Federal lawmakers, move on from Fox-isms
My dear representatives, Marsha and Chuck. After all the anti-Americanism that we have seen and heard through real news media, as well as with our own eyes and ears, can you still not break away from Fox News-isms?
Rupert Murdoch admitted that Fox lies extensively and agreed to pay nearly $800 million in the Dominion voting machine lawsuit, and that won't be the last. Fox News champion Tucker Carlson claimed in defamation defense that no reasonable person would believe what he says on his show (but his viewers surely did).
Donald Trump once said, "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters, OK?" Your responses to the Trump indictment about government documents seem to strongly indicate his statement to be one of the very few truths that Donald has spoken, at least since entering the world of politics.
God bless America. Save our fragile democracy. Please.
John Winesett
Soddy-Daisy
Why abandon wisdom in identity procedures?
Science tells us the human brain continues to develop into our 20s and that consuming alcohol can arrest this development. So, to protect our young people, we rightly have laws restricting alcohol consumption until age 21.
Because the average teen lacks the intellectual and emotional maturity to consider all the consequences of actions that permanently affect their body, we rightly limit the age for purchasing tobacco, getting a tattoo or getting certain body piercings until age 18. Similarly, due to the far-reaching consequences of sexual activity, we have "age of consent" laws that criminalize sexual activity with persons under the age of 18 (in Tennessee).
And every parent knows that children go through phases like wanting to be an astronaut or being consumed by everything Harry Potter. A wise parent recognizes these desires are temporary and don't necessarily need to be encouraged.
But somehow, when the issue is sexual orientation/gender identity, we abandon the wisdom of age-limitation laws and endorse surgeries or medical procedures for children.
We adults need to re-claim the wisdom that says feelings, such as sexual orientation/gender identity, can be fleeting and should never trump scientific absolutes like the differences between male and female.
Dennis Urbaniak
Signal Mountain
Hart should note law exists to protect weak
Lewis Grizzard wannabe Ron Hart in his June 9 column brings his weak wit to use humorless Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations" to attack government involvement in economics, a situation, Hart writes, that only Democrats employ.
As the "father of capitalism," Smith is credited as being the first to recognize that economies and people do better when people look out for their own best interests. What Smith did not foresee is that some individuals are far better at looking after their own interests than others. Some of these folks begin to work harder at their self-interest by abusing that of others' interests.
Rather than looking back 300 years through the alcoholic haze of his college years to find Adam Smith, fewer Singapore Slings might have taken Hart back more than 3,000 years to Babylon and the Code of Hammurabi, which noted the reason for law: "to protect the strong from oppressing the weak."
Democrats and Republicans have both helped our government evolve into one that seems to protect the strong more than the weak as we note the power of "the 1 percent," special interest groups, lobbyists, tax exemptions, corporate protections, the power of money and outright greed.
The "dismal science" plods on.
Grady S. Burgner
Trump's charges couldn't be clearer
Really? The Federal Bureau of Investigation has been weaponized without a doubt? Sen. Blackburn and Rep. Fleischmann, did you both pass your elementary school reading exams? The rather extensive indictment of the former president is startling in both its extent in describing a litany of charges and the simplicity of language. Most of us understand -- or should -- the gravity of what has even been found.
The average citizen is easily baffled by lawyerese, the language of the law profession. That is not what was presented by the special counsel. The language is clear, and the charges, backed up by evidence, much of it attributable to the former president himself, are devastating to contemplate.
We need to make sure the next candidates for U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives are able to read and deal with that which is obvious to most of us. I for one am mortified having to point that out.
Irv Ginsburg
Is the US about to be BRIC-ed up?
Some thirty years ago, the founding BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) nations proclaimed their goal to control the world's economy by 2030 including -- critically -- displacement of the U.S. dollar as the global currency.
Their strategy: an undeclared war to destroy the U.S. culture and economy from within. Divide America. Hyperbolize civil unrest while entrenching a politicized federal bureaucracy. Dismiss constitutional authority by executive orders. Dictate socialistic indoctrination by leveraging college loans. Purchase a sycophantic media. Inflict massive deficit spending. Orchestrate a suicidal energy policy. Ensure bureaucratic collapse through overwhelming illegal immigration.
Such orchestrated correlation with BRIC, namely the CCP, is not happenstance but rather a traitorous betrayal executed from within.
Students of history and human nature, our Founding Fathers envisioned such a corrupt condition where personal ambition and greed displace loyalty and patriotism. The harsh reality, dismantling the entrenched federal bureaucracy through honest elections, is now a fantasy.
There remains a single alternative to save the republic -- a convention of states. Thirty-four states are required. Nineteen have already enacted legislation but, as the rule of law erodes, even this option is rapidly being disingenuously closed.
R.G. Kirn
'Unprecedented' are Trump's actions
So Sen. Blackburn says it is "unprecedented," and a few years ago would have been "unthinkable," for an attorney general to approve an FBI raid on the home of a former president.
Surely she doesn't need to be reminded that a former president has never deliberately taken a boatload of classified documents, then refused to give them back.
Nancy Bishop
Birchwood
Offer your gratitude for 911 operators
My nephew, J.C. Blake, is a medical 911 operator in Anchorage, Alaska. In Anchorage, there is a two-tiered system of 911 operators — one for medical calls and one for crimes and police calls.
About four weeks ago, J.C. received a 911 call that involved his father, Jeff, who had collapsed at home. He had stopped breathing. J.C. was able to talk his mother, Chris, and sister-in-law, Kara, through CPR, and Jeff was brought back. After arriving on the scene, the EMTs had to revive Jeff a second time.
Once Jeff was at the hospital, the family was able to visit him before he passed away on June 5.
911 operators have very stressful jobs. They deserve all of the support they can be given.
Just imagine receiving a 911 call involving a family member just like what happened to J.C.
Joel Blake