Untitled Document
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address, and telephone number. We edit all letters. Send them to Letters, Illinois Times, P.O. Box 5256,
Springfield, IL 62705; fax 217-753-3958; e-mail editor@illinoistimes.com.
MY BEEF WITH DAVID PIMENTEL The “studies” that David Pimentel has done on ethanol production were sponsored by the oil industry [David Pimentel, “The beef with corn,” Feb. 28]. I really wish people would read David Blume’s book Alcohol Can Be a Gas. It explains everything in detail about the history of ethanol, the real reason for Prohibition, production costs, and the lies of Professor Pimentel. Anything and everything to do with ethanol is in this wonderful book! I agree that corn is not the most efficient means of producing ethanol, but we have such a surplus right now, why not use it? Besides, the mash left over from distilling corn can be dried and used as animal feed (dried distillers grains), which is 100 percent better than the original corn. Livestock animals cannot properly digest corn; only a small amount of the nutrients are absorbed, while the rest goes through the animal and is wasted. An extremely large percentage of the corn we grow is for animal feed. We have the means to have the best of both worlds — food and fuel from the same crops! Ethanol can be carbon neutral, because the carbon dioxide produced from burning ethanol would be absorbed by the next season’s crop, and you would only need fossil fuels the first time you produce ethanol. After that you could use the ethanol you just created to make more. Did you know that you could make your own ethanol from old bread, doughnuts, pastries, or just about any type fruit or vegetable? It’s easy, and the oil industry doesn’t want you to know.
Darren Stewart Athens
WE NEED A NEW MLK STATUE I believe that the statue of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at the corner of Capitol Avenue and Second Street is a disgrace to the great man who helped change the way we Americans live and interact with each other.
We need to replace that statue with a nice big statue of King in a pose in which he says, “I have a dream.” It is worth spending that money. We can do private fundraising. I pledge $100 and help to raise more. Also, why can’t we have King’s statue on the grounds of the Capitol? There is enough room in front of the Capitol on Monroe Street, as well as on Second Street. He was great enough a man to have his statue on the Capitol Building grounds. Actually it will add to the beauty of the Capitol if we install King’s statue on the north side of the Capitol just as we have Lincoln’s statue on the east side. Harish G. Bhatt
Springfield
INVESTIGATING THE WRONG “PATRIOTS”
It is disheartening to realize that in spite of the fact that the CIA has admitted destroying tapes of prisoners being waterboarded (after receiving legal advice warning them not to do so) and that, for the first time in our nation’s history, the practice of torture has been sanctioned by the so-called leader of the free world, a leading Republican member of the U.S. Senate, Arlen Specter, has decided that an illegal taping of a football practice by the New England Patriots’ heads coach must be investigated by Congress but the facts surrounding the allegations of torture in the name of the American people are really not a matter of great concern and require no further inquiry.
What unprincipled, unmitigated gall to ignore the physical — and certainly illegal — torture of human beings and get all worked up over the possibility that one NFL team had an unfair advantage over another. This is typical of the manner in which the Republicans have used their political power to protect the most criminal and corrupt administration in memory. Americans are not shocked by allegation of illegal activities or cover-ups by our political leaders. We almost expect it. This is, after all, the land of opportunity. Ed Lazarus Springfield
TERM LIMITS FOR CONGRESS With all of this talk about change I decided to read the most recent Newt Gingrich book. Its title is Real Change. In this book Gingrich does a marvelous job of chronicling the blunders that our government has made and also lays out a plan. However, until we deal with fanatical steadfast partisanship, neither his plan nor anyone else’s will ever come to fruition. Real change means including the legislative branch in the 22nd Amendment (term limits). This single simple change will allow government to serve the people instead of itself. With this real change every elected legislative body will be focused on the people instead of loyalty to a corrupted political party, and should they lose their only possible reelection it’s not the end but a new beginning in a world that they helped shape. While in office, they will be able to stand firmly on the values and principles defined in the Constitution, as was the intent of the Founders. With this real change, there will still be a spirited debate, but it will not go on forever because the stimulus of political survival will have been replaced with a desire to actually solve our problems. The corrupting behavior of lobbyists, and those they corrupt, will be punished instead of accepted as normal procedure. Some will say, “Impossible,” but someone once said, “ ‘Impossible’ is merely a word that describes the degree of difficulty.” If we don’t make this real change, our government will continue to build bridges to nowhere, and millions of people will continue to invest billions of dollars and waste billions of hours in a broken system of government. Bob Ruble Springfield
COUNTING THE DAYS Whatever I read seems to boil down to the word “torture” — torture of persons held as prisoners by American fighting forces. How can this be? I can barely stand the word. How can our American soldiers, the kids down the road, bend to such barbarism? They ate cinnamon toast in my kitchen; they rode our horses and picked our strawberries. By condoning the practice of torture, Bush and his administration have slashed a great gash in the brains and in the minds of those who were once our children. A part of them has now become heathen — a trait never to be erased. No wonder we read of suicides in the military. We pity; that’s all we do. We, the supporters of the command of the U.S. military, own the blame for the great wave of atrocities our youthful generation is forced to commit on others and on ourselves.
The world moves on with great technology and in place of more abundance, but mankind has been knocked to the barbarism of ancient kings and courts. What relief we will all experience when King George and his court exit our national government. Our revival should exude peace with joy. Ain’t gonna make war no more, no more. Jane Johnson Gilson
MORE TICKETS, FEWER POTHOLES At least twice a week I see cars parked on West Washington during the no-parking hours. I sometimes walk toward downtown and find people with cars parked across the sidewalk. I am sure that illegal parking happens all over the place. How many tickets would it take to repair the potholes? Maybe people who are guilty of minor transgressions that are rude to the rest of us could cough up the money instead of all of us paying even more for gas.
Patrick Johnopolos Springfield
A BAD MOON WILL RISE If Barack Obama is elected president of the United States, the sovereignty of the United States will end! The Obama baby, in nine months, will birth the New World Order clones! The United States of America will become the United Nations of America! Spending $200 million for a $400,000 job is not right, and Abraham Lincoln would turn over in his grave today! Obama has that silver tongue that promises the world, the moon, and the stars, but talk is cheap. What has Obama done for the average American citizen in the last three years in the U.S. Senate? In one word: nothing! If Obama is elected president, the bad moon will be rising for the destruction of the U.S.A. The New World Order gurus and the United Nations of America pagan will destroy the United States of America in a million pieces! The Wizard of Oz has lost his cause. George Culley Pinckneyville
MY BEEF WITH DAVID PIMENTEL The “studies” that David Pimentel has done on ethanol production were sponsored by the oil industry [David Pimentel, “The beef with corn,” Feb. 28]. I really wish people would read David Blume’s book Alcohol Can Be a Gas. It explains everything in detail about the history of ethanol, the real reason for Prohibition, production costs, and the lies of Professor Pimentel. Anything and everything to do with ethanol is in this wonderful book! I agree that corn is not the most efficient means of producing ethanol, but we have such a surplus right now, why not use it? Besides, the mash left over from distilling corn can be dried and used as animal feed (dried distillers grains), which is 100 percent better than the original corn. Livestock animals cannot properly digest corn; only a small amount of the nutrients are absorbed, while the rest goes through the animal and is wasted. An extremely large percentage of the corn we grow is for animal feed. We have the means to have the best of both worlds — food and fuel from the same crops! Ethanol can be carbon neutral, because the carbon dioxide produced from burning ethanol would be absorbed by the next season’s crop, and you would only need fossil fuels the first time you produce ethanol. After that you could use the ethanol you just created to make more. Did you know that you could make your own ethanol from old bread, doughnuts, pastries, or just about any type fruit or vegetable? It’s easy, and the oil industry doesn’t want you to know.
Darren Stewart Athens
WE NEED A NEW MLK STATUE I believe that the statue of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at the corner of Capitol Avenue and Second Street is a disgrace to the great man who helped change the way we Americans live and interact with each other.
We need to replace that statue with a nice big statue of King in a pose in which he says, “I have a dream.” It is worth spending that money. We can do private fundraising. I pledge $100 and help to raise more. Also, why can’t we have King’s statue on the grounds of the Capitol? There is enough room in front of the Capitol on Monroe Street, as well as on Second Street. He was great enough a man to have his statue on the Capitol Building grounds. Actually it will add to the beauty of the Capitol if we install King’s statue on the north side of the Capitol just as we have Lincoln’s statue on the east side. Harish G. Bhatt
Springfield
INVESTIGATING THE WRONG “PATRIOTS”
It is disheartening to realize that in spite of the fact that the CIA has admitted destroying tapes of prisoners being waterboarded (after receiving legal advice warning them not to do so) and that, for the first time in our nation’s history, the practice of torture has been sanctioned by the so-called leader of the free world, a leading Republican member of the U.S. Senate, Arlen Specter, has decided that an illegal taping of a football practice by the New England Patriots’ heads coach must be investigated by Congress but the facts surrounding the allegations of torture in the name of the American people are really not a matter of great concern and require no further inquiry.
What unprincipled, unmitigated gall to ignore the physical — and certainly illegal — torture of human beings and get all worked up over the possibility that one NFL team had an unfair advantage over another. This is typical of the manner in which the Republicans have used their political power to protect the most criminal and corrupt administration in memory. Americans are not shocked by allegation of illegal activities or cover-ups by our political leaders. We almost expect it. This is, after all, the land of opportunity. Ed Lazarus Springfield
TERM LIMITS FOR CONGRESS With all of this talk about change I decided to read the most recent Newt Gingrich book. Its title is Real Change. In this book Gingrich does a marvelous job of chronicling the blunders that our government has made and also lays out a plan. However, until we deal with fanatical steadfast partisanship, neither his plan nor anyone else’s will ever come to fruition. Real change means including the legislative branch in the 22nd Amendment (term limits). This single simple change will allow government to serve the people instead of itself. With this real change every elected legislative body will be focused on the people instead of loyalty to a corrupted political party, and should they lose their only possible reelection it’s not the end but a new beginning in a world that they helped shape. While in office, they will be able to stand firmly on the values and principles defined in the Constitution, as was the intent of the Founders. With this real change, there will still be a spirited debate, but it will not go on forever because the stimulus of political survival will have been replaced with a desire to actually solve our problems. The corrupting behavior of lobbyists, and those they corrupt, will be punished instead of accepted as normal procedure. Some will say, “Impossible,” but someone once said, “ ‘Impossible’ is merely a word that describes the degree of difficulty.” If we don’t make this real change, our government will continue to build bridges to nowhere, and millions of people will continue to invest billions of dollars and waste billions of hours in a broken system of government. Bob Ruble Springfield
COUNTING THE DAYS Whatever I read seems to boil down to the word “torture” — torture of persons held as prisoners by American fighting forces. How can this be? I can barely stand the word. How can our American soldiers, the kids down the road, bend to such barbarism? They ate cinnamon toast in my kitchen; they rode our horses and picked our strawberries. By condoning the practice of torture, Bush and his administration have slashed a great gash in the brains and in the minds of those who were once our children. A part of them has now become heathen — a trait never to be erased. No wonder we read of suicides in the military. We pity; that’s all we do. We, the supporters of the command of the U.S. military, own the blame for the great wave of atrocities our youthful generation is forced to commit on others and on ourselves.
The world moves on with great technology and in place of more abundance, but mankind has been knocked to the barbarism of ancient kings and courts. What relief we will all experience when King George and his court exit our national government. Our revival should exude peace with joy. Ain’t gonna make war no more, no more. Jane Johnson Gilson
MORE TICKETS, FEWER POTHOLES At least twice a week I see cars parked on West Washington during the no-parking hours. I sometimes walk toward downtown and find people with cars parked across the sidewalk. I am sure that illegal parking happens all over the place. How many tickets would it take to repair the potholes? Maybe people who are guilty of minor transgressions that are rude to the rest of us could cough up the money instead of all of us paying even more for gas.
Patrick Johnopolos Springfield
A BAD MOON WILL RISE If Barack Obama is elected president of the United States, the sovereignty of the United States will end! The Obama baby, in nine months, will birth the New World Order clones! The United States of America will become the United Nations of America! Spending $200 million for a $400,000 job is not right, and Abraham Lincoln would turn over in his grave today! Obama has that silver tongue that promises the world, the moon, and the stars, but talk is cheap. What has Obama done for the average American citizen in the last three years in the U.S. Senate? In one word: nothing! If Obama is elected president, the bad moon will be rising for the destruction of the U.S.A. The New World Order gurus and the United Nations of America pagan will destroy the United States of America in a million pieces! The Wizard of Oz has lost his cause. George Culley Pinckneyville
