potable water worldwide. That will take more effort to solve, as there will never be a substitute for water.

Dennis Tabel

Overland Park

A nuclear reactor in Syria? Built with the help of the North Koreans? (4/25, A-1, “U.S. asserts N. Korean link to Syrian reactor.”)

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