Karl wrote on Apr 20, 2007 10:37 PM:Mark Christopher, brilliant observation. Bravo.

Driver's Licenses wrote on Apr 20, 2007 10:39 PM:Sorry to disagree with the letter writer but anyone in CA for over 10 days must get a CA license to drive, except for the military and a few other minor exceptions. If they drive a car, it is required that they get insurance. They can't qualify for a license and they can't get insurance.I'm sorry but this puts legal drivers in a bind when they have an accident with illegal aliens. There is no way to fix this except send them home or let them apply for legal residency, NOT amnesty.

el_patron, wrote on Apr 21, 2007 12:07 AM:To Dale Delmege; what's so funny about sharing the dark stage with Syria, Iran, the rest? That's how far the USA has sunk under Bush, and that's not funny, Dale. The bush misAdministration has soiled this great country.

PROMOTING INCOMPETENCE . wrote on Apr 21, 2007 6:55 AM: . One of the hallmarks of GOP leadership has been the entrenchment of incompetent bureaucrats into offices of public trust. Last week the NC Times announced that the SD office of the Voter Registrar has hired a new assistant registrar for $130,000 a year. He is 30-year old Michael Vu, a proven incompetent from Cleveland, OH (Cuyahoga County). There have been so many failures and fraud in that county, that an investigation was launched by the Ohio Sec. of State. Among the problems were widespread failure to provide voting machines to precincts. In the primaries last May, the county’s first experience with electronic voting, poll workers were absent or poorly trained, computer cards on which votes had been recorded were lost, polling places opened hours late. Citing problems like those, Ohio’s newly elected secretary of state ousted the county’s entire four-member Board of Elections a months ago. One of those fired was the whiz kid Michael Vu. Now he has been hired to repeat the same fiasco in San Diego County. Why are we hiring a known incompetent? Why pay him $130,000? Do we not have a more experience and proven candidate than this 30-year old goof up?

OBSERVATION wrote on Apr 21, 2007 9:28 AM:To: Charles Bondy: The liberals did not promise anything to anybody. They did not present a slate of candidates for the past election. Taxes have not been raised. But, they may have to in order to pay for Bush’s war. Or, do you prefer your grand children and great grandchildren to pay for it? If there are terrorists in custody at the present time, they should be charged and tried. Where are the trails? It’s only been four years? Speaker Pelosi did not negotiate anything with anybody. Marines have been incarcerated based on charges of the USMC. The USMC is apolitical but their Commander in Chief is a Republican. The Democrats and Republicans are not upset over the firings of the attorneys. There mad as hell at the Attorney General of the USA having the audacity to bold face lie to the Senate.

Mike America wrote on Apr 21, 2007 11:33 AM:RE:"America is a racist society". I wonder if the Times would have even published Nilssons letter if he had cited the same statistics without blaming "white people". It always mystifies me how the failures and problems of any minority group are always the fault of "white people"; according to the chic liberal community anyway. The Kerner Commision Study Nilsson cites, resulted in Johnson's failed Great Society experiment. Prior to it, the litercay and employment rates among blacks were both higher than they are today. Most black children had a father in the home, an anomoly today. Prior to the recent Don Imus fiasco, it appeared, or at least I was opptimistic, that most African-Americans were turning away from the devisive, defeatist rantings of victimhood promulgated by race hucksters and frauds like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. But whatever failures minority groups encounter in their efforts to succeed and advance, you can be assured the Jacksons and Sharptons will always have a captive audience in the self loathing, guilt ridden liberal white crowd, which John Nilsson is definately a card carrying member of.

wow - what a day wrote on Apr 21, 2007 11:33 AM:Fantastic letters page today! Thomas Godwin is a perfect 10 on what ails our sick foreign policy. John-Erik nails the Imus affair. And Rocky Velgos lays it on the line about our religiously-motivated prejudices. It will be seldom we see this perfection again. Eat your hearts out.

good observation wrote on Apr 21, 2007 11:36 AM:Very good observations, OBSERVATION.

The torture of JOHN McCAIN . wrote on Apr 21, 2007 11:53 AM: . Like today’s letter writer Tyrus Moulder, I found Christ Pulse a bit harsh on John McCain. (QUOTE: “McCain should have stayed in the Hanoi Hilton.”) I would not wish torture upon anyone, not even Donald Rumsfeld or Pol Pot, and certainly not on an old man like John McCain. He has suffered enough, and his suffering seems to be impairing his judgment in his old age. McCain advocates, in an act of political suicide, the escalation of the Bush War even if it bankrupts the country, destroys our reputation and legacy in history and causes incalculable pain and suffering around the world. McCain demands war despite its devastating blowback on our national security, despite the decimation of our army and despite the terrible damage done to our young fighting men, mentally, spiritually and physically. The Bush War has already created 900,000 orphans in Iraq, and killed close to one million Iraqis more than would have occurred under Saddam. All of this McCain advocates. Still, I would not recommend torture for McCain. He needs spiritual counseling and psychiatric help.

To wow wrote on Apr 21, 2007 11:58 AM:I agree - I have noticed a decided upswing of the quality of the missives on this page lately after many long months of arguing a preponderance of talking points and hot air. We are an evolution in progress. Cheers!

POOR li’l White Man . wrote on Apr 21, 2007 12:11 PM: . Mike America (11:33 AM) laments how every time things go wrong QUOTE: “the failures and problems of any minority group are always the fault of "white people". AW-W-W-W-W-W. Quit your whining. Thank you. Yours truly, All the rest of America.

The Truth Teller wrote on Apr 21, 2007 12:40 PM:Re: “America is a racist society” by John Nilsson of Vista. Mr. Nilsson has obviously led a well-sheltered life, for he believes racism to be endemic in white people exclusively. He excoriates Don Imus, yet makes no mention of the racist comments of such black luminaries as Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and Louis Farrakhan. Maybe he has never heard ordinary black Americans refer to their white counterparts as honkeys, crackers, or beasts; I have. Perhaps he has never been assaulted by black students who were venting their racist rage on white students on a school campus; I have. His statistics for the disproportionate percentage of unemployed black males in the inner cities fail to account for the large number of black males who lack a high school diploma, but do have a criminal record, thereby decreasing significantly their chances of finding gainful employment. His claim that the incarceration rate for black males in the United States is four times greater than that of their South African counterparts fails to address the institutionalized problem of single-parent, working-mother families in which so many of America’s black children are raised. It isn’t just young black men, but the impoverished young males of any race that lack a positive male role model who are susceptible to the romantic notion of gangsterism. It is the lure of living life in the fast lane, without having to endure the mental anguish of schooling or the tedium of a minimum wage job, that pulls them in. As so many professional black athletes, entertainers, politicians, educators, military, law enforcement personnel and blue collar workers have proven, it is not white racism that is holding back the black males in this country today. Au contraire, the wealthiest black people on earth live right here, in the United States of America. And to think, it was only seven score and two years ago that they were emancipated. God bless the U.S.A.!

The Culture of Death . wrote on Apr 21, 2007 12:42 PM: … Guns are part of the nihilistic Neo-con culture of WAR and death. The Virginia Tech gunman Cho Seung-Hui purchased his weapons legally and White House spokesperson Dana Perino rushed to say, on the day of the killings, that QUOTE: “the President believes that there is a right for people to bear arms.” The gun rights folks herald the slogan “Guns don’t kill. People do.” That’s a bit of hypocritical double-talk. It’s like saying heroin does not kill. It’s the people who dispense heroin that kill people. ERGO: there should be a constitutional right to possess heroin, and we should stop trying to confiscate it. How idiotic this argument for guns -- and for heroin. Instruments used to kill people, whether drugs or guns, must be controlled rigidly.

hey Mr, Bondy wrote on Apr 21, 2007 12:49 PM:No, it was YOU "suckers fell for it and voted for them, now suffer the consequence". I never voted for our liar-in-chief. Or the rest of the warmongers.

Mary wrote on Apr 21, 2007 12:53 PM:To Rocky "Keep the Pot Boiling" Speaking up for the rights and morals of homosexuals in a country full of religious bigots is not easy. After all, they have those few verses in their Bible to tell them the truth. Of course their Bible also tells them that eating shell fish, planting multiple crops together, or wearing multiple fabrics is also an abomination which for some reason they conveniently overlook but still think it is okay to degrade and yes, even hate homosexuals. May as well try to tell them the earth wasn't created in six days and is only 6,000 years old. Keep on keeping on Rocky!

The Truth Teller wrote on Apr 21, 2007 1:27 PM:Re: ‘The Muffies awards’ by Dale Delmege of Escondido. Your assessment of Mr. Milton Saier is correct, Mr. Delmege. Let us not forget that the good Mr. Saier is a highly educated man: he holds a Ph.D. in biology and a professorship at UCSD. Having read his unsubstantiated fulmination, I could not help but wonder whether the anti-U.S. rant of professors at Virginia Tech might have colored Cho Seung Hui’s perception of Americans. To those of the liberal persuasion, Cho’s behavior seems enigmatic, and they attempt to rationalize it by pointing the finger of blame toward privilege, racism or the NRA. Never mind the fact that there were six thousand other students on campus of divergent backgrounds who did not share those views, did not buy weapons, and did not take anyone’s life prematurely. Perhaps most telling of all is the fact that, before his suicidal rampage that truncated the lives of 32 innocent people, Cho's only experience in this country had been that of a student.

The Truth Teller wrote on Apr 21, 2007 2:06 PM:Re: “Don’t you feel safer now?” by Charles Bondy. For my liberal acquaintances who may not have understood it, let me begin by saying that your second paragraph was obviously tongue-in-cheek. Your introductory and concluding sentences were obviously heartfelt admonitions, to which I should like to add that the Republicans have not yet begun to fight, and they probably never will. The time for a viable third party has come, a conservative party of uncompromising principles, an anomaly in today’s world.

The Truth Teller wrote on Apr 21, 2007 2:23 PM:Re: “Does he have no shame?” by Mark Christopher of Oceanside. Thank you Mr. Christopher for giving Mr. Pulse’s letter some much needed perspective. He means well, but he has lost so much gray matter to the ravages of liberalism that his prospects of recovery are nil.

The Truth Teller wrote on Apr 21, 2007 3:05 PM:Re: “Profiteering from the Iraq war” by John Schueler of Oceanside. You raise a pertinent question, Mr. Schueler. Let me give you an answer. The Democrats are not interested in pursuing this issue: they never have been. Of the two major political parties in the United States today, the Democrats have always been - by far - the most corrupt. The Republicans are relative newcomers to the game of graft and political patronage; hence their ineptitude, which is why Randy Cunningham languishes in the federal penitentiary while Dianne Feinstein, William Jefferson, Harry Reid, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Barbara Boxer and others continue to enjoy the emoluments of the respective offices to which they were appointed. Now that the pendulum has swung back in their direction, there will likely be much more of this, but we won’t hear about it from the mainstream media - you know, all of the news outlets except for FOX News and conservative talk radio. Given the adage that “ignorance is bliss,” I wonder why so many of my liberal friends exude so much bile in this blathersphere, when it’s obvious to the rest of us that they should be smiling from ear to ear.

to POOR li'l White Man wrote on Apr 21, 2007 3:22 PM:Hi Alf, welcome back!

Mike America wrote on Apr 21, 2007 3:29 PM:Charles Brickell submits an excellant letter today. Instead of printing it twice in one day, perhaps the Times should consider printing it once, everyday.

HOMOSEXUAL panic and mass murder . wrote on Apr 21, 2007 3:50 PM: . Reading the latest of 20 years of letters to the editor by Rocky Velgos, I was stunned by Bob Herbert, about mass gun murders and their struggle with homosexuality and the own masculinity. Herbert, premier columnist, had some provocative comments about young male mass murders, such as Charles Whitman (Uni. Texas, 1966) and Virginia Tech killer, Cho Seung-Hui, who killed 33 people last week. We all act so bewildered and act as if such terrible acts are inexplicable. Here is what Herbert wrote: QUOTE “A close look at the patterns of murderous violence in the U.S. reveals some remarkable consistencies, wherever the individual atrocities may have occurred. In case after case, decade after decade, the killers have been shown to be young men riddled with shame and humiliation, often bitterly misogynistic and HOMOPHOBIC, who have decided that the way to assert their faltering sense of manhood and get the respect they have been denied is to go out and shoot somebody. Dr. James Gilligan, who has spent many years studying violence as a prison psychiatrist in Massachusetts, and as a professor at Harvard and now at N.Y.U., believes that some debilitating combination of misogyny and homophobia is a ‘central component’ in much, if not most, of the worst forms of violence in this country. ‘What I've concluded from decades of working with murderers and rapists and every kind of violent criminal,’ he said, ‘is that an underlying factor that is virtually always present to one degree or another is a feeling that one has to prove one's manhood, and that the way to do that, to gain the respect that has been lost, is to commit a violent act.’" END QUOTE. I applaud Rocky Velgos in his long campaign to inform the public, and bring understanding to the national neurosis of suppression of natural sexual orientation, and the terrible consequences of suppressing the truth.

The Truth Teller wrote on Apr 21, 2007 4:00 PM:Re: “He’ll keep the pot boiling” by Rocky Velgos of Vista. Like so much of his writing, Mr. Velgos’ application of the term “pot” is erroneous and wholly inappropriate, for it is not a pot that he stirs, but a crock of rancid, homosexual propaganda. His persistence in spewing such repulsive drivel on the Letters page every two weeks - without fail - is not “obsessivelike” (sic), but obsessive, as well as counterproductive. There are no misunderstandings about sexual orientation: unlike left-handedness, which is contingent upon whether the left or the right side of the brain develops soonest, sexual orientation involves a fully developed brain, one that is incapable of libidinal tendencies until the body it controls has attained pubescence. Morality is defined and determined by what society believes to be right and proper, but because each of us has a free will, we can either accept or reject social conventions. How comforting it is to know that, despite the incessant attempts of Mr. Velgos and like-minded individuals to proselytize the masses, a majority of Americans still oppose same-sex marriage. There can be no doubt that, in recent decades, homosexual and lesbian advocacy has acquired momentum, so too have the epidemic twins of sexually transmitted diseases and liberalism: both of them can be fatal.

homosexual marriage wrote on Apr 21, 2007 4:36 PM:This is an issue that only old folks discuss. The younger generation just doesn't see what all the fuss is about. This means that gay rights, including marriage, will come about as the older folks pass and the younger generation takes over the country. Like so many social changes, women voting, inter-racial marriage the passage of time and the death of people who can't tolerate change allows these issues to become the norm.

to homosexual panic wrote on Apr 21, 2007 4:43 PM:You and Herbert raise an extremely important issue, the terrible consequences of many men's need to prove or show off their "manhood", to compensate for real or imagined humiliation. We see this in much of the debate about wars, Iraq being the current version. Concern about the Iraqis and what they want is secondary (it only counts at all becuase some people feel the John Wayne impulse to save the puny, and don't even see that this in itself is insulting). It's mostly about being the meanest, toughest fighting force, and therefore needing to win at any cost to avoid the imagined humiliation of being a loser. The whole Viet Nam syndrome can be seen as an extended version of this. These blog pages are filled with more trivial, but no less real, examples. Men wreak havoc on the world to compensate for fears of humiliation and being seen as sissies. It's an epidemic. While homophobes whine, mistakenly, about HIV, the manhood-proving impulse is no doubt a far greater socially implemented public health hazard. Fights, rapes, gang culture mentality, and some pedophilia trace to this impulse. (PS to the delusionally self-named truth-teller, if you want a group of people that are among the lowest in domestic violence, sexually transmitted diseases, and pedophilia, it's the lesbian population. If these are the problems that you think justify a fear or hatred of homosexuals, you need to distinguish men from women, and then promote the lesbian lifestyle as much safer than the heterosexual.)

Male mass murders and MACHISMO .. wrote on Apr 21, 2007 4:50 PM:… I Googled up the column by Bob Herbert. What a stunning insight into the psyche of mass gun murders, such as Cho Seung-Hui, who killed 33 people last week at Virginia Tech. I am alarmed at how many ‘macho’ males brandish guns as a substitution for masculinity. My own lifetime observation is the same as that of Dr. James Gillian “who has spent many years studying violence as a prison psychiatrist in Massachusetts, and as a professor at Harvard and now at N.Y.U., believes that some debilitating combination of misogyny and homophobia is a ;central component’ in much, if not most, of the worst forms of violence in this country.” (end of quote) I think if young men were free from overplayed, fake macho aura and could accept their sexuality and understand it, we would have a lot less violence in the world. A lot of the big cannons of war are substitute sex symbols to give vicarios release for violent men. Help men to cope with their sexual misunderstandings, and we would more peaceful resolutions to conflicts. I, too, applaud Rocky Velgos in his campaign to bring understand to understand one’s sexual orientation. You can read the complete article with a Google entry of “volatile young man”.

VOLATILE OLD MEN . wrote on Apr 21, 2007 5:07 PM:… are almost as much a problem as volatile young men who cannot deal with their sexuality. The main difference between the young men and the old men like ‘Truth Teller’ and Donald Rumsfeld (4:00 PM) is that with old men it is their brains which get hard. ‘Truth Teller’ demonstrated his intellectual level when he referred to “the epidemic twins of sexually transmitted diseases and liberalism: both of them can be fatal." Far more detrimental are hardening of the heart and of the mind.

To 'homosexual marriage' at 4:36 P.M. wrote on Apr 21, 2007 9:48 PM:You may believe that 'this is an issue that only old folks discuss,' but beliefs are like, well, let's just say that everybody has one. There are many, many things that 'the younger generation' doesn't understand because of its dearth of experience. Wisdom comes with age and those who have it should share it with their children. It's really a question of parenting, more than anything else. There is no corollary between the issues that you raise and same-sex marriage. Neither the women's franchise, nor interracial marriage ever threatened the institution of marriage or the nuclear family itself, which is the bedrock of all civilization. Regards, the Truth Teller.

To 'homosexual panic’ on April 21st at 4:43 P.M. wrote on Apr 21, 2007 10:49 PM:Thank you for your kind and thoughtful riposte. I am profoundly sorry to read that you are afflicted with Marine-envy, and banal though it was, I very much appreciated your valiant effort to defend the homosexual condition with the assertion that real men were homophobic; however, the implication that heterosexual men somehow feared homosexual men seemeded a bit of a stretch, and even more so your contention that homophobia led to pedophilia. Was that something you read in the APA’s on-line archives? I considered your proposition that I promote the lesbian lifestyle, but I fear that my arguments would not be as persuasive as yours. Perhaps you could further elaborate on the salutary benefits of lesbianism for society at large. I promise I shall read your posts with an open mind. Regards, the Truth Teller.

To ‘Male … Machismo’ on April 21st at 4:50 PM wrote on Apr 22, 2007 12:14 AM:Both you and Dr. James Gillian posit an interesting assumption: 'that some debilitating combination of misogyny and homophobia is a central component in much, if not most, of the worst forms of violence in this country.' What else might one expect from an asexual? If that were my condition, I would be mad as hell too!

To ‘Volatile Old Men’ on April 21st at 5:07 P.M. wrote on Apr 22, 2007 1:00 AM:Thank you for your thoughtful riposte. Actually, there is a correlation between the epidemic twins of sexually transmitted diseases and liberalism: the latter gives rise to the former and - in the case of syphilis or HIV/AIDS - the former can be fatal. To be honest, one must ask oneself, 'Who is most at risk for contracting STDs?' Being dishonest and leading homosexuals to believe that their lifestyle is not without significant risk is far more detrimental to their wellness. Regards, the Truth Teller.

To ‘Volatile Old Men’ on April 21st at 5:07 P.M. wrote on Apr 22, 2007 1:24 AM:Thank you for your thoughtful riposte. Actually, there is a correlation between the epidemic twins of sexually transmitted diseases and liberalism: the latter gives rise to the former and - in the case of syphilis or HIV/AIDS - the former can be fatal. To be honest, one must ask oneself, “Who is most at risk for contracting STDs?” Being dishonest and leading homosexuals to believe that their lifestyle is not without significant risk is far more detrimental to their wellness. Regards, the Truth Teller.

get real! wrote on Apr 22, 2007 10:32 AM:Don't we have enough troubles to contend with, must we spend time worrying about who marries who. I am an older person who believes that all people have equal rights including the right to be married and pursue happiness. If a gay couple gets married it in no way affects my marriage.

Grow up! wrote on Apr 22, 2007 12:03 PM:Re: "Get real' at 10:32 A.M. Your comments are reflective of the "It's all about me" syndrome that is stereotypical of so-called adults in this country today. Marriage is not about you and you alone. It's also about children having a real mother and a real father. Any unmarried man can legally marry any unmarried woman in this country today, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, or sexual orientation. There can be no doubt that we all have an equal right to marry. Have a blessed Sunday. Regards, the Truth Teller.

To grow up wrote on Apr 22, 2007 9:03 PM:It is certainly awful that a lot of children don't have a real mother and real father. They are divorced, never married, deserted their kids, or are on drugs, etc. etc... I would certainly rather be raised by a loving gay couple than an angry, abusive or neglectful parent/parents.