Today's Stars & Stripes letters

[lebkuchen]

Excerpted:

How to improve news options

I have had my fill of the trash television on the Fox and MSNBC networks with their casts of political spellbinders, the likes of Bill O’Reilly, and their Goebbels-style regard for the intelligence of media audiences.

It remains to be discerned whether such trash journalism represents a contrived information blackout or a profit-oriented programming decision as the cost of the content represents a minuscule financial investment compared to even the cost of Stars and Stripes.

To this end, upon my return to the States in April I am going to contact my congressman and recommend that the authority of Stars and Stripes be expanded to include news content on AFN. I feel this represents a meaningful approach, given the superior quality of Stripes compared to media jerks like Bill O’Reilly.

Draft logic doesn't hold up

The writer stated that it would be the liberals who would avoid service, “buy their way out of it,” if you will. Gosh, avoiding true military service to our country? That sounds an awful lot like our current president. Sure, Bush was in the Air National Guard, but he even flaked out of that (with no repercussions). If the letter writer wants to judge someone based purely on their service to their country through military service, it seems our commander in chief should not be one of his favorites.

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Going into the even less obvious, a recent survey by The New York Times showed that fewer than 40 percent of current Republican senators and representatives served in any form of the U.S. military. Even fewer served in a combat zone. This despite the fact that many are in the right age range to have served in Vietnam.

I ask anyone with the same point of view as the writer: If your view of politicians or a political party is based so much on their military service to their country, why did you vote for George W. Bush?

Errors in intelligent design

The argument for intelligent design is an interesting hypothesis, but we find no evidence for purpose in nature. Millions of species went extinct, and an intelligent designer did nothing to ensure their survival. Natural causes (acts of God?) such as diseases and disasters have extinguished great numbers of human beings. Even if we were to find what appears to be design in the universe, this does not imply a designer for whose existence there is insufficient evidence. Who designed the designer?

Finally, science is based on evidence, not wishful dreaming or dogma.

Incomplete picture on liberals

The last six years, Republicans have consistently slashed the tax burden from the top 2 percent of earners while making token cuts on the middle class to gain votes. They regained the revenue by gutting the Department of Veterans Affairs, the education system and programs for the infirmed or elderly. At the same time, they fund their pet programs, such as the $10 billion annual subsidy to Exxon to explore for more oil. In turn, Exxon makes huge profits on my exploratory tax dollar, selling me overpriced fuel that I helped them find.

I hear Republicans scream bloody murder when funds are spent on social programs for the needy, yet say nothing about “corporate welfare.”

http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=125&article=44314