Baseball holiday, Ukraine crisis, Sen. Claire McCaskill

Just what we need, another national holiday (2-26, B3, “Ozzie seeks holiday for opening day”). Our economy is so robust, we need more non-productive overhead to drink beer and watch baseball (effort backed by Budweiser).

If we need another national holiday, why don’t we use Election Day so the masses can get out to vote?

Oh, that’s right. No one cares about that.

The hypocritical rhetoric we are hearing from our president and Secretary of State John Kerry is unbelievable.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is securing a seaport that Russia has had in Crimea for more than two hundred years, and we would do the same if Cuba decided to oust the U.S. from Guantanamo Bay, which happens to be on its island. Plus, the population of Crimea is overwhelmingly pro-Russian.

Kerry’s quote in The Star on March 5, “It is not appropriate to invade a country, and at the end of the barrel of a gun, dictate what you are trying to achieve.” Just what does he think the United States has been doing over these past years?

We have either invaded or militarily influenced the overthrow of governments in Iraq, Afghanistan, Egypt and Libya, and, if Israel gets its way, we’ll invade Syria and Iran, too.

Putin is not the spineless, wishy-washy leader that ours is, and we don’t want to tangle with him, especially now that Obama wants to severely cut our military.

We need to stay out of other countries’ business and take care of our own numerous problems for a change.

It is very interesting that Sen. Claire McCaskill speaks of her support of our military and at the same time sinks the distinguished career of Lt. Gen. Susan J. Helms, former commander of the 14th Air Force and Joint Functional Component Command for Space located at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

Lt. Gen. Helms is the only woman to hold such positions in the U.S. Air Force. Sen. McCaskill blocked Lt. Gen. Helms’ nomination to become vice commander of the Air Force Space Command because Lt. Gen. Helms overturned a sexual assault conviction in 2012.

As her boss, four-star Gen. William Shelton, states: “She was caught in the middle of a intense political battle. Frankly, it’s her principled leadership and principled decision-making that made her an inconvenient truth to some who wanted to use her. But she steadfastly refused to compromise her integrity by refusing to be used as a political cause.”

During her 34 years in the Air Force, Lt. Gen. Helms served as a flight test engineer, a record-setting astronaut, space operator, commander, leader and role model for many women.

Lt. Gen. Helms relinquished her command and retired this past January.

So much for bucking the system, right, Senator?

Certain letter writers to The Star think young people should not have to buy health insurance that they may or may not need.

I’m betting that a good number of these young folks will eventually need medical care that they cannot afford.

Then the rest of us, who recognize we are not invincible, will pay for their medical care in the form of higher premiums and costs for services. Are these letter writers willing to continue paying the bills for those who are betting they will not get sick?

These young invincibles don’t want to pay for health insurance, and they also don’t want to pay for health care. Therefore, many of them don’t get preventive care because they don’t want to pay for it, and they don’t see the need.

This will result in many of these people becoming seriously ill from preventable diseases.

Nobody thinks he or she is going to get cancer or be involved in a car accident.

I’ve paid for car insurance for the last 25 years and never had any use for it. I really don’t think I’ll ever need to use it.

But the reality is, it only takes one incident to prove me wrong.

I read in the March 9 “Around the World” section, where Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic are urging Congress to approve natural-gas exports faster because of the continuing threat that Russia may cut its natural-gas supply to Ukraine.

The cost of heating fuels in the United States has gone through the roof for the citizens of this country who rely on propane to heat their homes.

The gas companies can gouge their own customers in the United States and export the rest for a high profit.

This winter was especially brutal on residents in rural Missouri counties.

All the while Secretary of State John Kerry continues to throw taxpayer money to the tune of billions of dollars at countries that are experiencing political upheaval and the overthrow of their governments.

Egypt comes to mind, and now Crimea.

If Crimea goes to Russia, who gets the money Kerry took to Crimea when he visited recently?

It is absurd that the United States continues to make these same kinds of decisions over and over again while Americans continue to bleed dollars at home.

How wonderful that The Star on March 9 did a front-page public-relations story, “Leawood megachurch eyes a $90 million overhaul,” about the Church of the Resurrection and its plan to expand its facilities.

Now I’d love to see a series on the hundreds of other churches throughout the Kansas City area that are merely trying to retain membership and struggling to survive.

And maybe check with them and see what they could do with $90 million.

Farmers are never satisfied (3-6, A1, “Landowners file suit, say concerns over wildlife trump flood control”). How can they blame the Corps of Engineers for the horrible effects of the 2011 flood?

They say the corps changed the rules to protect our natural resources, such as wildlife, fish and natural habitats.

Hip hip hurray for the corps. Bambi doesn’t have a farm bill.

Here is an observation about the Missouri House bill that would allow students to opt out of evolution curriculum in science classes. Scientist Richard Dawkins has pointed out that male pheasants pay a price for evolving their wonderfully colored plumage to attract females so they can pass on their genes.

That colorfulness also puts a target on their backs for predators. Dull-colored male pheasants would be safer. Natural selection, however, has evolved on the side of the gene survival of colorful male pheasants.

This makes me wonder about our own species. What is the evolutionary price we pay for the temporary comfort and security of dull stupidity?

What is the price of genetically dumbed-downed children in the study of science?

Our gene survival should not be in the hands of Missouri Republican representatives such as Rick Brattin of Harrisonville.

President Barack Obama cut the Bush deficit in half in 2013. The $680 billion federal deficit in fiscal year 2013 was less than half the record $1.4 trillion in fiscal year 2009.

This is something that Republicans don’t want you to know.

All this crying for more state funding of education should be in question. Take the Kansas City Public Schools, for instance.

In the 1980s, taxes were increased in the district by a federal court order generating almost $2 billion. With all that money, test scores were dismal.

Granted, some of that money was for desegregation purposes. However, much of it went to build new schools and infrastructure.

The district has lost its accreditation.

This should be confirmation that education cannot be improved by simply throwing more money at it.

This story was originally published March 11, 2014 at 6:08 PM with the headline "Baseball holiday, Ukraine crisis, Sen. Claire McCaskill."